When he was five or six years old， Laspina happened to comeupon a big archeological excavation. A site of city ruins was foundunderground near his farmstead. An archeological team led by a Princetonuniversity professor unearthed a city hall， a square， city walls andstreets along with a large amount of cultural relics. The little boy wasso curious that at first he peeped out from the opening between doorsor from the keyhole. Then he walked up close to watch the archeologistsworking in the field. These archeologists liked the smart kid verymuch and sometimes they would give him a shard of some relic. Hewas as happy as if he had found a piece of priceless treasure. That washis first “baptism” in ancient culture.
Born and raised in a place that absorbs and embraces all differentcultures， Laspina has had a sense of world citizenship since he wasvery young. So it was only natural for him to worship his idol MarcoPolo. “I even knew to look for The Travels of Marco Polo at the libraryat the age of six or seven. Of course that was the abridged edition forchildren. I began reading the original when I was sixteen or seventeen.
I have a craving for collecting all different editions of The Travels and72 have so far collected 25 different editions. I was amazed when readingabout Kublai Khan and Chinese cities when I was young. Theyseemed to me simply like fairytales. After I grew up I knew that thethings Marco Polo described about China were not fairytales. As a collegestudent， I felt that Marco Polo not only reproduced the sense ofthose times， but also gave us later generations useful knowledge， andshowed us another kind of culture. A great amount of information onChina has poured into Western society since China adopted its opendoorpolicy at the end of 1970s. This information proves what MarcoPolo said in his book was neither fiction nor myth. You see that thegrasslands and the coal mines he mentioned in the book are true. Thenonflammable cloth （asbestos cloth） is true too. Thanks to Marco Polo’s book， he has always been full of curiosityand a yearning for the Orient. “I became very much interested inOriental philosophy when I read about Confucianism at the age of 12.
I believe that Greco-Roman philosophy and Oriental philosophy， withConfucianism as its core， can compliment each other. Nothing is impossibleif we combine the enterprising spirit of Western culture withthe adept restraint of the East， and combine Aristotle with Confucius， he summarizes his experience. “Since I came here I have adopted themethod of working to promote my plans in accordance with their naturaltendencies， and never imposing things on others. In this way I haveachieved pretty good results. His experience of working in China has provided guidance toWesterners who come to work and live in China. “Once they cometo the Orient， Europeans should act like Marco Polo and follow localcustoms. Try to gain some knowledge of Confucianism， slow the tempoof life， and be good at communicating and mingling with the localpeople. This Sicilian boy thought he ought to go to Rome first before proceedingfarther to Asia and China. “As a little boy I had big dreams ofRome and thought Rome would be more beautiful than Sicily”。 Andso he chose to go to Rome for his college education. He wanted to preparehimself with enough knowledge to allow him to expand his workand life around the globe. He was always attached to the Orient during his college years， though his activities were limited to Sicily andRome. “I always thought then that my focus should be on the East，” hetells me.
A Young Italian Marches EastAs an Occidental saying goes： “All roads lead to Rome.” TheSicilian boy realized his dream of Rome， and grew up there. He majoredin Political Economics at Catania University and remained atthe school after graduation as an assistant to the president. The youngman’s idol was Marco Polo， however. His dreams would not stop withRome — he wanted to go farther， in search of bigger dreams.
While working at university， he got his CORCE （professional foreigntrade training course） certificate in 1980. He took part in a SIOIcourse in 1981. In the same year he passed the nationwide exam forgovernment employees and was admitted to the Italian Foreign Tradecommittee， beginning work at its headquarters in Rome that October.
In 1982 he married Maria， a girl also born in Sicily. His bride attendedthe same school he did， in the same major， graduating a fewyears later. It was 44 degrees Celsius on the day of their wedding，which was an auspicious sign for a life-long happy marriage. Thatsame year the Italian football team won the World Cup. There wasnationwide rejoicing on the news. Still immersed in the sweetnessof their honeymoon， the young couple had the feeling that the wholeworld was sending them blessings. It so happened that the Italian teamwon the World Cup championship again when they celebrated theirsilver wedding， so they got double congratulations from friends inChina.
At last， Antonino Laspina was dispatched to the East in 1985 as agovernment official. But his road into China was quite tortuous.
He was sent to South Korea when he was 27 and worked in Seoulwith his wife until 1990. His wife became pregnant in South Koreaand they went back their hometown in Sicily where their first son， Albert，was born. They returned to South Korea when the boy was sixmonthsold. They went back home in Sicily again in 1987 when they74 had their second son Augusto， who was named after the founding emperorof the ancient Roman Empire.
He found that South Korea is deeply influenced by Chinese Confucianism.
In order to better understand Oriental cultures， he studiedthe Korean language very hard. He has a passable reading ability inKorean， but his oral Korean still needs to be improved. His pronunciationis pretty good， though. “It’s not so easy to learn to pronounce Korean， he said proudly.
