Cina "Made in Italy" - Il giornalismo cinese in Italia

The main aim of this document has been to tell the story of how the Chinese community is integrated in the Italian society in general and, more particularly, how it gets information about local and world events.
In order to achieve this objective the author has drawn extensively on her personal research within the Chinese community in Rome. She has interviewed and established a quasi-professional rapport with important Chinese Journalists and editors of newspapers and radio stations aimed at the immigrated Chinese communities in Italy. She has also drawn on her direct experience gained during her brief visits to China. She spent sometime in Shanghai, where her brother works and lives for many years, getting a taste of local culture and society.
In the introduction she makes the reader aware of the size of Asia in general and China in particular. Initially the research seems almost impossible and fraught with difficulties and language as well as cultural barriers. But as the author begins to gain insights into the lives and realities of immigrated Chinese people in Italy, her enthusiasm and interest in the subject matter helps her overcome every difficulty. She laments the diminishing Italian interest in the phenomenal growth and importance of China as a market and as an economic power from the eighties onward while, by contrast, the Chinese people have developed a keen interest in our Country and their immigrants here have grown in number, importance and influence.
In Part I of the thesis the author deals with the general trend of people from China seeking work and success in various European Countries. The origins of these immigrants is mentioned and the causes which have made them seek work and success so far away from home is also briefly dealt with investigative interest and insight. The process of integration in an alien society with its difficulties and challenges for these immigrants is described giving the reader an overview of the life of the many Chinatowns which have sprung up in Europe in general and Italy in particular.
In Part II, in order to better understand the reality of journalism and information within these Chinatowns, the author goes back to the Country where these immigrants come from and briefly examines the information system there. She notes, that significantly, printing was first invented and used in China. Even though she detects the limits of freedom of information in present day reality in that Country, nonetheless she acknowledges the progress made in recent years and foresees a continuing progressive trend for the future.
Part III is dedicated to examining the many means of information for all minority ethnic groups in Italy. Thus the reader gains a general picture of the media used by all immigrants including newspapers, magazines, radio stations and, sometime, even TV channels.
Part IV concentrates on the means of circulating information within Chinatowns in Italy. In Particular Sino-publications in Rome are discussed and the reader learns that some of these are available both in Chinese and in Italian. Some very interesting interviews with journalists and personalities are related which help the reader gain an appreciation of their way of thinking and their ways of keeping informed and up to date with events back “home”, local and world news.
In the conclusion of the thesis the author reminisces on the stages which have led to this document the desire to know more about the Chinese people was great, but great were also the distance and the difficulties to overcome. She recalls her early perplexities and the help, encouragement and support received by her tutor and other professors. They made her aware that, although her knowledge of Chinese was only oral, she could meet and mix with Chinese people just here in Rome – in the Esquilino neighbourhood where thousands of Chinese immigrants lived and worked. That awareness opened the path of discovery she wanted to follow. This study and this experience have led Maria to the conclusion that the common fear of Chinese people and Chinese rapid growth is only due to ignorance. Getting to know Chinese people a little has made her realize that, albeit in our diversity of tastes and cultures, we are all fundamentally very similar.
The intellectual adventure has done with the aim of understanding Chinese minority integration in Italian society and ends with an implied wish that we all try to learn and understand other people and other cultures, no matter how far or how different they may appear to be.