Constructing Narratives of Chineseness in Prato (Italy) During COVID-19

This article discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to construct narratives of Chineseness and reshape intercultural relations in Prato (Italy). Prato is a textile industrial district featuring a multicultural population and one of the most debated case-study for Chinese migration to Europe. We cast light on the malleability of the concept of ethnic identities during the year marked by the pandemic by relying on emerging narratives using a longitudinal analysis of social media coverage and a series of in-depth interviews to expert informants, from which four different framings emerged. As our analysis suggests, a narrative of difference has initially relied upon a dramatization of a conflictual understanding of Italian-Chinese relationships at the beginning of 2020. Later on, a new narrative took shape, namely that of an exemplary behavior by the “Chinese community”. Towards the end of the year, when restrictive measures were gradually lifted, a new discursive distancing became evident, as the spotlight fell, once again, on the differences of two communities, the local and the “ethnic” one. Nevertheless, a new type of consciousness seems to slowly remain, with the potential to significantly change pre-existing intercultural relations.