Prof. Dr. Tiziana Lioi
The history of relations between the Italian Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party can certainly be considered a “contact zone” between China and the West, a theatre of relations and connections woven throughout the 20th century.
The network of men and the exchange of ideas, informations obtained from the meetings, the theoretical principles and their practical implementation as a ground for comparison and opportunity for study have not always left a trace in the official accounts and in the end-of-mission reports.
The aim is to research and analyse oral and manuscript testimonies of meetings between representatives of the two political parties during the 20th century, in order to deepen and enrich the official history of relations and human, political and scientific connections between Italy and China, which were also built through political delegations.
Starting from the official accounts of trips such as the one made from 6 to 21 April 1959 by the delegation of the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.) to the People’s Republic of China led by Giancarlo Pajetta, or from the extensive account of the journey of the delegation led by Enrico Berlinguer in 1986, recounted by Antonio Rubbi (1932), secretary of the PCI federation in Ferrara from 1968 to 1975, then deputy head and later head of the foreign section from 1979 to 1990, and recounted in Appunti Cinesi (Editori Riuniti, 1992), manuscript and never published material will be brought to light together with oral testimonies of protagonists of the relations between PCI and CCP.
The study I am about to carry out in the framework of our project China Knowledge Networks: interdisciplinary spaces for Chinese studies will then focus on the contact zone created by the political interactions that during the 21st century saw numerous and varied delegations of the Italian Communist Party in China to learn from their Chinese Communist Party comrades how to organise a communist society. At first, the reflection will focus on the protagonists of the exchange, such as Antonio Rubbi, Dino Morlacchi, Paolo Ciofi. Not sinologists, but people belonging to mainstream political currents and left-wing dissidents who have in common the desire to meet China and Maoism in its period of greatest historical prominence. A second step of the study will concern the materials produced and circulated as part of this experiment of encounter and Italian “imitation” of Chinese models. A third step will be to reflect on what these encounters have entailed at a methodological level in the construction of networks of contact and political and cultural exchange between Italy and China, with a look at the role of other countries and communist parties in the construction of relations between individuals, factions and states.
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OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Editor (6. Oktober 2021). Prof. Dr. Tiziana Lioi. Chinawissen vernetzt / Sinologia in rete / Savoirs sur la Chine en réseau. Abgerufen am 14. Juni 2025 von https://sinonet.hypotheses.org/179