Designation::Adjunct Professor, Universita’ Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore Di Milano

Abstract: Giuseppina MERCHIONNE graduated in Far Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Oriental Studies in Naples, Italy, in 1976. Being the first recipient of a scholarship from the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry in PRC, she studied for three years at the Faculty of History of Beijing University. In 1981 she was granted a fellowship from the Education Ministry of the Republic of China and in 1984 received her M.A. at the National Chengchi University, Graduate School of far Eastern Studies, Taipei. In 1985 she was admitted to the Ph.D. program of the East Asian Languages and Cultures Department of Columbia University, New York, USA. She returned to Italy in 1988 after she passed the selection for a scholarship from the University of Oriental Studies in Naples for a Ph.D. program in Asian Studies. After receiving her Ph.D.in1992, she was appointed professor of Chinese Language and Culture at the School of Oriental Languages of Milan Municipality. In 2000 she started teaching at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the Catholic University of Sacred Heart of Milan where ,after a national selection , was granted the tenure for the position of adjunct professor. Since 2005 she also holds a teaching appointment of Chinese Language and Culture at the University of Trento. Beside her academic engagement, she has also made research work within the Chinese diaspora in Milan , one of the biggest in Europe, cooperating with Italian private and public institutions with the intent to favoring their relations with Chinese residents . As a result of her field research, she has published several papers and a volume on the condition of Chinese immigrants in Milan.