This article provides a comparative review of “Russian Orientalism” in the visual arts, associated with the names of artists such as V.V. Vereshchagin and A. V. Nikolaev (Usto Mumin), who differently approached this movement. The article raises the question of the characteristics of “Russian Orientalism” and examines the historical context that shaped this phenomenon, which also manifested itself in the visual arts.

This work takes E. Said’s concept of “Orientalism” as its methodological basis, serving as the starting point for the scholarly analysis. In the case of V.V. Vereshchagin and his “Turkestan Series”, the perception of the East corresponds to E. Said’s well-known “Orientalist” theory. When it comes to Usto Mumin’s works, methodological situation appears more complex and contradictory. Life and work of A. V. Nikolaev do not fit into E. Said’s concept. The analysis draws on the works of several authors to explore “Russian Orientalism” within the context of cultural studies, including art history.

The author concludes that although both authors under consideration do formally comply with the “Orientalists” movement, they belong to different cultural and historical contexts. Their careers and personal life embody the contrasts in their understanding of their art – so as academic classics might be opposed to the “modern” avant-garde.

The article studies the processes through which modernism was penetrating static Chinese architecture from the second half of the 19th century to the mid-20th century. The process is viewed as a phenomenon foreshadowing the unprecedented economic and cultural leap of the PRC observed in the late 20th century. The study examines two stages of the intensification of modernist trends, which acquired new qualities of development during the socialist period. The first stage (from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century) is characterized by adopting historicism, eclecticism, and Art Nouveau. These styles were used, on the one hand, to address the urgent problems of early urbanization and, on the other, to synchronize China with the pace of world history. It turned out that images of bygone eras, embodied in the forms of foreign architecture, helped to make sense of China's own present and stimulated the modeling of a promising future.

The second step — the Republican stage (1913–1949) — corresponds to the advancement of the Chinese vector of Eastern Art Deco, driven by both local and foreign architects. Chinese society's conviction in the perfection and completeness of its own architectural art ensured the vital necessity of its systematic renewal. In academic circles, as well as among professionals and general public, the awareness grew of the advisability of introducing Western experience into architectural practice, and the possibility of synthesizing this experience with the unique legacy of authentic Chinese architecture.

The article discusses the basic concepts associated with folk art and folk arts and crafts as an object of mass media. The dynamics (2001–2025) of representation of the concepts “folk art”, “folk crafts” and their types in various types of Russian-language media are analysed basing on the “Integrum” program. A significant increase in attention to folk crafts in recent years has been recorded in connection with the return of society to traditional values associated with the socio-cultural processes of identification among the Russian people. A direct dependence of the activity of the media in the coverage of folk art on the degree of attention to this area of official institutions, as well as on the degree of prevalence and popularity of certain types of folk crafts has been established. An increase in the share of attention to this area of regional publications in comparison with federal ones, a rapid increase in the activity of online publications, especially news aggregators and thematic Internet media, which leads to the priority of news content and poses the problem of strengthening the essay, analytical, problematic potential of journalism, which is able to analyze the difficulties and problems that folk crafts are experiencing today and help in solving them, is clearly visible. In general, the trend of expanding the range of objects of media attention to folk art is positive, but so far it is more quantitative than qualitative, and additional efforts and in-depth research are required in this direction.