Whither China – In which Direction is China Developing?
Abstract:
The title Whither China – “What is happening in China?” – is as old as the very first European scholars and observers of China. Their question is still valid today: How stable is China’s economy, what does China’s rise as a major power implicate for the rest of the world, what are the attitudes among Chinese people to China’s internal and external challenges, which challenges are seen as important and which are not? Italian Sinologist Francesco Sisci has lived and worked in China since 1988 and studied China’s development from many different perspectives. In his lecture Mr Sisci will offer his reply to the question Whither China?
About the speaker:
Mr. Francesco Sisci is an Italian sinologist, author and columnist who lives and works in Beijing. Sisci graduated at the University of Venice where he specialised in Chinese language. Subsequently he studied at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. In 1988, Sisci was the first foreigner ever admitted to the Graduate School of China’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). At CASS, his work in Chinese Classical Philology and Philosophy led to a thesis on "Rationalization of Thought and Political Discourse in Early Mohism" A journalist, from 1994-2000, Sisci contributed to ANSA, Asia Times, Il sole 24Ore and Corriere della Sera, for which outlets he conducted exclusive interviews with Chinese top leaders. Since 1999, Sisci has been a Senior Consultant for the Italian Ministry of Environment in China. He designed the framework and established the network of local contacts for the Italian-Sino Environmental Cooperation. From 2000-2003, Sisci wrote for Singapore’s Straits Times, and La Stampa. From 2003-2005, he was the Chiara Fama Director of the Italian institute of Culture in China. Since 2004, Sisci has coordinated the exchange program between the Central Party School and Italy. The program was the first one that the Party School started overseas and it remains by far the largest program run by China’s top ideological institution. In 2006, Sisci was awarded an honorary Professorship by CASS in Classical Chinese Studies. From 2005-2010, he was Asia Editor for La Stampa, and from 2010 to 2013, he was a regular commentator for Il Sole 24ore. Francesco Sisci is also a Senior Research Associate at Renmin University of China in Beijing.
Sisci is the author of nine books on Modern China, analysing topics such as China's reforms, Chinese organized crime, the structural changes in China and their global impact, food, sex, women, money, family, and changes in Chinese Society, the West’s fear of China, the recent history of contact between the Vatican and China and on Tibet and China.
This lecture is free of charge. Please sign up using the link below. Last day for registration is October 4th 2016.