“Latinitas Sinica” (Centre for Latin Language and Culture in China) is the name of a study centre established at the prestigious Beijing Foreign Studies University, the Chinese university specialized in foreign languages and cultures and officially opened on June 15th, 2012.
University authorities, two representatives from the Italian Institute of Culture and Chinese and foreign experts participate in the event, together with a group of postgraduate students. A quartet from the Catholic Cathedral of Beijing performed some Latin hymns.
The centre is part of the National Research Centre of Overseas Sinology.
The connection between the two institutions is the fruit of the commitment of professor Zhang Xiping, the director of the National Research Centre of Overseas Sinology.
The reason why the Sinology Center has a particular interest in Latin is due to the historical fact that much of the Western material about China, at least until the end of 18th century, was written in Latin.
In the last years some very significant Master and Doctoral Dissertations discussed at the Sinology Center were based on original material – often unpublished manuscripts – written in Latin.
Michele Ruggieri, Matteo Ricci, Philippe Couplet and innumerable other early sinologists wrote about China in Latin.
As the Sinology centre aims at a thorough knowledge of Western studies about China, it cannot neglect the vast amount of historical material produced in Latin.
For this it was necessary to have students and scholars specialized in, or at least familiar with, this language. So, since 2006, every year one or two students from the Sinology Center went to Rome to study Latin.
About the same time the academic authorities of Beijing Foreign Studies University began to plan for having courses of Latin as a specific language open to post-graduates students.
Latinitas Sinica is a specialized institution dedicated to the study and promotion
of Latin Language in China by
- Supporting the learning and teaching of Latin Language in China;
- Promoting research in China in the field of Latin Language and Culture;
- Researching the area of Latin Sinology;
- Researching the area of Early Latin to Chinese Translations;
- Offering to Chinese society various services related to Latin Language and Culture, being a reference for institutions around the world interested in Latin Language in China;
- Publishing every year an issue of a “Journal of Latin Studies in China”.
The members of the center are professor Zhang Xiping, professor Michele Ferrero and two young researchers who studied Latin in Rome: Luo Ying and Zhang Mingming.
The centre can count of the collaboration of some illustrious advisers: professors Peng Xiaoyu, Huang Yang and Nicholas Koss from Beijing University; professors Liu Xiaofeng and Leopold Leeb from Renmin University, professor Quentin Dauthier from the Chinese Academy of Social Science and professor Manlio Sodi, the Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Classics at Rome Salesian University.
The centre is also supported in various ways by the Beiwai Training College, by Prof. Roberto Spataro (RomeSalesian University), Prof. Miran Sajovic (Rome Salesian University), Liceo Classico Silvio Pellico, Cuneo, Italy; the Italian Association of Classical Culture (Turin delegation), SEECO (Hong Kong) and YI-ZHONG (Hangzhou).
The study of Latin attracts many students. Latin is a very useful tool to the study of many European Languages, including English.
Moreover Latin opens the mind to centuries of classical Western tradition.
In the words of Prof Ferrero, the director of the Centre: “In these times of increasing cultural exchanges between China and the West, a centre for the study of Latin in China is a refreshing novelty and a window of creative opportunities.”
