valentina pedone

This article examines the image of Florence in the travel accounts of Sheng Cheng, Xu Zhimo, Zhu Ziqing and Zou Taofen, four different personalities, with quite different backgrounds and sensibilities, who visited Florence during the 1920s and 1930s. These authors present to their Chinese readers portraits of a thriving city with a vibrant atmosphere that, nonetheless, transcends its present to be crystallised in an exuberant eternal renaissance. The article argues that the authors are inspired by a specific idea of the Italian Renaissance that gained momentum in late nineteenth-century Europe. This idea strongly resonated with the Chinese intellectual elite of the early twentieth century, who found in it an inspiration to face China’s internal political challenges. However, the travel accounts seem to transcend any real political frame in describing the city, while instead fabricating a fantasy of Florence as the embodiment of modernity, beauty and elegance.

Hu Lanbo is a Sinoitalian writer who,throughout a period of over twenty years, has published the story of her life in four different versions, twice in Italian, and twice in Chinese. In this paper I outline the different ways she frames her ethnicity in the various versions of her self narration and then focus on how she creates a kind of autofiction that transcends the personal to reach the status of a edifying tale, capable of comforting, educating and inspiring both Chinese and Italian readers. In doing so she overcomes the asymmetry usually implicit between the roles of the reader and the so called migrant writer.

Chen Xi is an artist born in Beijing, who has spent part of her life in Italy and currently lives in the UK. She is the author of a novel about the life of a Chinese girl in Italy and a collection of postmodern fairy tales. As both a writer and an illustrator, she uses mixed media (mostly literature and visual art, but also performance and music) to convey her creative expression. Since her style draws upon different cultural traditions to shape original, fluid meanings, she can be described as a transcultural artist and writer. This section first provides an introduction to the artist’s life, works and style, then it offers the original Italian translation, Chinese text opposite, of four chapters from her novel and an excerpt from an illustrated story. An interview with the author closes the section.

This volume presents the results of a number of studies about Chinese migration to Italy carried out between 2003 and 2013. The data discussed in the different chapters were collected mostly through ethnographic fieldwork carried out both in China and in Italy. Covered topics include: the organization of Chinese trade activities in Italy, the perception of Italy as a country of migration, identity construction among Italian-born Chinese, language use among Chinese migrants in Italy and literary works written by Chinese in Italy. In addition to the chapters devoted to the discussion of data gathered from fieldwork, an introductory chapter based on a review of the scientific literature is offered in order to provide the reader with a basic background about the characteristics of a migration flow that has lasted nearly a century.

These days, it seems that many people are concerned with borders, confines, and walls more than ever. We chose “transcending borders” as the theme and title of the volume, hinting at the concept of bridging boundaries, in any possible context and domain, metaphorical or concrete. By proposing this theme, we want to reflect on the opportunities that are to be gained through the overcoming of borders, on what can be accomplished by calling into question old norms, on the implementations of less familiar norms, and on the renegotiation of individual limits and horizons. This collection gathers seven articles on the theme of borders: the first four articles deal with Chinese presence in Italy today; the three articles in the field of Japanese Studies elaborate on the concept of borders in literary terms.

On February 29th 2021, at 6 pm (Italian time)/ 9 am (Vancouver time), Prof. Valentina Pedone (University of Florence) and Prof. Gaoheng Zhang (University of British Columbia) will screen the premiere of the documentary film “Racism is a Virus”. The documentary film is the outcome of the project winner of the Canada Italy Innovation Award 2021, VulCa2021: Documenting Vulnerability and Care during Covid 19-induced Anti-Asian Racism and Violence. The event will start with the greetings of Virginie Lévesque, Counsellor/public Affair Embassy of Canada to Italy; Giacomo Guccione, Municipality of Florence; Joël Castonguay-Bélanger, University of British Columbia; Giorgia Giovannetti, University of Florence. After the greetings, Dr Angelica Pesarini (University of Toronto) will give a talk titled “Race and Racisms: The Case of Italy” After the talk and before the screening, WUXU art collective and the students of the University of Florence and the University of British Columbia who participated in the project will provide a brief introduction to the documentary. Link to the Zoom event: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/66294904273?pwd=M01kNjQyN1BRajhsQnFvcFhJdld5UT09 Meeting ID: 662 9490 4273 Passcode: 575414 Teaser of the documentary: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PjXu0kbJEjL01wC9bhXkHUI01EzxeNYw/view

In a global context characterized by a growing complexity of the dynamics of Chinese transnational mobility, we find the need to resort to a new vocabulary to understand the localized artistic expressions related to such dynamics. In this article, we focus on two Chinese artists, Musk Ming (1979‐present) and Tony Cheung (1987‐present), who live and work across China and Europe, reflecting on how their transnational life trajectories combine with the transculturality expressed in their works. Considering body and language as two privileged sites of ethnicity, the article suggests that, in their representation, the authors engage in a process of critical deconstruction of ‘national culture’ and ‘ethnic identity’. Such deconstruction is achieved by disconnecting cultural tokens from their ‘ethno-national’ or historical referents, creating instead unlikely or unexpected associations with elements extracted from non-Chinese contexts, or using them to critique the very cultural lineage th...

We plan to publish a volume that foregrounds, explores and analyzes the multifarious cultural production that originates from the mobility of Chinese subjects across different countries and territories. We focus on different typologies of people's movements that originate in China and how they affect the cultural production (literary, performative, visual) of such people. We are especially interested in how different kinds of mobilities intersect and in how their intersections open spaces (physical or virtual, stable or temporary) to creative expressions that reference Chinese language and culture while being shaped by the movement from China.  While we consider Chinese cultural studies the main field of reference for this volume, we also encourage a transdisciplinary approach. We are particularly interested in contributions that focus on China-Italy mobility, but we will also be happy to consider other transnational routes.
We welcome contributions from early-career scholars.

Topics can include (but are not limited to):
-Liuxuesheng literature/art;
-Migrant literature/art;
-Travel literature;
-Expats reports and memoirs;
-other related issues

This paper is included in the catalogue of the art exhibition "The impossible black tulip: Investigating hybridity from Macao", curated by Livia Dubon and held in Florence in 2018. In the paper I outline the general features of the literature written by people of Chinese origin who live in Italy, focusing on the author Hu Lanbo. The paper also features an interview with Hu Lanbo, focused on her poetry. The catalogue came out on Orientalia libri publishing house. I will upload all the details in the next few days.

In this paper I analyze three of the four autobiographical volumes written by Sino-Italian author Hu Lanbo, who has rewritten and published her story four times in four different periods of her life, publishing twice in China and twice in Italy. These works can be considered as autobiographical novels, more than simple autobiographical accounts, as, in them, the author fabricates the character “Hu Lanbo” to serve as the protagonist of a sequence of exemplary tales, in which much space is dedicated to moral lessons learned throughout the character’s many life adventures, as well as to the preaching of such lessons.

INTRODUCTIONWhile there is general agreement on the impact that migration has on the development of a transnational Chinese culture, the main focus of recent debate on this topic centers on the relationship between Mainland China and its periphery, while less has been published on the formation of new local hybrid cultures that arise during this process in Europe. In order to start investigating the different values, ideals and expectations that play a role in the formation of a new Sino-Italian culture, it is helpful to assess what ideas about Italy new migrants bring to the game when they first arrive in the host country.Since the great majority of Chinese first generation migrants in Italy come from southern Zhejiang (over 80%), I carried out six weeks of ethnographic fieldwork in the Ouhai-Wenzhou area (Southern Zhejiang) during the summer of 2011. Daily observations and stories about Italy that I gathered on the field show that there are some shared views among Chinese first ge...

This volume is a collection of eight articles by different scholars from Japan, China, and Italy. Although the topics covered belong to different fields, such as literature, history, linguistics and sociology, all of the included works are geographically focused on cultural aspects of East Asia. The interdisciplinary character of the collection is meant to provide a broader perspective on the cultures and societies of the Far East, nonetheless the individual articles are each based on specific and focused research. The authors featured in the volume are Eduardo Barberis, Edoardo Gerlini, Tiziana Lioi, Massimiliano Tomasi, Pierantonio Zanotti, Tanina Zappone and Zhou Yuhui. The volume is also proud to include a short piece by professor Takei Kyōzō on Omowaku utaawase.

This work presents an overview of the results of a 2003/4 research project funded by the Italian Ministry of Welfare. The goal of the project was to provide some insight into the process of identity construction among children of immigrants in Italy. Being in charge of the Chinese case study, I carried out 8 months of fieldwork among a group

This work presents an overview of the results of a 2003/4 research project funded by the Italian Ministry of Welfare. The goal of the project was to provide some insight into the process of identity construction among children of immigrants in Italy. Being in charge of the Chinese case study, I carried out 8 months of fieldwork among a group

The paper first provides a brief description of the main characteristics of the Chinese immigration to Prato, referring the reader to the vast literature on the subject for further analysis;  then it retraces the path that led to the inauguration of the Puhuasi in 2009, highlighting how it has been integrated in the urban context; lastly, it addresses the roles played by the Puhuasi in the lives of its Chinese congregation. This last part will be primarily based on in-depth interviews with 15 randomly selected Chinese frequenters of the temple in the summer of 2015 .

Dopo l’ondata di intellettuali cinesi patrioti che, al tramonto dell’epoca imperiale, visitavano la neonata Italia cercando ispirazione nel Risorgimento per la costruzione di una Cina moderna,  negli anni Venti e Trenta del Novecento, un nuova tipologia di viaggiatori cinesi si avventura nell’Italia del Ventennio fascista. La società cinese è cambiata e questi viaggiatori sono spesso più alla ricerca di se stessi, che di soluzioni per la propria patria. Si tratta di giovani colti e spesso benestanti, a volte scrittori o giornalisti, in cerca di ispirazione e di avventure, con un piglio da un lato mondano e frivolo, dall’altro più introspettivo e riflessivo, ma comunque decisamente più individualista dei loro predecessori.
Alcuni di loro, al ritorno in Cina, pubblicano le loro impressioni di viaggio. In questi lavori è molto forte l’influenza degli scritti dei viaggiatori cinesi che li hanno preceduti, in particolare del Diario di viaggio in Italia 意大利游记 (1905) di Kang Youwei 康有为 (1858-1927), ma anche dei classici della letteratura del Gran tour. Sorprende quanto il canone di riferimento sia potente nel definire queste espressioni letterarie, ingabbiando, se non proprio soffocando, guizzi più personali, sebbene tali riferimenti provengano da momenti culturali distanti sia nel tempo (le opere del Gran Tour avevano avuto il loro apogeo in epoca romantica e i viaggi degli intellettuali patrioti avevano avuto luogo nell’Ottocento e primissimi anni del Novecento), che per i cambiamenti sociali e culturali che in quel tempo avevano stravolto sia la Cina che l’Italia (si tratta a questo punto di una Cina repubblicana e di una Italia fascista).
In questo articolo viene alazziata la rappresentazione della città di Firenze nei resoconti di viaggio di Sheng Cheng盛成(1899-1996) , Xu Zhimo徐志摩 (1897 – 1931), Zhu Ziqing朱自清(1898 -1948) e Zou Taofen邹韬奋 (1895-1944). I primi due visitarono Firenze negli anni ‘20, mentre gli altri due negli anni ‘30 del Novecento. Quattro personalità diverse, con storie individuali e sensibilità lontane tra loro, che hanno incluso questa città, trascurata dal classico Gran Tour, prima nei loro viaggi e poi nei loro scritti. A differenza di quanto si legge in contemporanee rappresentazioni di viaggiatori cinesi a Venezia, da loro caratterizzata come misteriosa e simbolica, e a Roma, dipinta come decadente e imponente, Firenze viene descritta come vitale, concreta, terrena e quindi molto “umanizzata”. Della “città dei fiori”, 花城, come la battezza Sheng Cheng (da Florentia), viene presentato il suo patrimonio artistico, soprattutto in relazione alla pittura, ma anche il suo legame con la natura, che, come già nella tradizione della letteratura del gran tour, la rende un tutt’uno con l’idilliaca campagna toscana in cui è adagiata.  Di Firenze vengono raccontati però anche gli scontri politici che scandiscono la sua storia, nonché la sua tradizione commerciale e bancaria.
Sebbene Firenze fu una delle città su cui l’architettura fascista più si espresse (Giovannoni 2018), gli osservatori non colgono, o non sono interessati a  raccontarne, le sue aspirazioni culturali moderniste dell’epoca.  La fotografia che questi autori vogliono riportare ai lettori cinesi è piuttosto quella di una città d’arte viva, quasi organica,  ma che trascende dal suo effettivo presente per rimanere cristallizzata in un esuberante eterno rinascimento/rinascita, al momento della germinazione del suo protocapitalismo.

Gaoheng Zhang’s book deals with Chinese migration to Italy as it was represented in the Italian media and in the Italy-based Chinese media between 1992 and 2012. It shows how journalists, businesspeople and politicians adopted one narrative rather than another about the Chinese migration to Italy, what sources they were based on, what narrative strategies they used, why they chose certain topics rather than others and how they debated publicly on this topic. Lastly, it analyses the legacy of this debate in contemporary Italian culture.

Hu Lanbo is a Sinoitalian writer who,throughout a period of  over twenty years, has published the story of her life in four different versions, twice in Italian, and twice in Chinese. In this paper I outline the different ways she frames her ethnicity in the various versions of her self narration and then focus on how she creates a kind of autofiction that transcends the personal to reach the status of a edifying tale, capable of comforting, educating and inspiring both Chinese and Italian readers. In doing so she overcomes the asymmetry usually implicit between the roles of the reader and the so called migrant writer.

Chinese influence on Southeast Asia has a very long history, approximately as long as the Chinese imperial history itself, as the Han empire extended its territory to northern Vietnam in the 2nd century BC. Many Southeast Asian territories have been tributary states of the Chinese empire for centuries, and both material and cultural exchange between China and these populations has a long and established history.
Although South East Asia today has the most numerous population of Chinese origin outside China, the social status of these communities is not at all homogenous. Different historical events brought the various Chinese settled communities to occupy social positions that may have differed
dramatically from country to country, and/or in various historical times. While there have been cases of complete integration in the host society, there have also been cases of long term co-existence and competition, and episodes of persecution.
Today the situation of the many Chinese communities in Southeast Asian countries is extremely complex and it gives the possibility for people of Chinese heritage to be in positions that range from that of a privileged group to that of a subaltern one. Such positions obviously have a strong
influence on the prestige (or lack of it) that the Chinese language and dialects have within each of these countries.
The Sinophone literary production within these areas, therefore, can be analyzed on one hand thorough the lenses of post-colonial theory, due to the interaction of the Chinese empire and the European colonial powers with the local populations, but, on the other hand, it can also be seen as
an expression of the global multilingual literature that originates from migratory movements in the late capitalist era.
In this article after tracing a brief outline of the history of the diffusion of Chinese people in Southeast Asia, I concentrate on three countries, namely Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, presenting the main characteristics of the mobilities from China to these areas in an historical perspective,
and introducing the general features of contemporary Sinophone writings produced in these areas. My analysis and definition of Sinophone literature is based on the work developed by Shih Shu-mei (2007, 2010a, 2010b, 2013) and focuses on the processes of creolization and localization that
keep affecting these literary productions.

In this paper I analyze three of the four autobiographical volumes written by Sino-Italian author Hu Lanbo, who has rewritten and published her story four times in four different periods of her life, publishing twice in China and twice in Italy. These works can be considered as autobiographical novels, more than simple autobiographical accounts, as, in them, the author fabricates the character “Hu Lanbo” to serve as the protagonist of a sequence of exemplary tales, in which much space is dedicated to moral lessons learned throughout the character’s many life adventures, as well as to the preaching of such lessons.

Il Sudest asiatico è oggi l’area in cui si concentra il più alto numero di persone di origine cinese al di fuori della
Cina continentale. Questa popolazione nel corso dei secoli ha dato vita a diverse espressioni di creolizzazione culturale,
tra cui una vivace produzione letteraria in lingua cinese. In questo articolo viene presentata la produzione
letteraria sinofona dell’odierna Tailandia. La caratterizzazione di questa produzione letteraria è formulata nella
prospettiva critica sviluppata nell’ambito dei Sinophone Studies (Shih Shu-mei, 2007).

This paper is included in the catalogue of the art exhibition "The impossible black tulip: Investigating hybridity from Macao", curated by Livia Dubon and held in Florence in 2018. In the paper I outline the general features of the literature written by people of Chinese origin who live in Italy, focusing on the author Hu Lanbo. The paper also features an interview with Hu Lanbo, focused on her poetry. The catalogue came out on Orientalia libri publishing house. I will upload all the details in the next few days.

Abstract
Chen Xi is an artist born in Beijing, who has spent part of her life in
Italy and currently lives in the UK. She is the author of a novel about
the life of a Chinese girl in Italy and a collection of postmodern fairy
tales. As both a writer and an illustrator, she uses mixed media (mostly
literature and visual art, but also performance and music) to convey
her creative expression. Since her style draws upon different cultural
traditions to shape original, fluid meanings, she can be described as
a transcultural artist and writer. This section first provides an introduction
to the artist’s life, works and style, then it offers the original
Italian translation of four chapters from her novel and an excerpt from
an illustrated story. An interview with the author closes the section.
Keywords: global Chinese literature, overseas Chinese cultures, Sinophone
literature, transcultural literature, underground comics

Beginning in the mid-2000s, a number of documentaries about Chinese migration to Italy have been produced both by professional directors and by amateurs, all with no Chinese background, that are mainly aimed at revealing the hidden ‘reality’ of the Chinese immigration population on one hand and, on the other hand, at discarding some of the wide spread prejudices about this group. I selected five of the professionally shot documentaries in order to analyse how they portray the Chinese migrant presence in Italy. While all of these documentaries make an important effort to present Chinese migration to Italy as a positive phenomenon, Orientalism as well as elements of cultural essentialism can still persist. My analysis focuses on the points of view that different directors adopt in depicting Chinese life in Italy, stressing if, where, and how their narratives emphasize cultural distance, otherness and essentialism.

On February 29th 2021, at 6 pm (Italian time)/ 9 am (Vancouver time), Prof. Valentina Pedone (University of Florence) and Prof. Gaoheng Zhang (University of British Columbia) will screen the premiere of the documentary film “Racism is a Virus”. The documentary film is the outcome of the project winner of the Canada Italy Innovation Award 2021, VulCa2021: Documenting Vulnerability and Care during Covid 19-induced Anti-Asian Racism and Violence.
The event will start with the greetings of Virginie Lévesque, Counsellor/public Affair Embassy of Canada to Italy; Giacomo Guccione, Municipality of Florence; Joël Castonguay-Bélanger, University of British Columbia; Giorgia Giovannetti, University of Florence.
After the greetings, Dr Angelica Pesarini (University of Toronto) will give a talk titled “Race and Racisms: The Case of Italy”
After the talk and before the screening, WUXU art collective and the students of the University of Florence and the University of British Columbia who participated in the project will provide a brief introduction to the documentary.

Link to the Zoom event:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/66294904273?pwd=M01kNjQyN1BRajhsQnFvcFhJdld5UT09
Meeting ID: 662 9490 4273
Passcode: 575414

Teaser of the documentary:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PjXu0kbJEjL01wC9bhXkHUI01EzxeNYw/view