Kharbin

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian Харбин (Xarbin, “Harbin”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: khärbyēnʹ

Proper noun

Kharbin

1. (obsolete) Synonym of Harbin.
   • 1906, Maurice Baring, With the Russians in Manchuria‎^[2], 3rd edition, Methuen & Co., page 67:

     Whenever one passed by an officer's quarters he invariably invited one to come and to partake of something, and however little he had for himself, he gave you of his best. It was quite extraordinary to see what a fuss they made about a guest. The first example I had of this was in the train from Kharbin to Mukden, when I was in General Holodovsky’s carriage.

   • [1913 May, L. Lodian, “A Plague-Stricken Railroad in China”, in Railway and Locomotive Engineering: A Practical Journal of Railway Motive Power, Rolling Stock and Appliances‎^[3], volume XXVI, number 5, New York, →OCLC, page 165:

     Fire is the best disinfectant, and the Russians burned up the more seriously affected districts, particularly at Karbin, the chief town in Russian-Manchuria.]

   • 1923, James Mavor, My Windows on the Street of the World‎^[4], volume 2, J. M. Dent & Sons Limited, page 354:

     The Japanese train which connects at Kwang-cheng-tse with a Russian train for Kharbin, and by means of it with the Trans-Siberian train, starts from Dairen. The South Manchurian Railway is well equipped. The sleeping cars of coupé type are comfortable.

   • 1937, Donald Attwater, The Dissident Eastern Churches‎^[5], The Bruce Publishing Company, page 99:

     The chief Russian centre in Manchuria is at Kharbin (about 75,000 souls), and it is here that the lot of the refugees has been more atrocious than anywhere else in the world: the record of their sufferings is almost beyond belief in what is supposed to be a civilized era. Two archbishops, Mgr. Methody (d. 1931) and his successor Mgr. Melety, have been true fathers in God to these unhappy people.

   • 1961, Walter Kolarz, “Western Protestantism I (Lutheranism, Calvinists, Mennonites)”, in Religion in the Soviet Union‎^[6], London: Macmillan & Co Ltd, →OCLC, page 251:

     Most of the eight Siberian parishes were very extensive and the work of a Lutheran pastor in those parts was exacting and strenuous. For instance, the pastor in Vladivostok spent three months there at the centre of his parish and nine months travelling to visit those of his 3,000 parishioners who were living in Sakhalin Island, Khabarovsk and even in Kharbin in Manchuria.

   • 1990, Milan Hauner, What is Asia to Us?: Russia's Asian Heartland Yesterday and Today‎^[7], Unwin Hyman, page 158:

     The imperialistically minded Russian colony in Kharbin, which also housed Russia’s most active fascist movement, was terribly upset by their exclusion from the schemes of the Eurasianists domiciled in Europe. Conscious of their location facing the Pacific Ocean, they demanded, like the Vostochniki, sliyanie (merger) of Russian and Chinese cultures at the expense of the European linkage.