Renata Vinci | Università degli Studi di Palermo (original) (raw)

Book chapters by Renata Vinci

Italian Association for Chinese Studies. Selected Papers 4, 2022

In the early stage of the introduction of foreign fiction to Chinese readers, newspapers and maga... more In the early stage of the introduction of foreign fiction to Chinese readers, newspapers and magazines played a pioneering role in the development of the discourse on the social role of fiction in modern Chinese society. This is particularly true for Shanghai newspaper Shenbao, which introduced a large number of Western novels, trying to fuel readers’ curiosity while avoiding any possible discomfort caused by foreignising or destabilising content.
As a privileged type of paratext and the first element with whom readers came into contact, titles and their translations were key elements for promoting the new literary section and increasing daily sales. By adopting the theoretical framework of titrologie (titology) – the study of book titles – and of its resulting branch of translation studies, this article analyses the most common strategies adopted in titles translation by Shenbao editors through the analysis of a selection of early novels and short stories translated in the Chinese press. Marketing and aesthetic purposes, the phenomenon of intertexuality, and readers’ literary taste that influenced such choices will also be explored.
The purpose of this study is not to apply a Western theoretical approach to describe the Shenbao initiative, but rather to show how editors’ choices were the result of a precise cultural, commercial and social strategy. The long-term effects of such an approach resulted in the rise of a new sensibility toward the genre of xiaoshuo.

Exchanges and Parallels between Italy and East Asia (ed. Gaoheng Zhang, Mario Mignone), 2020

Yu Hua, Lezioni milanesi. Letteratura, cultura, civiltà (a cura di Silvia Pozzi), 2019

Marina Miranda (ed.), Dal Medio all’Estremo Oriente. Studi del Dottorato di Ricerca in ‘Civiltà dell’Asia e dell’Africa, 2018

During the late Qing dynasty, a profound social and cultural transformation was promoted in China... more During the late Qing dynasty, a profound social and cultural transformation was promoted in China by an élite group of intellectuals, inspired by the works of foreign thinkers and scholars. In this context, the contribution of the Protestant Gilbert Reid (1857-1927) – and his Mission among the Higher Classes in China, which later become the International Institute of Shanghai – went far beyond mere proselytism, promoting the intercultural dialogue as a basis for China’s progress. Such an innovative enterprise, accomplished through an original exploitation of the catalyst power of the newborn Chinese press, deserves a closer look. To do so, this paper focuses on Reid’s series of lectures to the cosmopolitan Shanghainese commu- nity, dedicated to relevant aspects of the Sino-Western encounter, and points out his symbolic selection of topics and biographies, aimed at showing the longevity and benefit of amicable Sino-Western relations, a crucial concept to his mission to China.

Paolo Santangelo (ed.), Ming Qing Studies 2013, 2013

Chinese traditional culture is full of ancient travellers’ accounts and geographical treatises: C... more Chinese traditional culture is full of ancient travellers’ accounts and geographical treatises: Chinese merchants and diplomats reached Western countries reporting their experiences, while Christian missionaries wished to describe their words to Chinese people. In this literary context, I conducted a strict research focused on the descriptions of Sicily circulating in China from the first descriptions up to the Qing period.
The first description is also the first description ever found of an Italian region appeared in the Middle Kingdom. It was written by the Inspector of Foreign Sea-Trade of Fujian Zhao Rugua in his pilot’s book, the Zhufan zhi (1225).
Since then a considerable number of accounts has been produced. First of all the Uighur Nestorian Christian monk Rabban Sauma, who undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and became ambassador of the Patriarch to Europe, crossing the Strait of Messina and writing about the Etna eruption in 1287.
After his journey the following descriptions are excerpted from the Western Jesuits and Protestants missionaries’ geographical treatises and maps: Ricci, Aleni, Verbiest, Gützlaff, Muirhead, all wrote about Sicily, inspiring the XIXth century Chinese geographical encyclopaedias compilers. Their words are actually quoted or resumed among the sources of Wei Yuan and Xu Jiyu’s works.
Afterwards, with the end of the Opium War and the stipulation of the Unequal Treaties, China was forced to send diplomatic missions abroad. Among the great series of diplomatic and commercial envoys to the West, descriptions of Sicily can be found into the following travellers’ account: Binchun’s Chengcha biji, Zhang Deyi’s Hanghai shuqi and Suishi Faguo ji, Wang Tao’s Manyou suilu, Hong Xun’s Youli Yidali wenjian lu.
The continuously growing availability of information about the West developed the interest of some more open-minded scholars who started accepting the cultural and political influence of the West. My study shows how Sicily appears in some of the works of the two important innovators Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. In particular, Liang Qichao, took Sicily and the Sicilian people’s contribution to the Italian unification process as a model and source of inspiration for Chinese people to obtain independence from the foreign oppression.
All the mentioned writers conveyed us information and opinions of Chinese minds and Western minds close to the Chinese thought not only about Sicily and its people. In fact, since Sicily has been a land often contended by different countries, all this writers also describes the government, the attitude and the gestures of Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Swabians, Spanish, French, Austrians, and finally Italians.
The growing of the quantity and quality of information about Sicily circulating in China and the changing in the opinion about the Sicilian people represents a slow crescendo in the interest to the Occident and the reasons of it probably lay in the same traditional conception of the world in the Chinese society which needed some centuries to accept the conception that in the world not only existed one “Middle Kingdom” but any country could be the centre of a flourishing culture.

Published Papers by Renata Vinci

Sulla Via del Catai (Giovani virtuosi e dove trovarli: Percorsi formativi e rappresentazioni dell’età giovanile nella tradizione pedagogica e letteraria cinese), Nov 2021

That images could support texts to reach all sorts of readers, including children, was a key topi... more That images could support texts to reach all sorts of readers, including children, was a key topic of Chinese public discourse in the modern press. In 1897 Liang Qichao also emphasized how entertaining pedagogical methods (such as songs and games) were essential to the reform of the Chinese education system and development of a modern nation. Presenting some early Chinese children’s magazines, this paper illustrates how they combined modern printing techniques and expressive modes to perform theories and practices on education circulating in China at the turn of the century

InVerbis Lingue Letterature Culture (anno XII, n. 1) Studiosi italiani e cinesi in dialogo tra lingua, letteratura e viaggi, 2022

Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, several Italian early sinologi... more Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, several Italian early sinologists and translators contributed to introduce numerous works of Chinese literature to the Italian readers. Among them, the Neapol- itan polyglot Giuseppe Barone (1861-1924) was a prolific author and trans- lator, not just in Italian, but also in French, Spanish, Latin and Greek. As a matter of fact, his Chinese-related production amounts to more than 30 writings, including essays and short studies on Chinese culture, economy and society, as well as translations of poems, plays and short stories. However, an exhaustive investigation on his contribution to the early translations of Chinese literature in Italy and a systematic index of his original writings and translations are still missing.
By carrying out a thorough bibliographical investigation in the main Italian libraries and archives, this study is a first effort toward the rediscovery and re-evaluation of the work of Giuseppe Barone, and aims at providing some details on his translation process and sources, with a particular focus on fic- tion and short stories. In doing so, it also shows to what extent Barone’s trans- lations interlaced with the works of other European sinologists and transla- tors of his time.

Rivista degli Studi Orientali, 2020

During the late Qing, a thriving transcultural interaction across China and the West determined a... more During the late Qing, a thriving transcultural interaction across China and the West determined a burgeoning cultural environment in which new forms of appreciation and critique contributed to the development of a new sense of literary modernity and new ways of conceiving and classifying literature (wen) distant from the “canon”.
From the mid of XX century, in Chinese newspapers and magazines literature and leisure reading became a regular section. Shenbao was also one of the first papers which recognized the attractive power of literature and of the so called duanpian xiaoshuo 短篇小說 (Chen 2009, p. 117). In those years, Shenbao introduced new contents and form of reception that were already familiar to the Western audience but still unknown in China, which included serialized long novels, short stories and a prolific translation of Western fiction, acting as an incubator for a new sense of awareness toward literary innovations (Vance Yeh 2015, 175-6). As early as 1872, it had already published the first three short stories ever translated into Chinese: Tan ying xiaolu 談瀛小錄 (A Voyage to Lilliput from Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels), Yi shui qishi nian 一睡七十年 (Rip Wan Winkle from Irving’s The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon), and Naisuguo qiwen 乃蘇國奇聞 (Story of the Greek Slave from Marryat’s The Pacha of Many Tales) (Hanan 2005).
Moreover, the first catalogue of literary works mentioning duanpian xiaoshuo was Shenbao Publishing House’s Shenbaoguan congshu 申報館叢書 (Collectanea of Shenbaoguan publication), which was published between 1860s and 1900 and included 203 books in 2,986 juan. Among those dedicated to fiction, there was the first formal distinction between short stories or novelettes and full length novels (Vance Yeh 2015, p. 199-200).
Later, as a fiction genre, duanian xiaoshuo has been mentioned and described in several Chinese scholars and intellectuals’ theoretical works as one of the main branches of Chinese fiction. Among them we have Liang Qichao, Lu Xun and Hu Shi. Undoubtedly, in their words this literary genre was inherited from the ancient literary tradition of popular tales and short stories, but at the beginning of the 20th century the strong influence exerted by the newly introduced Western fiction, popularized by the means of the modern press, propagated new forms and methods of literary reception.
As a new form of reading, enjoying literature and absorbing his moral messages, duanpian xiaoshuo contributed to shape a modern literary taste. Although at a more superficial sight, duanian xiaoshuo’s main features might be measured based on its length only, this article will try to demonstrate how it actually came out with a plurality of features formulated thanks to the contribution of the most outstanding intellectuals of that time.
As for now, no study has focused on the emergence of the genre of duanpian xiaoshuo at the beginning of the 20th century, neither on its theorization, popularization and effects on the Chinese readership. Therefore, this paper will attempt to illustrate how, through the influence of western literature, the innovative initiative of the local printing industry and the original contribution provided by the perspective of Chinese literary theory, duanpian xiaoshuo affirmed as a new popular literary genre shaping from the mix of local tradition and foreign novelties.

Costellazioni. Rivista di lingue e letterature, 13, 2020

The Promotion of Italian Language and Culture in Pre-1949 China Until recently scholars who have... more The Promotion of Italian Language and Culture in Pre-1949 China
Until recently scholars who have examined the diffusion of the Italian language in China have focussed on the People’s Republic of China. However, we have proof of early teaching and cultural activities by Italian schools in China since the late 19th century.
Most of them though were run by Catholic missions receiving financial support from the Italian government and initially they did not include language teaching, due to the locals’ lack of interest. The reason for this was to be found in the weak diplomatic, political and economic role played – particularly when compared with other foreign powers. This was clear to Italian diplomats – yet a real breakthrough for the popularization of Italian schools and cultural associations occurred only as a consequence of the bold propaganda of the Fascist government from the 1930s onwards.
The paper, mostly based on official written evidence from the diplomatic archive of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also exhibits some rare grammars and manuals produced in China at the beginning of the 20th century.

Contact Zones in China. Multidisciplinary Perspectives (ed. Merle Schatz, Laura De Giorgi and Peter Ludes), 2020

Through the analysis of the portrait of Italy in late Imperial Chinese press, this paper intends ... more Through the analysis of the portrait of Italy in late Imperial Chinese press, this paper intends to adopts “a more reflective use of the contact zone as a thinking device”, as malleable conceptual space that allows to analyze the interaction between the two countries in a precarious historical moment, and to explore the scale of power undergoing such dynamics. In order to do so, three aspects of the Sino-Italian encounter and national representation will be explored:
Balance of power. At the beginning of the 90’s Marie Louise Pratt’s studies on the asymmetrical encounter among different sociocultural entities resulted in the spatial idea of “contact zone”. Although, Since historians agreed on the term “semi-colony” to define the status of late Imperial China in relation to the foreign powers trying to submit it to their demands without a real imperialistic supremacy, this compels us to move away from the perspective of conquerors and conquered, as Pratt also clarifies in her later works.
Voices of representation and self-representation. In this historical phase, compared to other foreign countries Italy appeared as a weak competitor in the eyes of Chinese governors, an idea of weakness built on a series of diplomatic impasses, but also consequence of the strong influence of the foreign voices and media which represented the main source of information for the young local papers, orienting and influencing the opinion of the well-educated Chinese class in the Treaty Ports. From this perspective, this paper will investigate the Italian self-portrait attempts and attest whether Italy was able to speak with the words of the Chinese to build its own image into China.
Space of encounter and representation. Being a contact zone, by definition, a “space” that allows the coexistence of “peoples geographically and historically separated”, is it possible to establish the borders of the Sino-Italian contact zone in late Qing China? Being the Italian community one of the smallest and most scattered group of foreign expats in late Imperial China, contacts mostly happened according to non-tangible arrangements, and therefore in a non-physical space. We can therefore talk about a spontaneous, unintended “media contact zone”.

SULLA VIA DEL CATAI, 20, 2019

The Shanghai weekly magazine Ouzhan shibao was the longest-running and most suc- cessful Chinese ... more The Shanghai weekly magazine Ouzhan shibao was the longest-running and most suc- cessful Chinese war magazine reporting the latest circumstances of First World War. Its rich rep- ertoire of war reports and battlefield photographs provided the Chinese readership with vivid and exhaustive accounts, but being a French ruled magazine it did not conceal its bias toward the Allied powers and against Germany. In this per- spective, Chinese interests were discussed as part of a global strategy, but never defended per se, as demonstrated by the positive depiction of Japan, an Allied country but still a fierce antagonist of Chinese sovereignty.

Sulla via del Catai. Libri in Viaggio: La letteratura italiana in Cina nel XX secolo, 2017

Grazia Deledda’s literary work has been introduced by the early 20th century Chinese translators ... more Grazia Deledda’s literary work has been introduced by the early 20th century Chinese translators mostly through indirect translations. Such process compromised sometimes the integrity of the original linguistic choices, but the selection of contributions from the Chinese periodical press included in this study shows a genuine enthusiasm toward her narrative style and the life of Deledda’s Sardinian characters, portrayed as symbolic representation of the universal human psychology.

Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, 2016

In 1872 the Shanghai-based newspaper Shenbao described an invention by Giovanni Caselli that allo... more In 1872 the Shanghai-based newspaper Shenbao described an invention by Giovanni Caselli that allowed the production of telegraphic messages containing Chinese characters, the ‘pantelegraph’, an ancestor of the fax, reproducing manu- scripts, images and symbols, and, as such, totally suitable for Chinese telegraphy. In 1863, the Italian inventor had shown his invention to a legation of Chinese diplomats in France, producing some impressive Chinese transmissions, the caselligrammi. The envoys reported this information back home, but for some reasons a commercial contact was only set twenty years later. Although in many ways this seemed to be a perfectly suitable solution for the telegraphic communication in Chinese, it was never applied in China and the reasons are revealed by a recently discovered account of the Italian Minister Plenipotentiary in China at that time, Ferdinando De Luca, which Caselli himself had copied and saved. The aim of this article is to explore a moment of Chinese and western media history that, to this day, remains relatively unknown. It will discuss an original example of western communication technology and the attempts that were made to lead for its application in China, revealing its strong points and the reasons that ultimately led to its failure.

International Communication of Chinese Culture, 2015

This paper introduces which was the public sentiment and opinion of the Chinese journalists of th... more This paper introduces which was the public sentiment and opinion of the Chinese journalists of the Shenbao in a very relevant period of the history of the relations between Italy and China. We know that China had had a very high opinion of Italy thanks to the magnificent portrait of ancient Italian society, art and culture made by the Jesuit missionaries. But in the selected historical moment, there was a strong change in the way Chinese people felt about the Italian presence in China. Apart from some previous failures of the Italian diplomatic action in China, the Sanmen Bay affairs represents the climax of the inability of Italian diplomacy, so that Chinese people were clearly aware of this difference as demonstrated by the pages of the Shenbao.
The debate about the Sanmen Bay affair on the Shenbao can be located between the 9th of March of 1899 and the 24th of March of 1900, dates of the first and last article on this topic within the selected period of investigation, which goes from 1872 to 1900.
The contrastive reconstruction of the public opinion about the Italian conduct shows how delicate could be the sentiment of a population toward a foreign country and how it is easy to compromise a traditional image built after centuries of cultural interaction. At the same time, the power of press contributed even more quickly to spread the words of the opinion of small group of people to a wider audience and the entire country.

Conference proceedings by Renata Vinci

Associazione Italiana di Studi Cinesi. Atti del XVI convegno 2017, 2019

Atti del XVI convegno 2017 a cura di Elisa Giunipero e Chiara Piccinini Atti del XVI convegno 201... more Atti del XVI convegno 2017 a cura di Elisa Giunipero e Chiara Piccinini Atti del XVI convegno 2017 978-88-7543-470-0 Associazione Italiana di Studi Cinesi a cura di: Elisa Giunipero e Chiara Piccinini

Italy and China, Europe and East Asia: Centuries of Dialogue, Proceedings of the International and Interdisciplinary Conference held at the Department of Italian Studies, University of Toronto (April 7-9, 2016), 2017

The interaction between China and Europe during the late Qing period was ac- companied by a prosp... more The interaction between China and Europe during the late Qing period was ac- companied by a prosperous cross-cultural exchange. One of the most outstanding results of such contact was the formation of a modern Chinese press from the combination of Western journalism and Chinese gazettes. The Shenbao was one of the most representative newspapers of this cultural phenomenon. For nearly forty years of the Imperial period, Italy appeared in over two thousand articles, with a significant selection focused on Italian cultural production and historic tradition. This article aims to propose a multifaceted portrait of Italian cultural heritage of- fered to Chinese readership by the Shenbao. Topics of interest were art and archae- ology, literature, language and teaching system. The article illustrates the dynamics that contributed to the construction of a collective imaginary of Italian culture and the phenomena that influenced and transformed the vision of Italy’s culture during different moments of the Sino-Italian relations.

Books by Renata Vinci

Giovani virtuosi e dove trovarli: Percorsi formativi e rappresentazioni dell’età giovanile nella tradizione pedagogica e letteraria cinese (Sulla via del Catai), 2022

Infanzia ed educazione sono tematiche in cui è presente una forte dicotomia: hanno per natura una... more Infanzia ed educazione sono tematiche in cui è presente una forte dicotomia: hanno per natura una componente universale, in quanto presenti nell’organizzazione sociale fin dai tempi più antichi, ma allo stesso tempo sono fortemente caratterizzate e influenzate dall’ambiente culturale in cui si evolvono
In Cina, testi classici e pratiche sociali sono solo due degli elementi che hanno contribuito a modellare il carattere originale del bambino, la cui formazione, nel corso della storia del pensiero cinese, fu influenzata dalle grandi dottrine – buddhismo, daoismo e confucianesimo – e successivamente dall’incontro con l’Occidente.
Attraverso un variegato corpus di fonti primarie – trattati filosofico-pedagogici, opere storiche, testi didattici, stampa periodica ed esempi di arti visive –, questo volume multidisciplinare propone di osservare come sono cambiate le rappresentazioni dell’infanzia e le pratiche dell’istruzione nel corso dei secoli, quali precetti e consuetudini sopravvissero all’alternarsi delle dinastie e quali invece furono messi in discussione, con uno sguardo rivolto al contributo delle dottrine esogene al sistema pedagogico della Cina tardo imperiale e dei primi anni della Repubblica.

InVerbis Lingue Letterature Culture (12, 1), 2022

Studiosi italiani e cinesi in dialogo tra lingua, letteratura e viaggi Introduzione di Giuseppe... more Studiosi italiani e cinesi in dialogo tra lingua, letteratura e viaggi
Introduzione di Giuseppe Paternostro, Vincenzo Pinello e Renata Vinci
– Politica e pianificazione linguistica (PPL) nella Repubblica Popolare Cinese, fra interventi sulle lingue e (auto/etero) rappresentazione. Note a margine di una traduzione di Mari D'Agostino e Cui Weiwei
– La pianificazione linguistica cinese nel primo ventennio del XXI secolo di Li Yuming
– Prospettive dell'insegnamento dell'italiano nelle università cinesi nel contesto della riforma delle discipline umanistiche di Yang Lin e Cui Weiwei
– Lingue e identità: uno studio basato sui migranti cinesi a Palermo di Giuseppe Rizzuto – La questione del testo letterario negli apprendenti cinesi: regola, creatività, grammatica di Vincenzo Pinello
– La scrittura in italiano LS in apprendenti sinofoni: tra testualità e retorica di Ni Yang e Giuseppe Paternostro
– La recezione della tradizione giuridica romanistica in Cina: il diritto romano negli scritti dei letterati di epoca tardo Qing di Lara Colangelo
– Le espressioni culturo-speci che nella traduzione del Liaozhai zhiyi di Ludovico Di Giura (1868-1947): un'analisi di due racconti di Chen Ying
– La narrativa cinese in Italia a cavallo tra ne Ottocento e inizio Novecento: il contributo di Giuseppe Barone (1861-1924) di Renata Vinci
– L'immagine della Cina di Franco Fortini: intellettuale e viaggiatore "allegorista"
– Antonietta Raphaël in Cina di Raffaella De Pasquale

La Sicilia in Cina. Una raccolta di testi cinesi sull’isola (1225-1911), 2019

1. Voci e sguardi sul vulcano: le prime descrizioni dell'isola 23 2. La rivoluzione geografica de... more 1. Voci e sguardi sul vulcano: le prime descrizioni dell'isola 23 2. La rivoluzione geografica dei missionari gesuiti 51 3. La nuova visione protestante e l'eredità dei gesuiti 97 4. Messi cinesi a largo delle coste siciliane 139 5. Intellettuali in viaggio e suggestioni risorgimentali 171 Riflessioni al rientro dal viaggio 197 Bibliografia 201 Indice analitico dei nomi e degli argomenti 219 INDICE -9 -