The ceremony to present the first translations of Italian and Chinese classics – which will implement the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and China’s National Administration for Press and Publishing on 8 November, 2024 – took place on 18 June at the Beijing Pavilion of the BIBF (Beijing International Book Fair), in the presence of Presidents Sergio Mattarella and Xi Jinping. The aim of the agreement is to support the translation and publication of classics from the respective cultures, with a view to fostering mutual understanding and strengthening the historic friendship between the Italian and Chinese peoples.
Thanks to the collaboration with the Treccani Encyclopedia Institute, for the first time the Chinese public will soon be able to read two reference classics of Italian literature translated into Chinese: “I Canti” (The Poems) by Giacomo Leopardi and an anthological selection from the treatise “Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze” (Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations concerning two New Sciences) by Galileo Galilei. The event was attended by the Director of the Beijing Cultural Institute, Federico Antonelli, supported by a video message from the Plenipotentiary Minister Filippo La Rosa, Deputy Director General of the Directorate for Public and Cultural Diplomacy.
On the same occasion, the two volumes that, thanks to the collaboration with the Beijing Publishing Group, will be translated for the first time in Italian, i.e. “Io e il Tempio” by Shi Tiesheng (史铁生：我与地坛) and “Breve introduzione sull’architettura antica cinese”, by Fu Xinian (傅熹年：中国古代建筑概说), were presented.
