Meaning runs deep

Irene Di Maio, 24, came to Beijing in March from Italy to study for her master's degree at Capital Normal University. But it's not her first time in China — it's her fourth.

Di Maio first touched down in China in 2018 when she went to Xi'an, Shaanxi province, and then in 2019 for a trip to Suzhou, Jiangsu province — both to compete in dragon boat races representing Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

Di Maio left her hometown of Catania in southern Italy's Sicily to go to Ca' Foscari University of Venice in 2017.There, she started learning Chinese and joined the university's dragon boat team. She was quite surprised that the university had a team for a sport that is so uniquely Chinese.

"It probably has to do with Venetian's love for the water, with gondolas as their traditional form of transportation," said Di Maio.

According to Di Maio, the team would follow all the traditional Chinese rituals about dragon boat races, including repainting the eyes of the boat's dragon head before each race.

"All my Italian teammates found the rituals very intriguing," said Di Maio, although she doubted that they knew anything about the Chinese idiom hualongdianjing, which literally translates as adding the eyes when painting a dragon, and is used to express the idea of putting the final touches on something to make it perfect.

But Di Maio hopes to make some changes. She is now studying international Chinese education, with one of her future goals to help promote Chinese culture to the world. She also joined the Beijing International Dragon Boat Team shortly after arriving in Beijing and soon became friends with her Chinese teammates.

"Dragon boat racing is not just a sport, but a way to bring people together," said Di Maio. "Even when I was in Venice, where I was surrounded by my own compatriots, I still made most of my friends from the dragon boat team."