Chapter An Italian Hero for China. Reading Marco Polo in the Fascist Era

This article offers an overview of the readings of Marco Polo’s ventures offered to the Italian public opinion during the Fascist era. Marco Polo’s image was adapted to the needs of patriotic pedagogy, propaganda of Fascist values and colonial aspirations, and the attempt to redefine Rome’s political, economic and cultural role in the world. In a complex mix of academic and popular readings, the official discourse transformed the Venetian traveller into a symbol of Italianness in China in order to legitimize Fascist Italy’s ambitions and expectations and stress its distinct identity in comparison with the other western powers. Although Chinese reception of this discourse was limited by several factors at that time, this process certainly helped establish Marco Polo’s iconic significance in Sino-Italian cultural diplomacy well into the twentieth century

An Italian Hero for China. Reading Marco Polo in the Fascist Era

This article offers an overview of the readings of Marco Polo’s ventures offered to the Italian public opinion during the Fascist era. Marco Polo’s image was adapted to the needs of patriotic pedagogy, propaganda of Fascist values and colonial aspirations, and the attempt to redefine Rome’s political, economic and cultural role in the world. In a complex mix of academic and popular readings, the official discourse transformed the Venetian traveller into a symbol of Italianness in China in order to legitimize Fascist Italy’s ambitions and expectations and stress its distinct identity in comparison with the other western powers. Although Chinese reception of this discourse was limited by several factors at that time, this process certainly helped establish Marco Polo’s iconic significance in Sino-Italian cultural diplomacy well into the twentieth century

Alien neighbours: foreigners in contemporary Shanghai

One distinctive facet of Shanghai's cosmopolitanism and openness to the outer world is the foreign presence in the city. Partially reviving the myth of the old pre-1949 Shanghai, in the last twenty years Shanghai has become again a pole of attraction for foreign migrants, and it actually hosts one of the most numerous community of residents of alien nationality in the People's Republic of China. Drawing from sociological and ethnological literature, from official reports and media coverage of the topic, this paper overviews the impact of foreign communities in Shanghai and investigates how Shanghai local migration policies and media discourse shape the meaning of this phenomenon with respect to the definition of Shanghai's identity as a globalizing and a Chinese metropolis as well

Del giusto, della giustizia e della giustezza

Si tratta del saggio introduttivo al numero collettaneo della rivista dedicato al tema della "Giustizia", da me curato

Media and popular education: Views and policies on radio broadcasting in Republican China, 1920s–30s

This article focuses on the views and policies about the use of radio broadcasting for popular modern education in Republican China in the 1920s and 1930s. The development of radio technology for broadcasting in China during the first half of the twentieth century has been often justified on the ground of its importance as a tool for mass education. After the establishment of the Nanjing government in 1927, and especially in the second half of the 1930s, efforts were made by the Nationalist Party to advance the use of broadcasting for modern education. This cultural agenda partially reflected an international trend, but it was mainly just one aspect of a more general understanding about which should be the proper role of the media in a modern society. Although in China the use of radio broadcasting as a tool of popular education was hindered by many factors, the assumption of a strong nexus among progress, mass education and media technology shaped both the public opinion's perception of the medium and the Chinese State radio policies

Liu Xiaobo. Chi era costui? Uno speciale a un anno dalla morte

Breve introduzione allo speciale della rivista Sinosfere dedicato all'intellettuale dissidente cinese Liu Xiaobo, Premio Nobel per la Pace