hanghai International Studies University (SISU) held an academic dialogue on two literary giants, Lu Xun and Dante Alighieri, on April 26, 2018, which aims at boosting cultural understanding and exchanges between China and Italy, deepening humanistic communication.

The trans-time-and-space dialogue centered around Lu Xun (1881-1936), the “father of modern Chinese literature,” and Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the most important poet of the Middle Ages, the seminar consists of descendants of the two writers and well-known experts in Chinese and Italian literature, which is one of its features.

During meeting with the italian delegation of "Dante", SISU President Li Yansong said he hopes that this activity would be a chance to deepen exchanges and cooperation between SISU and Italian universities.

The representative of the Dante Culture Club, Antonio Sorella, expressed his gratitude on behalf of the visiting delegation and said that the visit to China was full of joy and hoped to develop the cooperative relationship with SISU.

Professor Luca MARCOZZI, an expert on Dante studies, gave a lecture themed "The Historical Status of Dante in Italian Language and Literature". He pointed out that Dante's poetry stood alone from other contemporary works, and his masterpiece Divine Comedy was the most influential work of that time. It is Dante’s poetry that classicalism derived from.

Zhou Lingfei, the grandson of Lu, briefed the seminar on behalf of the Lu Xun Cultural Foundation. He noted that Lu Xun had lived in Shanghai for 10 years, and it is Shanghai that made Lu the soul of the whole nation.

Zhao Ming, the deputy director of the publicity department of Hongkou District said that Hongkou is a district full of culture, where Lu’s former residence and tomb was located in. Zhao promised that the culture of Lu Xun will be promoted in a better way.

After the lecture, representatives of Chinese and Italian scholars had a symposium. Afterwards, SISU students majored in Italian recited some exerpets from Lu Xun and Dante’s literary works.

It is the third time that SISU had held such literary dialogues, an annual series of academic exchanges which is jointly organized by Lu Xun Cultural Foundation and SISU. Former dialogues included Japanese writer Soseki Natsume and Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.