Biography
The Italian writer and journalist, Adriano Màdaro, is a world expert on China and has visited the country 158 times over the last thirty-three years, penetrating the remotest regions, from Mongolia to Tibet, from Manchuria to the island of Hainan.
After graduating from university with a thesis on the political doctrines of the Chinese revolution, he concentrated on journalism, publishing monographs on the Far East for the De Agostini Geographic Institute of Novara (Italy) and editing a number of newspapers and magazines. He has often been sent as special correspondent to the China-Korea-Japan area.
In his capacity as an expert on China, in autumn 1977 he was invited by the American government to visit the United States, where he met the leading sinologists of the universities of Washington, Harvard, Stanford and New York as well as experts of the Library of Congress.
In 1988 he was the first western journalist to travel through North Korea as far as the 38th parallel, and in 1990 he was in Ulan Bator for the first democratic elections in Mongolia.
He is a member of the executive council of CEVESCO (Veneto Centre for the Study of Oriental Civilizations) at the University of Venice, and for ten years he has been the only non-Chinese member of the permanent executive council of the Chinese Academy of International Culture, Beijing.
He was director of the International Symposium on Marco Polo that took place in the Forbidden City in October 1991.
His writings include the following books: Mao in prima pagina (Mao on the Front Page) (1977), Cina, 700 anni dopo Marco Polo (China 700 years after Marco Polo) (1980), Gran Catai (The Great Cathay) (1983), Viaggio in Cina (Journey to China) (1986), Welcome Cina (Welcome China) (1988), Nel Grande Ignoto Paese al di là della Muraglia (In the Great Unknown Country beyond the Wall) (1989), Fiori di carta - Poesie dalla Cina (Paper Flowers - Poems from China) (1990), Autunno in Corea (Autumn in Korea) (1990), Le giornate di Tien An-men (The Days of Tien An-men) (1990), La Rivolta dei Boxer (2001) (The Boxer Rebellion), Peking 1900 (The Chinese edition of “The Boxer Rebellion”, People’s Editions, Beijing 2006), Un giornalista italiano testimone a Pechino (An Eye-witness in Beijing) (People's Editions 2008)
In February 2002 he was appointed official representative of the Chinese Academy of International Culture for Italy and Europe.
In July 2002 he was invited to organize a historical exhibition on old Beijing in the restored Huafangzhai imperial offices in Beihai Park. The Beijing municipal government was among the sponsors.
In May 2003, as an international media expert, he acted as a consultant for the Information Office of the Municipal Government of Beijing during the SARS outbreak.
In September 2003 the Chinese Academy of International Culture and the Fondazione Cassamarca of Treviso appointed him director of the series of major exhibitions “The Silk Road and Two Thousand Years of Chinese Civilisation” to be held at the “Casa dei Carraresi” between 2005 and 2011.
In October 2003, as an expert on Chinese affairs, he was invited by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing to give lectures at the universities of Beijing and Canton as part of the third “Italian Language in the World Week".
In autumn 2003 the television channel "Beijing TV" produced two one-hour documentaries entitled "The Modern Marco Polo" dedicated to the life of Adriano Màdaro and his cultural activities in Italy and China. The television crew made a special journey to Italy to film the sections dealing with his home life.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated the first exhibition, "The Birth of the Heavenly Empire", in the series "The Silk Road and Chinese Civilization" at the Casa dei Carraresi in Treviso.
The second exhibition, "Genghis Khan and the Treasure of the Mongols", took place between 2007 and 2008.
He is now working on the third exhibition, "The Secrets of the Forbidden City", that will begin in October 2009. The final exhibition in the series, "Manchu, the Last Empire", will be held from 2010 to 2011.
This will be followed in 2012 by "Tibet, the Roof of the World" and three exhibitions on India between 2013 and 2016.
Adriano Màdaro lives and works in Treviso and Beijing.
