Where are you from and why China tempted you?
I’m from the sunny and beautiful Italy. As much as I love my country, I have to admit that the last few years have been quite challenging for young people looking for jobs, so I decided to study Chinese, travel around China and work in Shanghai. I hope one day I will be able to use this experience in Italy.
How did you start your China adventure and how was it developing? Did you begin in Shanghai or have you lived in other cities as well? If yes, how was it and why did you decide to come here?
I started traveling to China when I was a student: I was studying Chinese so I decided it was essential to explore this country and learn more about the culture. My first trip to China was in 2006 and it was terrible , but I gave it another try and another one and found out it was interesting and fun. A week after my graduation I received a job offer from a small school to teach Italian in Ningbo. Not a great city, not a great job, definitely not a great experience. I was about to let the China dream go but I met a special person who convinced me to stay and try again, and look for better things. It is impressive how much things can change in just a few months. It is even more impressive how different can be your feelings about a country if you have a nice job or a good friend there for you. So we moved to Shanghai together and we started again: looking for new jobs, new house, new friends: this time, things went much better.
What were your first impressions, first thoughts during your first week in China?
Except for my negative job experience, I met lovely people, this was very important at the beginning of my long stay in China. Before that, during my very first trip to China, I remember discovering amazing kind of fruits never seen before, strong and annoying humidity and, of course, people staring a at foreigners.
What does an Italian girl living in China miss from her country and how can she deal with it?
Sun and blue sky. But I have to admit that in Shanghai the weather is not so bad as in other places in China. Fall is very nice and to deal with hot, wet summer I try to go back to Italy.
What will be the memory or adventure that happened to you here, that you remember most clearly or that you will never forget?
A 17 hour - journey on a dirty, old, broken train. I booked it by mistake with a friend during our first stay in China. We expected a decent train, but we just booked the wrong one. I remember feeling really bad and tired and not being able to speak a single word. I remember the old lady in front of us offering her food to us all the time, spitting on the floor and inviting us to play cards with her family. I think we played in the end, but for sure we had no idea what we were doing.
As an Italian, do you prefer Chinese noodles or your country’s pasta?
Ahah! You know this one already!
What has been the biggest obstacle for you here and how did you manage to overcome it?
I think the biggest obstacle I still find difficult to overcome is the way people behave in social circumstances. Chinese people have a very different way to handle relationships, from friendship to neighborhs to work relations. They have a different etiquette and different habits they show in social context. It is hard to understand and to explain and I think it’s something I would experience in every foreign Country but I find chinese way to be particularly hermetic.
Do you find it difficult to get along with local people?
That’s what I was talking about. Yes, I think it’s not easy. I mean it is very common to meet new people, to talk to strangers and to find people who share same interests as you; it’s not as easy to build stable, long relationships.
What advice would you give to a girl from Italy who plans to come to China ?
Don’t rush it, take it easy, maybe it won’t work immediately but if you give it time, you’ll find the positive side.
I know that you have a very special hobby/passion that you have been working on in China – could you tell me somthing more about it – what is it, how did you come up with this idea and why it is so interesting for you?
Thanks for this question.In the last few years I’ve been studying and researching Chinese beauty standards and habits, how they’ve changed since the past and how they are being expressed by girls through make up, hairstyles and fashion. I find it very interesting to observe how something that is nationally recognized as beautiful in my country, is totally opposite or absent in China. And moreover, things that don’t make much sense for my understanding of beauty are here desired and chased. I am trying to put all this in a project that is still in my mind and will hopefully become real soon: through my pictures I would love to express the idea that standards of beauty simply do not exist, that beauty is a personal expression of ourselves and it’s never a rule.