ACADEMICIAN V. M. ALEXEEV`S METHODS OF STUDYING CHINESE POPULAR PRINTS
The paper discusses methods of ethnographic ﬁeld work applied by future leading Russian sinologist V. M. Alexeev (1881-1951) to a large collection of Chinese popular prints nianhua 年畫 that he acquired during his graduate traineeship in China (1906-1909). Facing paucity of reference materials, being a pioneer of ﬁeld work in China, Russian sinologist referred to unique methods of accumulating materials on Chinese popular culture and their interpretation, Alexeev had a wide circle of informants, among who his language mentors, more or less well educated xiansheng 先生, and literate artisans from printing shops offered the biggest help by writing down explanations and comments for about three hundred popular prints. A part of these notes has been preserved at archive of the State Museum of the History of Religions. The paper presents several examples of xiansheng`s notes interpreting pictures with Door Gods menschen 門神 (there is total of 360 prints with Door Gods at SMHR collection) translated into Russian and offers detailed analysis of their importance for the current scholarship on late imperial Chinese popular visual culture.