(May 22) Livio Lombardo, student of Linguistic and Cultural Mediation at the University of Milan, has won the Italian edition of “Chinese Bridge", an international competition organized by the Office of the Chinese Language Council International, also known as Hanban, that tests the Chinese language and culture knowledge of non-native, non-heritage speakers ages 15-30. The prize will give Livio Lombardo the chance to participate in the final competition to be held next summer in Beijing. The formation and selection of the Italian candidates was conducted at the Confucius Institute of Milan University. The Institute is part of a worldwide network of around 300 centers spread across 80 countries (8 in Italy) designed to promote and spread Chinese language and culture thanks to an agreement between prestigious Chinese and foreign universities. It was born from a collaboration between the University of Milan, the Liaoning Daxue Shifan (Liaoning Normal University) and the Hanban office in Beijing. Livio Lombardo, born in Gallarate on May 18, 1988, plays the piano since he was. He studied Chinese and Japanese at the course of Linguistic and Cultural Mediation at the University of Milan. Thanks to his fluent Chinese and his artistic skills, he already participated in the Chinese Bridge in 2010, finishing at third place in Italy. (Red)

ABOUT THE CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE OF MILAN UNIVERSITY

The Confucius Institute of Milan University (Università degli Studi di Milano) is part of a worldwide network of around 300 centers spread across 80 countries (8 in Italy) designed to promote and spread Chinese language and culture thanks to an agreement between prestigious Chinese and foreign universities. The institute is founded on the collaboration between Milan University and Liaoning Shifan Daxue (Liaoning Normal University) and the Office for the diffusion of the Chinese language in the world (Hanban) in Beijing.