The Confucius Institute at the University of Milan officially began to offer the course of Chinese film titles production and appreciation, which was taught for a total of 20 hours. Twenty of the great number of applicants from Lombardia, Italy was lucky to be selected as the first students. Among them, there were Grade Four and Grade Five students as well as graduate students of University of Milan, and excellent Chinese language learners from Pisa and Venice, etc. They all had a Chinese proficiency higher than HSK Level 4.

In the speech delivered at the opening ceremony, Jin Zhigang, Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Milan stated that film is a vivid pattern for manifesting Chinese social life and an important window for Chinese culture in going global. Director Jin hoped that by taking the course, students could not only experience the charm of Chinese film culture but also master a practical skill.

The lecturer Ms. Marie Pierre Duhamel is an expert in the study of Chinese films. She used to be the president of French Cinema du Reel and has been one of the film selection personnel for the Venice Film Festival for years. She was the technical adviser of the just-concluded 2012 Rome Film Festival and used to give courses including Chinese Film History etc. at universities such as Pantheon-Sorbonne University (Paris 1). In addition, she has published a great number of articles on Chinese films. This time, Ms. Marie Pierre Duhamel meticulously designed the course arrangement for students. With profundity and an easy-to-understand approach and integration with independent exercises for students, she enabled them to not only master the skills of Chinese film title production but also fully understand the affective communication in Chinese films and understand their conversation style.

The students benefited a lot from the 5-day course. During the process of independent translation and producing titles of the film Red Cliff, four Chinese and Italian students formed a group with each airing his/her own views. The atmosphere was very lively.

At the end of the course, the works translated by all groups were displayed through the computer screen to the whole class. All teachers and students discussed, compared and commented on the works together.

The Chinese Film Titles Translation is the first course offered as a part of the professional translation courses by the Confucius Institute at the University of Milan. Students who finish all these courses will receive the course-completion certificate issued by the Confucius Institute at the University of Milan. In addition, the students of the University of Milan would get 3 valuable credits.