Cesare Poma, Consul in Tianjin, and the First Italian Journal in China

Abstract This article reassesses the short-lived Bollettino Italiano —the first Italian periodical published in China, announced in L’illustrazione italiana on 4 May 1902. Founded by Cesare Poma, Italian Consul in Tianjin, the Bollettino grew out of Poma’s bibliographic pursuits and his conviction that a printed platform was needed to engage the Chinese public sphere. Based on Poma’s papers in the Vatican Apostolic Library (featured in the exhibition En route! ) and contemporary Italian and foreign press sources, the study reconstructs the periodical’s production, circulation, and reception, and probes the political and institutional causes of its premature demise. Ultimately, the Italian government’s failure to deploy the press as an instrument of cultural diplomacy consigned the initiative to obscurity. Recovering Poma’s project restores an early instance of press-based intercultural engagement prior to the more overt propaganda efforts of the 1930s.