He worked for one year in Rome after leaving Korea. Then in1991 he was dispatched to Kuala Lumpur， Malaysia， and worked thereuntil 1996 as the chief representative of the Italian office there. TheChinese cultural atmosphere is thicker in Malaysia than in Korea since60 percent of its population is of Chinese origin. During this period hemade a lot of friends and established close relations with many Chineseentrepreneurs， businessmen and people from other circles. Mostof these employees at the Italian office were Chinese Malaysians. Withso many Chinese working under him， he got the false impression thathe was working in a Chinese province. He made frequent businesstrips to Singapore where he found even more Chinese. In SoutheastAsian countries， Chinese culture and customs have been well preserved.
He took this opportunity to closely observe many Chineseholidays， folk customs and habits such as wedding ceremonies. Hetried his best to understand the values of Chinese culture. “I believeChinese culture and Italian culture， particularly Sicilian culture， havemuch in common. In both cultures， people value mutual respect， keepingpromises and loyalty to family.” Precisely because he is good atfinding common ground between the two cultures， Laspina got on sowell with the local people that they thought this Italian was “very Chinese and predicted that he would surely “go to China some day”。
Finally， in 1996， the day came when he got his assignment toChina. But it was to Taipei， instead of Beijing that he had been yearningfor. “Maybe the responsibilities in Beijing were too heavy and myboss was afraid that I didn’t have enough experience for it. So maybethey sent me first to Taipei for the purpose of training，” he said， selfdeprecatingly.
“Taipei wasn’t a bad place for me; after all I was in China anyway.” In fact， the work in Taipei was rather heavy for him aschief representative： it was hardly a job just “for training”。 Many yearsof working in the areas surrounding China made him very familiarwith Chinese culture. During this period he formally took the Chinesename “Lai Shiping”。 He felt quite comfortable working and living inTaipei and decided that their third child would be born there， insteadof traveling thousands of miles back to Sicily.
On April 2， 1997， little Alexander was born. Now Laspinas werea 4-A family： Antonino， Alberto， Augusto and Alexander; all theirnames began with A except his wife’s. We talked about his youngestson’s name during the interview. “Is he named after Alexander theGreat who marched eastwards in history?” Mr. Lai Shiping nodded. “Sothere are two great figures in your family now. The historical Alexanderthe Great didn’t reach China during his eastward conquest. TheAlexander from your family has completed the eastward conquest ina different way，” we joked. “It’s a peaceful and friendly eastward conquest， he laughed.
In his mind， China is the center of Asian culture and the centerof the Asian economy. It is a developing country with great potentialand a great future. The open China is a tremendous market， and therewill be great opportunities for Italy and China to reach win-win agreementsin their economic and trade cooperation. He learned a little76 Chinese when he was in Malaysia and took regular Chinese courseswhile he was in Taipei. It was a pity that he didn’t have enough timeto study Chinese full-time as he was busy as the chief of the office，and therefore his Chinese level has never reached that of his other foreignlanguages. Even now he speaks Chinese like a typewriter， wordby word， and never in complete sentences， though his enunciation isclear. He doesn’t even speak as well as his wife， and is left far behindby his youngest son who was born in Taipei and studies in Beijing’sYaozhong Bilingual International School.
In 1998 he was recalled back to headquarters in Rome， and sincethen he has been a member of the I.A.I American-Italian committee.
He has held the position of Promotion and Cooperation director since2000. During this period， he also held posts in other committees， suchas the advisary committee for EU Asian investment projects and theExpo of “2001 Italy in Japan” sponsored by the Italian Government. In2002 he was included in America’s “Who’s Who” for his outstandingachievements and global prestige.
A teetotaler and nonsmoker， Mr. Laspina’s only hobby is “readingten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles”。 While he wasworking in Italy he spent all his holidays in other countries， travelingfar more than ten thousand miles. In spare time， he finds and buysbooks and reads like crazy; he’s probably already read more than tenthousand books. China and Asia are always on his mind and he paysspecial attention to any news from the East. Since his Chinese leavesmuch to be desired， he always feels a bit guilty that he’s not readinganything in Chinese. So when he came across any English books onChina， he buys them without a moment’s hesitation. He not only readsthese books but also collects them， such as A Dream of Red Mansions，The Monkey King and many other masterpieces. People say， “He’s acrazy book buyer！ It’s hard to say whether he’s crazy or not， but his habits haveturned Mr. Laspina into “an old China hand”。 At present a fashionablesaying goes like this： “He who is stubborn and unswerving willsucceed.” Mr. Laspina’s story seemingly bears it out.
