At the Istituto Italiano – Accademia Italia, on December 13, 2017, an important conference was held that implicitly or explicitly represents and seals international agreements concerning the relations between the prestigious language academy Istituto Italiano and the state of China, in its institutional representations, which are part of the great project of the Marco Polo – Turandot program.

The meeting also acted as a presentation and prologue of the new academic year of Italian Institute courses, at whose conference, in addition to the presence of a large delegation audience from China, was attended by the director dr. Michele Russi, who introduced the meeting, and a high-representation team made up of the Added General Consul  Zhou Haiyan, the Consul Yan Jinlin, and the consular officers Yu Lengyang and Lyu Hailan.

The meeting is one of the stages of expansion and interoperability of the School, which constantly works on updating teaching techniques, while benefiting from the legacy of traditional classical teaching methods and also uses students’ involvement through art and historical beauty of one of the most important cities for the Italian language: Florence.

The attention shown by China’s institutional representation authorities reveals the importance of the Institute, determined by the commitment and work carried out, also in a light of broad openness and collaboration with the East, with attentive attention, studies and strategies of interaction and communication.

Thanks to the work carried out, it is evident the attention of the East, more and more present in the Italian cultural and academic landscape. Both nations have a rich and complex literary, cultural and linguistic development, with evident differences, which can only enrich both the national cultures in the exchanges and in the study processes.

Without considering the crucial importance of the interchange of processes, culture and trade between the two countries today.

On the one hand, Italy, a hub in the Mediterranean basin between the nations and surrounded by seas, with an ancient Mediterranean civilization that inherits from the Maritime Republics, from a long series of ancient kingdoms and the empire of ancient Rome, on the other part of the Chinese colossus, also of deep and remote historical evolution and now great power in the crowded game of politics and global trade.

One can not ignore the fact that the country of the Rising Sun has recently overtaken the US in import / export traffic with Europe (Germany alone has reached 180 billion dollars in exports to China).

Precisely for this reason, the steps taken in this direction are becoming increasingly important for communications and correlations between the two countries, and it is no coincidence that the requests for translations and interpretations between the two languages ​​are increasingly requested and even solid jobs opportunity also open up in personal careers.

This discourse should be seen with the background of the recent Forum dell’Internazionalizzazione del Made in Italy (Forum of the Internationalization of Made in Italy, N.d.R.), which this November was aimed at reaching out to China, as demonstrated by a series of open initiatives, as well as the actions and tax breaks of the Italian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and multiple and reciprocal collaborations also exhibited by the Italy-China Foundation.

Based on what has been said so far, we can not ignore the direction of internationalization and the importance of institutes like Istituto Italiano on the front of these reciprocal cultural (and linguistic) commitments. Yes, mutual. Because, on the one hand, Italy is increasingly investing in the almond-eyed country, and it is increasingly open on the subject of agreements and interactions both on Italian territory and abroad (even the President of the Italian Republic Mattarella wanted to visit China this year), vice versa, China also shows increasing interest in the boot, opening a growing number of investment initiatives in the beautiful country and also culturally showing the maturity of the new opening – one among many examples: it is precisely the day 19 December 2017 the news of the abolition of the beef ban by the Chinese authorities, as well as a series of new economic and collaboration agreements, signed to stabilize production and commercial points by the Orientals in our country, to which the line of the aforementioned is perfectly suited Marco Polo – Turandot program and the Italian Institute lines.

Let’s not forget that the Chinese vision of Italy – as emerged from China Day 2017 – is centered on the millennial history, for culture, for food, for fashion, and for football.

For these specific reasons the importance of the precious linguistic-cultural institutes that offer precious nodal support to the communication base is very clear. And the Italian Institute is not only specialized and face with great vigor and hand towards China, but it is born and continues to develop precisely in the city that has more interest in absolute based on the vision and interests of the Eastern Country.