BEIJING – “I must say it was really a surprise for me. I was very satisfied, I really liked it. The idea of having a chair of Italian culture, of Italy, so to speak, in which every six months there is a representative of a different branch of culture is a very beautiful thing. Because a scientist, a politician, a historian, a literature professor will come: every six months they will talk to whoever in China is most interested in that specific subject. It’s a good cultural relationship.” Romano Prodi repeats several times, intercepted by Republic just before lectio magistralis of the president Sergio Mattarella at Peking University: “It was a surprise and I’m happy.” The former prime minister will in fact be the first holder of the Agnelli chair inaugurated today in Beida: a bridge with China to talk about Italy and encourage dialogue between the two countries.
“There is a great desire for Italy here in China. It’s a great opportunity,” he says. John Elkannpresident of the Agnelli Foundation, shortly before Mattarella’s lectio. “It is the first to be born in this country on the initiative of a European non-profit institution, it is a bridge that we built to stimulate mutual understanding and peaceful collaboration between our countries: it will proudly tell China the best of Italian culture, from yesterday and today and, at the same time, will reinforce dialogue with the Chinese world in all its aspects. A particularly important objective in phases of uncertainty and global tensions like the current one.”
The Agnelli Chair in Italian Culture, conceived and promoted by the Agnelli Foundation in collaboration with the TOChina Hub at the University of Turin, will be managed by the China-Europe Philanthropy Innovation Research Center (Cepirc) at Peking University, among the first in the world. It will be operational from spring next year and aims to bring Italian culture in all its aspects closer to Beida’s students and teachers. It will work on a rotating basis: in each of the two academic semesters, a commission made up of Peking University, the Agnelli Foundation and the University of Turin will designate a leader, chosen from among professors and experts who know how to convey a vision of historical culture and the Italian language contemporary, analyzing the main determinants in fields ranging from humanistic and artistic disciplines to natural, social and applied sciences. Each professor, who will reside in Beijing, will also be an ambassador of Italian culture in China, establishing contacts with Chinese academic communities in their discipline, dialoguing with students to stimulate their interest in Italy. Furthermore, the presidency aims to establish and create permanent opportunities for two-way dialogue between China and Italy, deepening mutual understanding. The chair will be located at Cepirc, which is an autonomous structure of the University dedicated to the development of cultural links with Europe and which was born from the years-long work of the Italy-China Philanthropic Forum, led by prof. Romano Prodi and prof. Giovanni Andornino from the University of Turin.
“The presence here today of the President of the Republic is the best gesture of support we could hope to receive”, stated John Elkann during his inauguration speech. “The chair will embrace all expressions of Italian creativity, in all eras: the wonders of past centuries, which made my country known throughout the world, as well as the most advanced and modern facets, sometimes less known, but very relevant , which together form the identity of contemporary Italian culture. Humanistic disciplines, social, natural and applied sciences, ranging from diverse subjects such as cinema, particle physics, industrial design, sport and much more”.
For Elkann, the most important spirit of this chair is that it is a bridge “to encourage dialogue between two countries and through this aims to unite two worlds, two cultures, in a spirit of mutual collaboration. Italy and China share a deep relationship that goes back centuries. Both drew and received countless inspirations from each other. They benefited from continuous exchanges of ideas and experiences, each maintaining its distinctive features. The chair that the Agnelli Foundation establishes today here in Beijing aims to honor and continue this ancient relationship, encouraging harmonious collaboration.”
The one inaugurated today in Beijing is the Agnelli Foundation’s fifth chair in the world and in Italy. “In Italy, for example, the Agnelli Foundation created a chair at Bocconi University, in Milan, in 2013, in honor of my grandfather, the lawyer Agnelli. We recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of another academic program that is close to our hearts, the degree in Automotive Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin, my city. Other Agnelli chairs were established in the United Kingdom, at the University of Oxford, on Italian literature, and at Johns Hopkins, in the United States, on international relations: the latter, created in conjunction with Henry Kissingera friend of my family and from China with whom he started building a bridge”, continues Elkann.
“Our motivation for initiating and developing these programs lies in our strong belief and passion for education. In this spirit, my family’s philanthropic activity, the Agnelli Foundation, has focused its activities on education, from kindergarten to higher education”, says Elkann again.
He concludes by quoting a Latin saying “Docendo discimus (Teaching, we learn), which has a perfect correspondence in ancient Chinese literature, in Chinese: jiao xue xiang zhang. I think it sums up the spirit of the initiative we launched today.”
