Word: italianity
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...recent afternoon in this east-coast Italian city, you could hear the first snippets of dialogue from the next act of the global economy's evolving plotline. "Wo jiao Francesco," says a young Italian man, at the start of a Mandarin lesson in an office conference room. With a quick "Bravo," for Francesco, Alessandra Brezzi, a moonlighting professor of Chinese from the nearby University of Urbino, begins drilling her seven students on useful workplace vocabulary (ziliao/raw material; caiwuchu/accounting department) and proper Chinese etiquette (introduce yourself with a business card ready; never open a gift right away). Of course, these lessons...
...this Mandarin lesson is taking place at the headquarters of Benelli motorcycles. Once one of Europe's most revered bikemakers, it was also the first Italian firm to be bought outright by a Chinese company when, in October 2005, the Qianjiang Group, China's third-largest scootermaker, purchased Benelli for $24 million. At the time of the bid, Qianjiang's purchase of the storied brand from its last Italian owner was seen as another sign of the country's industrial decline, with local newspapers deriding the sale as a "disaster" and an "ugly story." Indeed Italy's manufacturing model - built...
...company's most recent owner, Italian appliance giant Merloni, invested heavily but never managed to turn a profit, and announced in early 2005 that a buyer had to be found if the 94-year-old company was to survive. With no Italian bidders, offers came from Russia and Britain, though they were focused merely on acquiring the brand. Qianjiang, instead, which turns out 1.2 million scooters a year in China, saw value in buying - and relaunching - Benelli's design and production. That would give them a foothold in the European market, and the move had an industrial logic: unlike Japan...
...caught the camera's eye even when she wasn't center-screen, Vitti starred in five Antonioni pictures, instantly becoming their anguished or volatile face, their always human soul. She was so acute a revealer of depression, disappointment, despair, that it was a shock to see her in other Italian films as a bubbly, expert comedienne. In 1964, when Antonioni won the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for Red Desert, he paid tribute to "someone close to me who has collaborated with me courageously and most valorously. I'd like to thank her publicly. That person is Monica Vitti...
...some emotions don't need words. In 1992, Antonioni received an award from the Italian government, and the assembled dignitaries lined up to congratulate him. Suddenly there was Fellini. Bursting with love and energy, he hugged his old colleague and gently caressed the back of Antonioni's head. A huge smile lighted his face; his cheeks were dappled with tears...