November 5th, 2015 – The exchanges between Italian and Chinese universities are becoming more and more intense, as the collaboration between the Arezzo Department of the University of Siena and the Republic of China is consolidating. This thanks to a new academic cooperation agreement signed in the city of Jinhua by Professor Loretta Fabbri, director of the Department of Education, Humanities and Intercultural Communication, the president of the Bachelor Program in Languages for Companies, Roberto Venuti, and the vice dean of Zhejiang Normal University, Zhang Genfu. The director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Shanghai Alberto Manai was also present at the signing ceremony, representing the Consulate General. The agreement provides for cooperation in research, training and dissemination of culture. The initiative is part of a network that includes the ’Associazione di interscambio culturale italo-cinese, the international NGO COSPE and the Italian primary and secondary schools operating in areas with a high presence of students of Chinese origin. The agreement relies on the support of Ban Qiao (Department of Overseas Chinese) and the Tuscany Region. “Among the objectives of the agreement – said Professor Fabbri – there is that of becoming a center for research and cross-cultural intervention that allows researchers, school administrators and teachers, as well as businesses and associations to work together and optimize relations of exchange and dialogue between the two cultures. In Tuscany, there is a lively Chinese community that is inserted in the productive system and in the schooling system, thus bringing in new educational and linguistic requirements that we should respect so as to allow them to full participate in society.” (Red)
