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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