Italy and China: Centuries of Dialogue

Over the centuries, crossings between Italy and China have produced the most sustained strand of cultural texts on East- West borrowings. The works by the likes of Marco Polo, Li Madou (Matteo Ricci), Giacomo Puccini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Bernardo Bertolucci are among history’s most influential intercultural texts. The Chinese perception of Italy has been equally textured and powerful. Liang Qichao formulated his influential nationalistthinking with explicit references to the Italian Unification. Against this backdrop, this volume explores the contexts, ways, and reasons for which exchanges between Italy and China took place. It also examines the specific knowledge that was produced, interpreted, and negotiated when the two countries connected on common themes of education, arts and science.