Oral History of China Studies in Italy

The project that produces this special issue of "Rivista di Studi Orientali" in Italy was carried out by the Department of Oriental Studies of Sapienza, University of Rome, that decided to focus on a collection of the memories of those who had been involved in the most important cultural, political and economic events in the history of China and of the history of China's relations with Italy, from the 1950s until the early 80s. In doing so, the aims were: sensitize public awareness of the historical events which prepared the ground for China's present situation and position in our globalized world; record the personal stories of those who have been either protagonists or eye witnesses of the great changes which Chinese society had undergone in the last 40 years; analyze the development and spread of China studies in Italy; last but not least, reconstruct the image, or better 'the images', of China in Italy during the period under study. Twelve interviews were conducted in approximately one year to different figures: Sinologists or China experts, former diplomats, journalists and businessmen. In 2015 an international workshop offered the opportunity to gather interviewers, interviewees and eminent sinologists together in order to analyze the interviews and discuss them in a comparative perspective starting from the 'Italian experience'. This volume includes a selection of the papers presented during the workshop by Italian and foreign scholars, together with a selection of the most relevant interviews. The selected papers first of all aim at showing how the image of China was shaped and reshaped in Italy and in other European countries through the centuries. They also reveal how and through which people or channels (books, media) was the knowledge on China built in Italy, and comparatively in other countries, and its impact on China studies, in diachronic and synchronic perspective, but with a main focus on the second half of the 20th century.