Personal File
Name： Antonino LaspinaChinese Name： Lai ShipingNationality： ItalianOccupation： Government EmployeeTime in China： 6 yearsCarrying with him the Mediterraneanbreeze and 5，000 years of culture， AntoninoLaspina traversed Eurasia all the way to this remote，mysterious country in the Far East. Fluentin English， French， Spanish and Portuguese， thisSicilian polyglot regrets only his mediocre Chinese.
Besotted with collecting and having readThe Travels of Marco Polo at a very young age，he never dreamed that he would be attached， forthe greater part of his life， to ancient China andthe faraway East， and never dreamed he wouldbecome the promoter of “the New Marco PoloProgram”。
68 As the chief representative of the Italian Government Tradingcommission’s Beijing Office， Mr. Laspina chose the Chinese name，“Lai Shiping”， which was obviously transliterated from his last name.
I guess he has “localized” his name for the purpose of “identifyinghimself with the Chinese people”。 His localized name， along withhis charming smile， is indeed conducive to socializing with Chinesefriends and to carrying out Sino-Italian economic and cultural trade.
On the 38th floor of the Jingguang Building， the tallest skyscraperin Beijing， I suddenly realize the profound meaning of his Chinesename as I shake hands with him. What an ideal world it would be ifpeople of different colors on this planet could mingle harmoniouslywith one another and build a common “global village”！ For the peaceand prosperity of mankind， we must eliminate war！ Any progress madeby the human race rests on world peace. He was smart to choose thisname， which is an abbreviation of the Chinese phrase “rest on worldpeace”： Lai for “rest on” and Shiping for “world peace”。
As the chief representative of the ICE， Mr. Lai has done manyvaluable things for Sino-Italian economic trade and cultural exchangein the past few years. He has made frequent appearances in the newsmedia and therefore gained a certain reputation among Chinese economicand press circles. When I proposed an interview with him， hereadily accepted it. As we sit down for the interview， he states with a smile that he speaks English， French， Spanish and Portuguese andreads Korean. But he feels “indebted to China”， for he knows only“a little bit” of Chinese， though he loves Chinese culture. A brilliant，open-minded talker， he speaks very fast in English， just like an excitedfootball commentator for the Italian A Series. This turns our interviewinto a pleasant conversation， and a keyed-up recording as well.
Marco Polo， an Idol of His ChildhoodIt goes without saying that Marco Polo is the most eminent foreignfigure in Chinese history. Although not necessarily the first tocross Eurasia into China’s central region， he was certainly the firstforeigner who made a detailed record of China and introduced it to theWest.
The Travels of Marco Polo carries detailed descriptions of differentethnic groups’ customs， habits， religions， native products andanecdotes as well as the political， economic and cultural life of China’
s Yuan Dynasty during the 13 th century. The Travels of Marco Poloprovided foreigners of the medieval age and thereafter with a goldenkey to understanding China. Now it also provides contemporary Chinesehistorians with rich references to the Yuan Dynasty （1271 -136 8）
70 observed from a “Western angle”。 The Italian’s far-reaching contributionto East-West cultural exchange has earned him great， long-lastingrespect in both the West and the East.
Cristoforo Colombo， an Italian navigator of the 15th century， wasfascinated by the Oriental World described in The Travels of MarcoPolo and started sailing the blue seas on his around-the-globe exploration.
He discovered the “New World”， though he failed to reach theEast.
In the West， many people read The Travels of Marco Polo as attentivelyand thoroughly as Colombo did， and yearn for the mysteriousEast， dreaming of discovering something new. Of course it is impossiblefor them to discover another geographical “New World”。 Butthere is still much to be explored in the cultural “New World”。 It is thesearch for their dreams of a “New World” that has made so many peoplehurry across the planet.
Antonino Laspina was born in Sicily， Italy， at the end of 1950s.
He has idolized Marco Polo since he was a little boy. He didn’t havethe Chinese name “Lai Shiping” then and never thought that somedayhe would come to live in China. “It was possible to take pleasure tripsbut I never thought about living in China，” he says. He could neverhave imagined that years later he would be the chief of the ICE BeijingOffice， living happily with his family in China.
His hometown Sicily is a scenic island with a long history of5，000 years. He wears a proud expression when he speaks about hishometown. If the Apennine Peninsula is a boot protruding into theMediterranean Sea， then the triangular Sicily is the toe of this boot.
Situated in the very center of the Mediterranean and influenced byPhoenicia-Punic， Greek and Arabic cultures， it has been the centerwhere different cultures have collided， mingled and merged. Traces ofFrench， Spanish， Portuguese and German cultures can often been seenon the island， that is why it’s called “the cradle of European Civilization”。
Italy， as the German social scientist Friedrich Engels called it， “isthe firstborn son of the European Culture”。 Italy has the status of “thefirstborn son”， to a great extent， because of the age-old， splendid Sicilianculture. Of the 29 Italian cultural relics on the list of the UN World Heritage Sites， five are on Sicily. Here on the island some Chinese culturalitems such as silk and porcelain pieces have been found as well.