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The article analyzes Chinese borrowings in the language of Russian emigrants in Northeast China in the first half of the 20th century. The concept of borrowing and the reasons for the appearance of loan words are also described. In modern linguistics, there are several interpretations of the concept ‘borrowing’. Diffe­rent definitions were given by many linguists. According to the definition that appears to be the most complete and commonly used one, ‘borrowing’ is an element of a foreign language (word, morpheme, syntactic construction, etc.) transferred from one language to another as a result of language contacts, as well as the process of transition of elements of one language into another. Lexical borrowing as a process is determined by a combination of internal (linguistic) and external (extralinguistic) factors. The main reason for borrowing to occur is the absence of the corresponding concept in the accepting language. The emergence of Chinese borrowings was closely related to historical events – Russia’s gaining the right to build the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) through the territory of Manchuria. In the article, the main borrowing methods – transcription and calquing – are considered based on the analysis of Chinese borrowings used by N. I. Ilyina in her memoirs Destiny, Roads and Return. Furthermore, the article proposes a classification of the borrowed words by lexical-thematic groups: the names of geographical objects, personal names, names of parties, natural objects, household items (food, housing, monetary units, games, etc.) and interjections; grammatical and semantic analysis of these words is also provided. Borrowing is one of the natural ways to enrich vocabulary of any language. Loan words play an important role in the lexical system of the accepting language. These words can serve as reflection of another culture, its mentality, traditions and customs.