L’immagine di Milano attraverso le guide turistiche cinesi di ieri e di oggi

The aim of this paper is to analyze how, over the years, the guide books published in China and those dedicated to Chinese tourists but published in Italy are presenting the main centers of Italian art. Particularly referring to the city of Milan, special attention is given to how the guides describe the Ambrosian Library. We will examine the guides published in China in 1995, in 2011 and 2015; while in Italy published guidebooks in Chinese date back respectively to 1998, 2005 and 2010. The outbound trips for leisure purposes were approved by Chinese government only in 1997. In fact, until the end of the 90’ “travel abroad” was synonymous with “emigrate”. Now, due to the Chinese economic and social development, the most recently published guides no longer just describe the monuments and places of historical interest, but also the shops of the most famous fashion houses and the most renowned restaurants.