Milan (AsiaNews) – The appeal of China is growing significantly among Italian teenagers. Some 45 per cent of young people aged 14 to 19 are interested in a period of study in that country, while those who have already done so report gaining deep personal enrichment from the experience, as well as skills that proved valuable for their personal and professional growth.
These findings emerge from Beyond the Screen, Inside China (in Italian), a study recently presented in Rome carried out by the Ipsos-Doxa research institute on behalf of the Fondazione Intercultura, a leading Italian foundation promoting student exchanges worldwide.
Welcoming young people from distant countries for educational programmes in its schools and universities is a strategy Beijing is heavily prioritising to boost its global image and fully harness the potential offered by such experiences.
Since 2003, nearly 1,200 Italian students have chosen China for either a full school year or a four-week study stay through intercultural programmes.
After the forced break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, exchange programmes have resumed at full speed. Currently, 54 Italian teenagers are spending a school year in China, staying with host families or in boarding schools, primarily in major cities along the country's eastern seaboard.
Over the years, more than two thirds of participants have benefited from scholarships covering all or part of their fees, thanks in part to the strategic partnership between the Fondazione Intercultura and the Intesa Sanpaolo Group.
For this very reason, the Ipsos-Doxa research offers a fascinating insight. The study compares a representative sample of 500 Italian students aged 14–19 with 114 former participants in Intercultura’s year-long mobility programmes in China.
The aim was to understand how Italian youth perceive this vast country today and to measure the long-term impact of living and studying in China during their teenage years. Furthermore, the existence of a similar study conducted in 2017 has made it possible to track how this perception is gradually shifting.
When asked where they would like to go if they won a scholarship to study abroad for a period ranging from three months to a year, students showed less interest in the United States compared to 2017 (from 84 per cent to 72 per cent), while interest in China climbed (from 29 per cent to 45 per cent).
This rise is driven primarily by those who are "very interested," a group that grew from 16 per cent to 28 per cent.
Italian students are drawn mainly by technological innovation (45 per cent) and lifestyle (41 per cent), recognising the country's unique advantage in offering access to emerging markets and technologies (44 per cent).
At the same time, the desire to learn Chinese is growing; it now ranks as the second most sought-after non-Western language (37 per cent), surpassed only by Japanese.
While the overall perspective on China is positive, there are interesting differences in the assessments offered by those who return after spending a period of study in the country.
Some 79 per cent of former Intercultura programme participants state that the experience influenced their educational and professional paths; in more than one out of three cases, it facilitated access to international roles or to companies with overseas partnerships.
Yet, in the China they describe, experiencing personal relationships, culture, traditions, and the country’s beauty matter far more than technological leadership or the economic aspect of the experience.
First-hand experience also provides a more comprehensive view of the country, confirming positive associations while also opening eyes wider to its challenges (it is telling that, in a list of words associated with China, ideology scores 8 percentage points higher among those who have visited the country compared to those who know it only through social media narratives).
The bond formed remains strong: 59 per cent of former participants report returning to China since their stay, and everyone in the sample plans to go back in the future.
All of them maintain a keen interest in the country that hosted them (only 10 per cent state that they do not keep up with happenings in China) and try to stay informed through friends and colleagues.
