In the shadow of Marco Polo: writing about China in fascist Italy

Abstract

This paper explores the writings on contemporary China in the 1920s and 1930s of Italian scholars, journalists and travellers. The turning point in Italian interest in Chinese events was represented by Italy's participation in the Boxer Rebellion, narrated in Italy by Luigi Barzini. As of the late 1920s, attention was refocused on China, propelled by interest in Chinese nationalism and its state-building process and the new Fascist foreign policy approach to Asia. Books by fascist journalists and propagandists as well as essays written by several scholars and diplomats and published under the auspices of government scientific institutions all testify to the double effort to understand Chinese politics and culture on new terms and to imagine a more important role for Italy in China as a result of her alleged special historical relationship with the ‘Orient’. However, this effort to promote a better knowledge of China was subordinated to contingent interests and choices and reflected the inconsistency of Fascist Italy's policy towards Asia. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the complex interplay of political and cultural factors behind the writings concerned with Italian and Chinese relations during those decades.