May 2024, Year XVI, n. 5
Tiziana Lippiello
How Near is China?
“The reasons why these two ancient civilizations were so far apart yet so close together were mainly identified by the Jesuits, who while translating classical Chinese texts, recognised some similarities to Christianity.”
Telos: 2024. A special year for Venice, celebrating the 700-year anniversary of the death of a citizen of unparalleled fame in time and in the world: Marco Polo. A National Committee has been set up and you have been appointed president of the Scientific Committee and project coordinator. Could you describe some of the projects you find the most interesting?
Tiziana Lippiello: An important year, not only for the city of Venice. We will be celebrating the 700-year anniversary of the death of Marco Polo by remembering the adventures of this Venetian merchant who set sail for the Far East with his father and uncle. Marco Polo is well known throughout Asia and Europe, not so much for his commercial activities but because he opened a channel for intercultural communication. His stories highlight his extraordinary curiosity, his ability to adapt, his uniquely open mind, in addition to his ability to win the appreciation of the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan. What virtue and determination! A valid example of cultural diplomacy even for our times. As for the scientific initiatives and projects celebrating this anniversary, I would like to mention three exhibitions: “The Worlds of Marco Polo: The journey of a 13th-century Venetian merchant” being held at Palazzo Ducale (6 April–29 September 2024), and organised with the Italian Cultural Institute in Shanghai. Then in November this exhibition will actually travel to the Shanghai Museum in Shanghai. For this very reason, I can say that it embodies the spirit of dialogue and collaboration between Italian and Chinese institutions, in the spirit of Marco Polo. The exhibition “Journey of Connections: The Travels of Marco Polo and his legacy from East to West” will begin in July, organised by the Italian Embassy in China and the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing. This exhibition will also have a digital section with augmented-reality headsets giving visitors the opportunity to experience Marco Polo’s voyage themselves. An additional exhibition dedicated to Marco Polo will open in the month of October this year at the Accademia dei Lincei.
China and Italy boast a history of exchange that goes back millennia. Not only commercial but cultural exchange as well. What reasons underlie their appreciation for one another?
The reasons why these two ancient civilizations were so far apart yet so close together were mainly identified by the Jesuits, who while translating classical Chinese texts, recognised some similarities to Christianity, such as love for family, for others in general, the value of friendship, generosity.
Today it is important to revisit these channels of friendship and brotherhood and identify new ways to dialogue and learn from one another. These pathways were created by Marco Polo, in a certain sense. The new degree programme Ancient Civilisations for the Contemporary World (State University of Milan – Ca’ Foscari University) was created for this purpose: to study past civilisations in order to understand the present and act with greater awareness.
There have inevitably been mishaps in the dialogue between China and Italy. One that attracted a lot of media attention exploded in 2018 with a publicity campaign of the fashion house Dolce & Gabbana.
No doubt this was a case of communication breakdown. Everyone makes mistakes. This is why D&G came to us to sort things out, to find out more about Chinese culture and learn from their mistakes. We created a CLab (Ca’ Foscari Lab) with students and professors of Chinese culture and language and management to educate people on how to communicate with China in order to avoid making mistakes.
Deep knowledge of one another’s history and culture is essential to any relationship one intends to establish, whether it is cultural, political or commercial in nature and often, almost always, I’d say, these three dimensions must interact. It is a mistake to think we can impose our beliefs and paradigms.
Ca’ Foscari University, which you have led since 2020 is a “young university within the Italian context.” Young “for its age, but also, mainly, because of its character.” Can you describe this character for us?
Young within the Italian context, if you can say that, because it was founded shortly after the unification of Italy in 1868 specifically to respond to city’s need, but especially to its desire, to shape economists skilled in economic transactions and diplomatic relations.
A university for an Italy that was finally united, that needed foreign policy that could live up it its role, and diplomatic and commercial relations became extraordinarily important in this context.We are one of the first Business Schools in Europe that thought strategically about combining the dimension of international commerce and law with linguistic and cultural skills.
Then, over time, we have also acquired essential skills in the area of cultural heritage and the humanities and created a scientific campus in Mestre. Today, in this year of Marco Polo celebrations, this dimension is very timely.
Italy and Asia celebrate this merchant, traveller and ambassador who forged relations and was appreciated throughout the vast empire dominated by the Yuan dynasty. An example of dedication, humility and entrepreneurial spirit for the contemporary world.
Marco Sonsini
Editorial
Our May guest for PRIMOPIANOSCALAc, Professor Tiziana Lippiello, is a renowned sinologist. There is a lot of talk about China right now, which is often overblown and has terrorist overtones. Just a few weeks ago, the New York Times dedicated a whole page to the phenomenon.
The article “Let’s all take a deep breath about China” invites us to pause before brandishing the threat of the “yellow peril” and making decisions driven by anxiety. It warns: “Anxiety about China is making American policymakers react in paranoid, repressive ways.”
The author, Rory Truex, a professor at Princeton, writes: “Nearly anything with the word ‘Chinese’ in front of it now triggers a fear response in our political system, muddling our ability to properly gauge and contextualize threats. This has led the U.S. government and American politicians to pursue policies grounded in repression and exclusion, mirroring the authoritarian system that they seek to combat.”
The article lists a series of absurd legislative decisions, disproportionate, to say the least. Some border on the ridiculous. Like the ban on Chinese garlic imports because they pose a “threat to U.S. (…) national security citing reports that it is fertilized with human sewage”, which also goes along with the Barbie incident.
Last summer many republican representatives spoke out against the movie because one scene flashed a world map showing a dotted line. They interpreted this as a nod to China’s “nine-dash line” which Beijing uses to point out its ownership of the South China Sea. Well, after all this anxiety-generating reading, it is truly a relief to let yourself to be drawn in by Dean Lippiello’s loving words about a culture as ancient as China’s.
She reminds us that, ever since the time of the Jesuits, our two cultures have found similarities that form the basis of their mutual appreciation. She invites us to “revisit these channels of friendship and brotherhood and identify new ways to dialogue and learn from one another.”
In one question we reference a diplomatic incident in 2018 when three videos featuring an Asian model trying to eat Italian food -pizza, spaghetti and a Sicilian cannolo- with chopsticks. The videos with the hashtags #DGLovesChina and #DGTheGreatShow were intended to promote D&G’s Shanghai fashion show.
The videos were accused of offering obsolete, stereotypical images of a China of lanterns, silly music and red everywhere, and that were even derisive. What we didn’t know is that, after that incident, D&G went to Ca’ Foscari to “sort things out, to find out more about Chinese culture and learn from their mistakes.”
In our interview we couldn’t help asking Professor Lippiello about the celebrations for the 700-year anniversary of the death of Marco Polo. She is currently serving as the coordinator of the scientific committee and is in charge of creating and organising scientific events. She suggested some exhibitions that cannot be missed. Thanks, and we will try to visit at least one! PRIMOPIANOSCALAc’s new 2024 cover series is inspired by the works of Romano Gazzera, a Piedmontese painter known for his ‘giant’, ‘talking’, ‘flying’ flowers which, along with other iconographic themes connected to historical and collective memory, characterised and distinguished him as the frontrunner of the Italian Neo-floral school.
For our Dean, we have chosen the Cymbidium orchid, one of the first cultivated by man. Confucius, who praised its beauty and fragrance, included it as one of the “Four Noble Ones”, the four plants that represent the virtues of the Confucian junzi, or the ideal man. The orchid is representative of modesty; chrysanthemums, elegance; bamboo, resilience; and plum trees, perseverance.
Mariella Palazzolo
Tiziana Lippiello has been the Dean of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice since 2020. She is a professor of Classical Chinese language, Chinese Philosophy and Religions for the Department of Asian and Mediterranean Africa Studies. She completed her training as a sinologist with courses and seminars in Classical Chinese language, history and philosophy at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages in 1984 and Fudan University of Shanghai, PRC (1985-1987) and the Sinologisch Instituut at the University of Leiden (1989-1994). Her research spans from literature and history to the socio-cultural aspects of Chinese society, with a broad overall vision that overcomes all sectorial limits.
From 2014 to 2017 she was Deputy Dean in charge of Asian relations and from 2017 to 2020, Deputy Dean in charge of international relations. Since 2022 she has been on the board of the CRUI (Conference of Italian University Deans) and the International Affairs Delegate for the CRUI. Finally, she is the president of Eutopia European University.
Professor Lippiello was born in San Vito al Tagliamento in 1962. She lives in Portogruaro and has two daughters. When asked our usual question about hobbies and passions, she answered with a touch of good humour: “I thought about it, but since I’ve been dean, I don’t have any time for hobbies.”
Marco Sonsini
SocialTelos