Challenges of Chinese language education in secondary schools in Italy

In 2020 the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Italy was celebrated. Italy and China bilateral relations include cooperation in the education field and support to the development of Chinese language teaching in the Italian education system. In recent years, due to the growing number of students learning Chinese language at school, Chinese has officially been included in the high school curriculum. Nevertheless, this increasing development of Chinese language teaching has also faced many challenges. This article provides a general overview of Chinese language teaching in Italian high schools. It describes the development of Chinese language education in high schools and discusses some issues on the challenges related to the teaching of Chinese language, with regard to teachers, syllabi, teaching resources and learners' attitude. Lastly, it aims to suggest means of addressing the analysed issued for further improvements of Chinese language teaching in Italian high schools.