Abstract: The object of the research is the decorative art, paintings, and installations that contain both phrases and words. Based on the analysis of the art work of an Ural artist Udmurt, American artist Barbara Kruger, and Chinese calligrapher Vand Gu, the author of the article describes stages in the evolution of the role of the word in the artwork of Russia, the USA and China. The subject of the research is the role of words in the overall canvas of an artwork in synchronic and diachronic aspects. The hypothesis of the research is that in terms of contemporary fine art, word plays an extremely important role which is not confined to the sphere of decorative arts but comporises the core element of the sense-making process in general. The methodology of the research implies the systems approach to cultural research. According to this approach, culture is a whole phenomenon that consists of individual mechanisms interacting with one another based on the general principle. In her research Zavyalova appeals to the studies of both Russian and foreign art experts, art critics and cultural researchers such as M. Vaymugina, M. Davydenko, V. Dyakonova, A.Zubareva, Vl. Lukov, V. Razakov, V. Woolf, Yu. Kharari, and R. Zajonc. The results of the research may be applied for cross-cultural description of contemporary art. The author's contribution is her statement that games with words, written symbols and phrases brings a new global meaning to contemporary fine arts. As a result of the research, the author has discovered important strategies of the Post Modernism such as citationality, collaging, and picturing objects as an artists sees them to the detriment of their realistic image, double actualization of meanings, mysteriousness, anonymity and deliberate play with the audience. 

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the cultural phenomenon of agonality – competitiveness, which is viewed an essential component of phylogenies, ontogenesis, and culturogenesis. The object of this research is the competitive practices and strategies of China from the ancient time to present. The subject is the specificity of China’s competitive advantage, its role in realization of the cultural succession. The author examines the Chinese legend about the origin of lunar calendar, treatise “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, cultural doctrine of the current leader of PRC Xi Jinping “Chinese Dream”, as well as caricatures of the contemporary Chinese artists. The article also contains the elements of comparative analysis aimed at revealing the common mechanisms of competitiveness in the culture of Ancient Greece, Rome and China. The main method of research is the systemic-analytical approach to culture that allows disclosing the strategies of agonality, which manifested at various levels of culture. A conclusion is made that agonality is a powerful method of development of the world revealing itself not only in terms of fighting for life, but also in theatre, verbal folklore and visual art. The author underlines the ultimate importance of preparing the young generation to competitiveness in the adult world, as even during the leisure time a person recourse to a competition, desiring to prove his supremacy over the others. The results of research can be applied in various fields of culturology for examining the determinant of the Chinese national self-consciousness.

Abstract: The focal point of the paper are numerous manifestations of the principle of “receptive aesthetics” in the culture of Japan which has reworked Chinese aesthetic patterns in the own way. The main concern of the paper is the idea to demonstrate the grounds for comparing cultures, to describe the typological features of Japanese and Chinese cultures. There are three main types of study design used to identify cultural features: the objects of fine arts, language expressions and films. There is much evidence of the possibility to draw the lines of similarity between Japan and China on religious, semantic, aesthetic and gender grounds. The main method is a systematic approach to a culture that allows one to trace the genesis of individual components of the cultural system, which subsequently influence the entire system as a whole. At the heart of the work there are 2 principles of the description of culture: the principle of “receptive aesthetics”, formulated by V.A. Lukov and Vl. A. Lukov, as well as the “universal return principle” of M.Yu. Lotman. The main findings of the research are culture-study interpretation of the motifs that served as the basis for Japanese artifacts. This is of much practical value, as the proposed interpretations can be applied to any area of cultural production. The interpretations, if necessary, will contribute to the creation of a unique color of the Far Eastern cultures, penetration into their ideological content, decoding of ethno specific meanings. The most important conclusions of the work are a list of typological features of Japanese culture, which are the results of Chinese influence. These features are as follows: religious syncretism, binary perception, seasonality, gender asymmetry, displacement of the animation focus.