It all started with fish

She came to China at a very interesting time, and stayed to nurture a love for the country's folk art. She tells China Daily that her collection began with a simple question.

A large part of Irina Zakharova's life is associated with toys, children and art. With a doctoral degree in classical art and art theory from Lomonosov Moscow State University, she started to work at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts soon after graduation in 1977.

Four years later, her husband was appointed the cultural counselor to China and Zakharova moved to Beijing along with her husband and daughter.

Growing up in a historic period when China and the former Soviet Union had a very close relationship, Zakharova was as interested in China as she was curious. But she was also very reluctant to leave her job at the museum. She loved the job, which in her words, "is not a job, it's my life".

Happily, she soon found a way to continue her artistic pursuit and museum work during her stay in China.

Soon after the family's arrival, Zakharova remembers that her daughter received a birthday gift from a Chinese friend, a folk toy of a boy sitting on a fish.

"Why is he sitting on a fish?" her daughter had asked.

"The question brought me back to my childhood in the 1950s. I saw a lot of Chinese folk art at that time, and I had been puzzled, too," says Zakharova, who is now in her sixties.

After asking her Chinese friends, Zakharova found out that the word "fish" in Chinese is homophonic with "abundance", so the fish represents the people's hope for affluence.

Zakharova soon realized the richness of Chinese traditional culture behind folk toys and she started collecting them.

Her toys, which total more than 5,000, have been exhibited not only in her home country Russia, but also in other member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

In recent years, her efforts have expanded to organizing arts exhibitions centering on the exchange and inheritance of folk culture through children's collaboration and creativities among the SCO countries.

"Collecting Chinese folk toys became part of my life," says Zakharova, who would hunt down local traditional toys wherever she traveled around China in the 1980s.

Her collection includes all genres, such as the rattle-drum, clay figurine, paper-cut and traditional Lunar New Year's paintings.

"I study while I collect, because I think without studying the culture behind those toys, the process of collecting is incomplete," she says.

Zakharova admits that she was at a loss initially. "Fish is the symbol of affluence while peach represents longevity. Mouse is a horrible creature to the European, but here, it is one of the most auspicious Chinese zodiac signs!"

Every province in China has its unique toys embedded with local tradition, such as the ninigou, literally muddy dog, in Huaiyang county, Henan province.

Moreover, some folk toys are associated with Chinese mythology, such as Fu Xi and Nyu Wa, who were the first gods to come out of chaos. Nyu Wa, with her human body and serpent tail, is the mother creator.

"Learning all this, on one hand, is interesting, but on the other hand, it is very complicated for me." Zakharova adds. "However, little by little, I have discovered that there are common themes shared by Chinese and Western cultures.

"Two figures standing by each other usually implies love, as in China, two butterflies dancing in the air is about the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, which can be compared with the classical love story of Romeo and Juliet."

After eight years' collecting folk toys, Zakharova organized a Chinese Folk Toy Fair at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts with her unique collection on Sept 1, 1988. During the one and a half month's exhibition period, the fair attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

Zakharova remembers a message left by a boy visitor, saying he would like to do whatever is needed to please the pot-bellied smiling grandfather of longevity. He said he likes it so much that he would be glad to bring it with him wherever he goes, even in class.

"Through the exhibition, Russian people get to know Chinese culture in a playful way."

The success of the exhibition encouraged Zakharova. In the following decades, she went on to publish her first book My Chinese Toy, recalling each piece of the toys she collected. "Each toy is a unique encounter," she says.

In 2005, Zakharova and her husband Vladimir Zakharov, then SCO's deputy secretary-general, initiated an arts event and exhibition titled Children Draw Fairy Tales.

The project, aimed at promoting understanding between the next generations among SCO countries, invited children to read fairy tales of another country, and then retell the tales through drawings which would be featured in the exhibition.

Over the past eight years, the project has toured a total of 18 cities in SCO member states, including Moscow, Astana, Tashkent, Bishkek and Dushanbe.

"There was a very cold evening in the winter, and I had to bring bags full of folk toys to one school. I was so cold and tired that I couldn't help asking myself 'why?' but then before I had entered the classroom, I heard the children cry out 'Oh, the Chinese folk toys are coming! Ura!!' and I felt so happy at the moment. They were waiting for me, for the toys!

"Children are the future, and the future of the world depends on how we foster our children."

In 2008, Zakharova published her second book, written with her husband in a cheerful and playful tone, introducing the history, culture and folk art of China.

"Most of the previous projects would have been impossible without the support from my family. The program we organized and all the books we wrote are the common interest of my family, my husband, my daughter and me," says Zakharova, who is now a senior associate with the aesthetic education center Museyon at Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

"It is very important for a family to have a shared interest."

Xing Yi contributed to this story.