Cultural Mobilities Between China and Italy: (Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture)

This book offers a critical analysis of global mobilities across China and Italy in history. In three periods in the twentieth century, new patterns of physical mobilities and cultural contact were established between the two countries which were either novel at the time of their emergence or impactful on subsequent periods. The first two chapters provide overviews of writings by Italians in China and by Chinese in Italy in the twentieth century. The remaining chapters cover: Republican China's relationships with Italy and Italian Fascist colonialism in China during the 1920s-1930s; Italian travelers to China during the Cold War from the 1950s to the 1970s; migrations between China and Italy during the 2000s-2010s. In analyzing these cultural mobilities, this book opens a new line of inquiry in Chinese-Italian Cultural Studies, which has been dominated by historical study, and contributes a significant case study to the scholarship on global cultural mobilities.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: “Cultural Mobilities and Interactions Between Modern China and Italy” Valentina Pedone, University of Florence and Gaoheng Zhang, University of British Columbia.- Chapter 1: “Chinese Mobility, Routes and Traces: Early-20th Century Discovery of Italian Culture” Alessandra Brezzi, Sapienza University of Rome.- Chapter 2: “Dragomans, Interpreters and Diplomats: Chinese Language Knowledge by Italians in Early 20th Century” Federico Masini, Sapienza University of Rome.- Chapter 3: “Mobility, Architecture, Chronotope: Tianjin’s Italian Concession, the 1930s” Gaoheng Zhang, University of British Columbia.- Chapter 4: “Representations of Socialist Mobility in Post-WWII China-Italy Cultural Exchange” Yang Wang, University of Colorado Boulder and Martina Tanga, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.- Chapter 5: “Maoist China through the Lens of Italian Visitors (1950s-1970s)” Xin Liu, Penn State University.- Chapter 6: “The Journey and the Memory: 20th-century Travel Notes on Italy” Miriam Castorina, University of Florence.- Chapter 7: “Becoming Chinese-Italian: The Formation of a New Italian Ethnic Minority” Daniele Cologna, Insubria University.- Chapter 8: “Chased by Chineseness: Distance and Proximity in Chinese Italian Creative Expression” Valentina Pedone, University of Florence.- Chapter 9: “‘Ne vedrai delle belle in questo paese!’ Literary Representations of the Italian Community in China” Chiara Giuliani, University College Cork.

About the Author :
Valentina Pedone is Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Florence, Italy. Her academic interests lie in the languages and cultures of people of Chinese origins, inside and outside China. She is author of A Journey to the West: Observations on the Chinese Migration to Italy (Firenze University Press). Gaoheng Zhang is Associate Professor of Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver). He is the author of Migration and the Media: Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992-2012 (University of Toronto, 2019). He is a recipient of major grants and fellowships from American, Canadian, and European institutions.

Review :
"Throughout the volume, the careful and in-depth analysis by the contributors at large is evident. An exhaustive amount of research is reflected in the volume, and it is equally approachable and valuable for specialized and non-specialized readerships. Cultural Mobilities Between China and Italy is a most valuable contribution that achieves the goal of providing a relevant and viable model of analysis for further research in Chinese and Italian Cultural Studies from a variety of historical and socio-political viewpoints." (Kristina Rose Varade, Annali d'italianistica, Vol. 42, 2025)