(12 April 2017) Emilio Salierno is the president of the Italy China Friendship Association. He recently published a book titled “Io sono l’elemento di mezzo” (I am the Middle Element) on the intercultural mediator, Yan Wang, published by Rubbettino. It will be showcased at the major cultural events in Beijing thanks to an international delegation of the International Chamber of Sisters of Matera (ICS) headed by Fernand Chiarelli in Asia for a series of encounters with local associations and local businesses. Salierno traces Yan Wang’s effort in the dent in the new ‘Silk Road’ through the activities of the association that works towards maintaining a dialogue between the East and the West. Salierno’s work is a strong reminder for the necessity of building new bridge between the East and the West; launched from Matera – a UNESCO World Heritage Site as “city of peace” and 2019 European Capital of Culture. “It is a fascinating natural site with also a rich human history with a cosmic balance that cannot escape the sensibility of Wang who bases herself on Taoist principles” writes Salierno. Wang is ranked among one of the most influential Chinese women in both Italy and China. In Basilicata Wang rediscovers ancestral rituals and encounters peculiar characters that bring her to highly spiritual places. Wang discovers the story of the Basilicata Marco Polo, the medical colonel of the Navy, Ludovico Nicola di Giura who lived between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century; among the few Westerners to be allowed in the Forbidden City, and personal doctor to Cixi- the concubine of Emperor Xianfeng. (PO/red)
