Events
Maurizio Marinelli | Italy's Encounters with China
20 September, 2012
4.15 - 5.30pm
italian Studies Seminar Series
Italy’s Encounters with China: Ancient civilizations, imperial dreams, and strategic ambitions
Maurizio Marinelli, China Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney
The history of relations between Italy and China has often been beclouded by myths, projection biases, intellectualisations and, ultimately, stereotypes. The multiple encounters between the two polities is often reduced to the image of two ancient civilizational matrixes, characterized by different systems of values and beliefs, which nevertheless seemed to have sufficient elements in common to originate a longstanding friendship and future prospects of a glorious collaboration. This seminar is an opportunity to move beyond certain rhetoric tropes, and delve more deeply into the nature of the historical and contemporary relations between Italy and China, especially through the lens of the Italian experience in the city of Tianjin, where the Italian Government controlled a ‘concession’ (zujie) between 1901 and 1945. It will also be an opportunity present a forthcoming book edited by Maurizio Marinelli (UTS) and Giovanni Andornino (University of Turin) which offers a comprehensive diachronic account of the most salient historical junctures and intellectual debates shaping the modern and contemporary encounters between Italy and China.
Professor Maurizio Marinelli, Director of the China Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney, specialises in contemporary China’s intellectual and urban history. His research investigates how China’s relations with the rest of the world have influenced historical narratives and shaped ways of representing each other within their respective intellectual discourses. He is currently working on the socio-spatial transformation of the port city of Tianjin from the foreign concessions era (1860-1945) to the present. Before coming to Australia, he taught in Italy, China, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Location: Oriental Room S204, Main Quadrangle Building
| Contact: | Cristina Mauceri |
| Email: | cristina.mauceri@sydney.edu.au |