Diego de Pantoja, ambassador of Chinese culture in the West

On 5 November 2024, Professor Jesús R. Folgado participated as a speaker at the International Seminar "Sound and cultural spaces in the Spanish-Asian transoceanic connections".

The UNED and the University of Salamanca organised this seminar in Madrid. During the course of the day, various professors spoke about the historical connections between Asia -especially Japan, the Philippines and China- and Spain. They sought to show the reciprocal influences between the various Asian and Hispanic cultures. The Seminar placed special emphasis on musical and artistic aspects. Almost across the board, the academics present highlighted the influence that the Society of Jesus had on this phenomenon of cultural hybridisation. This fact became especially relevant with the presentation of various Jesuit figures. Among them were the Portuguese Jesuit Luís Fróis and his companions in Japan and their cultural contributions to the Noh theatre, and the Spanish Jesuit Diego de Pantoja in China.

Professor Folgado's talk was entitled "Diego de Pantoja, an ambassador of Chinese culture in the West", in which he highlighted features of Pantoja's missionary and cultural work. The Professor affirms:

Pantoja becomes through them an "ambassador of Chinese culture in the West" but also a Western ambassador in the Forbidden City itself. His model of evangelisation continued the one proposed by Matheo Ricci, who in turn followed the experience of Francis Xavier in India and Japan. Pantoja's evangelising system will be a model used until the present day and has been able to generate a cultural hybridisation in all aspects (religious, artistic, economic...). Of Spanish birth, under the Portuguese flag and "reborn" in China, Diego de Pantoja has now become a bridge between the West and China in the cultural, religious and diplomatic spheres.

 The full paper is available in open access by clicking here.

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