Bridging Cultural Gaps

My eyes witnessed the shining miracle,
And my ears heard the sound of time flying;
I met an old Chinese man,
His words had tea garden, Kungfu and Tai Chi;
I met a young Chinese man and he talked about
Lights, skyscrapers and high technology.

This is a poem Italian high school student Giovanni Stoppoloni wrote in Chinese, showing his perception of China as a country with both an ancient culture and impressive progress in modern science and technology. The 15-year-old studies at the Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome, which hosts the biggest Confucius classroom in Italy. Learning Chinese provides foreign students like Stoppoloni opportunity to understand a real China today.

Max Horne, a 19-year-old American