On Dec. 14, RUC Vice President DU Peng met with visiting Italy’s Naples Eastern University Rector Prof.ssa Elda Morlicchio and delegation. Paola Paderni, Associate Professor of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean at Naples Eastern University accompanied the visit.
RUC VP DU Peng first welcomed Rector Prof.ssa Elda Morlicchio. He noted that since 1985, as a visiting scholar, HUANG Weiping, a professor of economics at Renmin University of China, had established cooperation between the two universities. Since the two universities signed the cooperation agreement in 1997, teacher and student exchange had been on-going. So far, the cooperation between RUC and Naples Eastern University has been successful, especially in European research. At the same time, upon the request of the Ministry of Education, Renmin University of China will hold "China Day" activities with Naples Oriental University and other Italian universities in Italy in October 2018, hoping to receive the strong support of Rector Prof.ssa Elda. Hopefully, through "China Day" activities on contemporary China teachers and students can grow to have a better understanding of China.
Elda introduced the history of the Naples Eastern University, under which the School for Chinese Studies was formerly founded by Italian missionary, and pointed out that Naples Eastern University is one of the oldest universities in Europe to study Chinese language and culture. Elda expressed her appreciation for the short-term summer courses at RUC. She said that every year Naples Eastern University will select two students to participate in the short-term course, and the students have achieved great success. At the same time, Elda said that 2018 will mark the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. He hoped that the two universities would take this as an opportunity to further cooperation in academic exchange, both exchange of scholars and exchange of teachers.
RUC International Deputy Director CHENG Xin and School of Economics Professor HUANG Weiping attended the visit.
Naples Eastern University was established in 1732, and the School of Chinese Studies was built by former Italian missionary Matteo Ripa, which is the oldest European school for researching Chinese language and Eastern Languages and Cultures. There is a long history of research into African, European, American, and Asian languages and culture. Naples Eastern University didn’t offer disciplines such as humanities and social sciences, or literature, languages and comparative studies for Africa, Asia, or the Mediterranean. After building the Eastern University, they started to create new course disciplines that included languages, culture, comparative studies, and started establishing partnerships with universities around the world, to provide students with the best learning and research platform for world languages and culture.
