MILAN, Apr 14 (Class Editori) – Collecting four macro-sections – vines, IGT, DOC, DOCG – and a total of 1200 entries, the new bilingual Italian-Chinese Dictionary of Italian Wines and Vines has finally hit the bookstores. The lexicon, product of a cooperation between Gambero Rosso and the Confucio Institute of the Università degli Studi di Milano, was released in Verona during Vinitaly's latest edition, and comes as the natural follow-up to the Italian-English-Chinese Dictionary of Food – published during Expo 2015 by the Confucio Institutein collaboration with the school of Cultural Mediation of the Università degli Studi di Milano.
Staring this June, the two institutions will also launch a joint specialization program for Export Manager, focused on creating a class of professionals capable of managing wine export and internationalization processes directed toward China.
The dictionary is a "unique product, coming to fill an important gap in China's knowledge of Italian wine," as pointed out by the Chinese expert Alessandra Lavagnino, director of the Confucio Institute. "It is an example for everyone. While the French have always resorted to translate wine terminology according to agreed standards, Italy has been struggling with the issue until now – as everyone translates the word for wine or for Italy as they please". Of course, the result is a throng of confused consumers who, in the end, prefer to choose the French bottle.
For Italian, every single entry refers to industry and academic texts. For Chinese, the dictionary relied on two strategies: standardization of all vines names and wines denominations, and the translations of their relevant definitions. This allowed the identification of the terminology which best describes a wine or a vines, in the respect of correct Italian pronunciation and of the best Chinese cultural traditions.
"The Dictionary of Italian Wines and Vines is an important starting point, hoping to close all the existing linguistic gaps and to add value to the production niches and to the extensive reality of the Italian wines and vines in the Chinese market," explain Paolo Cuccia, president of Gambero Rosso and co-CEO of Class Editori. "We accepted the challenge together with the Confucio Institute using great awareness and enthusiasm, and we are sure that furthering a better culture of wine – in particular given how China is becoming such an important producer – will also contribute to increase the expansion opportunities for Made in Italy productions".
"When I arrived in Beijing three years ago, there was no coherent promotion of wine," said Amedeo Scarpa, director of Beijing's ICE (the Italian Chamber for Foreign Commerce) and coordinator of the Foreign Network for China. "It's still not possible to say there is anything organic going on, but things are getting better. We asked ourselves where Italy went wrong more than once – as we have the product and the reputation, but we're struggling to stay in fourth position, and keep competing against Spain as supplier countries". The reasons? "First of all, we realized China was there with great delay; second, communication strategies. If we cannot find a way to communicate with the Chinese in their language, we will never be on the same line. Thus, we need to keep three aspects in mind: training; events, which should involve Chinese influencers as well (totaling something like 33 million view on their Chinese platforms); and digital communication (like WeChat)".
(Source:Class Editori)
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