1541 China-Italy symposium on education
austraLasia 1541

Zhejiang Uni, Hangzhou: China-Italy symposium on education

HANGZHOU (PRC): 27th April 2006 --  In what amounted to a significant meeting of great minds, one of the People's Republic of China's top ten universities hosted a symposium on education last week, drawing on Chinese and European educationalists and their experience in a variety of fields: education, communication, sociology - but holding it together in a very real sense was the educational tradition of one John Bosco, of Valdocco, Turin.
    The symposium was seen as part of the interchange between the Chinese academic world and the rest of the world.  Its significance lay in the meeting of two worlds, something that had not escaped even John Bosco who, speaking of China and his vision of world expansion, at one point compared the great to-do involved with running affairs in tiny Valdocco with the challenge to be faced in China 'where there were 500 million people' [sic] (Barberis, Cronichetta, 20 May 1875).
    From the Chinese side, with its impeccable organisation and warm welcome, there were Professor Xu Ziaozhou, Deputy Dean of the College of Education, Zhejiang University, but also representative professors from Tsinghua University (Beijing), Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University (Shanghai), Zhejiang Normal University.  There was also a Professor from Chengking University of Tainan (Taiwan).
    From Europe, Professor Robert Giannatelli, former President of Salesian University, Director of Development Office, President of MED (Italian Association for education to Media and Communication), Professor Guglielmo Malizia, Deputy Dean, Department of Education, Head of Sociology of the Education Institute, Salesian University, Professor Carlo Nanni, Vice President, Professor Pier Cesare Rivoltella, Director of the Masters Degree in Communication and Education, Catholic University of Milan, Professor Carlo Socol, Professor of Church History, Holy Spirit College of Hong Kong, Professor Jacques Schepens, Faculty of Theology Benediktbeuern (Germany), a visiting professor at Salesian University Rome.  There were others of the same ilk.
    Topics covered included Media education and China - what can educational technologists do?  Empirical study of problems of social education in Taiwan; Community education in China.  Participants heard of the history of Christian education in China and also of the history of the Valdocco Oratory and its contribution now in one hundred years of activity in China.

    The symposium highlighted the value of people who can both think globally and act locally.  The Salesian University in Rome has awarded a scholarship to a student from Zhejiang University to write a dissertation in Rome for one year under the direction of Prof. Malizia. The HK Don Bosco Charitable Foundation (represented by its president Mr John Wong) pledged some scholarships for deserving students of the College of Education.
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