Cultural exchanges enhance Sino-Italian friendship

According to Li Ruiyu, ambassador of China to Italy, under the mechanism, China has participated in important cultural events such as Venice Biennale and Milan Design Week. China has participated in the 55th Bologna International Children's Book Fair as the host country, organized art and relic exhibitions such as "Chinese Resonance Oil Painting Exhibition” and " Civilization of Ancient Sichuan Exhibition". Chinese original artistic works such as the opera "Red Army is not afraid of expeditions" and the dance drama "Dunhuang My Dreamland" entered the Italian local art festival and received high praise from Italian audiences.

Italy has actively participated in Shanghai International Art Festival and Beijing International Music Festival. Important projects such as "Pompeii- the Infinite Life Exhibition" successfully toured China, and Milan International Furniture Exhibition landed in Shanghai.

With the deepening of Sino-Italian cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, the demand for learning Chinese language and Chinese culture in Italy has also increased rapidly.

Since the first Confucius Institute in Italy was launched in Rome University in 2006, Italy has had 12 Confucius Institutes and nearly 40 Confucius classrooms, with more than 30,000 students registered for study. There are also more than 100 primary and secondary schools in Italy offering Chinese courses, and more than 40 universities offering Chinese majors. In 2016, the Italian government also promulgated the Chinese syllabus for Italian high schools.