‘In-Between’ Spaces and Transnational Mobility: Ludovico Nicola di Giura (1868-1947) in Changing China and Italy

This dissertation examines Ludovico Nicola di Giura (1868-1947), an Italian doctor who lived in Beijing, China, from 1900 to 1931. The aim is twofold: first, to reconstruct di Giura’s biography; second, to use this individual case to illuminate the Italian experience during the colonisation in China and its manifestation in Beijing. Drawing on di Giura’s private collection and published works, archival sources from both Italy and China, as well as contemporary bibliographical and journalistic material, the dissertation is structured into nine chapters across three thematic parts: Diplomatic-political Profile, Medical Practice, and Socio-cultural Engagements. It examines the multifaceted roles during his transnational mobility, situating each within the corresponding contexts he navigated. In contrast to di Giura’s mystified portrayal as ‘First-class Mandarin in Chinese Imperial Court’ in existing literature, this study reveals a more complex and nuanced profile: his efforts to secure an official position in the Legation Quarter; his initiatives to adhere to the fascist regime; his capitalisation on social relations and transcultural endeavours to sustain medical practice within the competitive landscape of the professional field; as well as his attempts to maintain treaty-based privileges which were becoming increasingly untenable under the consolidation of the nationalist regime and the intensification of anti-imperialist sentiment in Chinese public opinion. Through this reconstruction, the dissertation proposes the historiographical value of biographical writing on individuals who operated in the ‘in-between’ spaces for illuminating the mechanisms through which such spaces are produced. Moreover, using di Giura’s individual experience, the dissertation argues that whilst Italy was not a ‘major’ colonial power, this cannot negate Italians’ attempts to establish a national presence in the Chinese capital, with some effectively exercising treaty-based privileges generally accorded to the international community in China. These privileges could, moreover, be extended to the domestic context, granting individuals authority within intellectual debates, literary circles, and the political sphere. Yet, despite persistent anxieties regarding exclusion from European powers throughout Liberal and Fascist Italy, Rome did not provide Italians in China with a coherent strategy for engaging in the colonisation of the country, displaying instead only occasional ambitions to seize opportunities that arose from the ‘status quo’. Despite efforts to launch initiatives of a national-patriotic character, Italians in China lacked both a rhetorical framework to legitimise their actions within the expansionist ambitions of the central authorities and the institutional resources necessary for the implementation and long-term maintenance of their projects. Paradoxically, this ‘loose’ connection with the centre afforded greater individual agency to Italians in China such as di Giura, enabling them to draw upon multi-channelled resources, also independently of national authorities, and potentially stimulating further engagements with local society. As a result, the personal reputations that Italian individuals established in China could not automatically, nor necessarily, be translated into a more prominent ‘Italian name’ or a more consolidated national presence, despite their aspirations to that effect.