Sorry I don’t know you in person. Today, I saw your painting on Twitter. It was reported that an Italian netizen identified as Enrico
Turcato first uploaded your painting, which became popular among
Italians and Chinese yesterday.To get more news about
italy thanks china, you can visit shine news official website.
I can’t read Italian, but from Enrico Turcato’s original tweet I could guess the meaning of a few Italian words: Napoli, Aurora, Cina. I
checked them against Chinese reports and found that you’re an
18-year-old from Naples called Aurora who did the painting to praise all
those fighting the novel coronavirus in Italy, including medical
experts from China. I noted that you adorned the Chinese doctor in your
painting with an image of the Chinese flag.
Your painting, showing two doctors striving to back up Italy, vividly conveyed your message: thanks to those working on the front line to
fight the virus, including medical staff from China. You have given the
word “gratitude” its most gracious definition. But you’re not the only
one who feels grateful.
Beneath Enrico Turcato’s tweet, a Chinese netizen called Li Yichen wrote: “I am a college student from China... We Chinese are grateful to
Italy for its assistance to us during the earthquake...”
He referred to the devastating 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province, when Italy dispatched a team of medical experts to help treat
hundreds of injured people. Shen Ji, head of the Sichuan health
commission, recently told China Central Television that people from
Sichuan are especially grateful to Italy for their help, and that’s why
doctors from Sichuan volunteered to join the medical team this time to
help Italy. The team arrived in Italy on March 12, together with 31 tons
of equipment and materials.
So, Aurora, your painting reminds me of an ancient Roman saying: “We are waves of the same sea, leaves of the same tree, flowers of the same
garden.” These words were actually printed on packaged materials some
Chinese entrepreneurs had prepared to be sent to Italy.
We think alike, in drawings and in writings, from the West to the East, from ancient to modern times. What bonds us together is our shared
gratitude toward each other as human beings, not to be divided by
borders or bias.
The current novel coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, central China, in December. Chinese doctors and nurses have accumulated experiences which
may be helpful to Italy and other countries in need. Key to China’s
medical plan is early detection, early isolation and early treatment.
Sun Shuopeng, head of the Chinese medical team in Italy, said the
situation in Italy should change for the better despite current
challenges, because the Italian government has taken strong measures
like limiting traffic and the whole of society has begun to meet the
problem head-on.
The novel coronavirus will retreat, eventually. In its fight, China has received support from more than 70 countries and regions including
Italy.
We speak different languages, we live in different places, but the moment we learn to think with each other, not about “us” and “them,” we
transcend borders and bias. I heard that the Chinese national anthem was
played in a community in Rome yesterday as local residents belted out
“Grazie, Cina.”
As a line from “Turandot” said, darkness will disappear. At the break of dawn, victory will be won. In the case of the current battle on the
novel coronavirus, the victory will be to all of us who fight as one.
