Director of the Centre for Vietnam Studies in Turin of Italy Sandra Scagliotti debuted her Italian-language book entitled “Il Banco Di Sabbia Dorata. Il Vietnam e Gli arcipelaghi del Mare Orientale” (Golden sands, Vietnam and archipelagoes in the East Sea) on September 19. 

Sandra Scagliotti (middle) 

Published by Epics Edizioni, the book features a rich collection of articles by prestigious Vietnamese and foreign scholars about the history, geo-politics, strategy, anthropology, legality of the East Sea issue. Navigation control strategy and exploitation of resources at sea were also mentioned. 

In addition, the book contains highly persuasive evidence such as photos of the Nguyen Dynasty’s royal records and maps that show Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes belong to Vietnam. 

Talking to Vietnam News Agency reporters, Sandra said the first message that she wants to convey to the Italian public via the book is that Hoang Sa and Truong Sa belong to Vietnam”. The second message is that Turin is seeking and collecting historic evidence affirming Vietnam’s sovereignty over the two archipelagoes. 

She said many documents relating to Vietnam have been found in Turin, particularly those at the Capuccini Church’s library where she found an ancient book “System of Universal Geography” by geographer Adriano Balbi. It was first published in 1818 and republished many times, in which  Hoang Sa and Truong Sa were mentioned as archipelagos of Vietnam. 

Sandra, who is also Honorary Consul of Vietnam in Turin, used to teach sociology about developing countries and contemporary Asian history at the University of Turin as an expert about Vietnamese studies. She also gave lectures in universities in Vietnam, France and Canada. 

She also authored many books about Vietnamese history and culture.

VNA