Chinese tales of Italy

Chinese migration to Italy has a history of about a hundred years, even though it became a numerically relevant phenomenon only during the last decade of the 20th century. When leaving China today, new migrants bring along a set of expectations that have an impact on their adjustment to the target country. After a brief presentation of existing research on Chinese migrants’ perspectives on Italy, I highlight some common themes that emerge in Italy-based Chinese ethnic press and also in some works belonging to Sino-Italian literature. I then present the results of a study on the same topic carried out in Wenzhou-Ouhai in summer 2011. Besides six weeks of ethnographic fieldwork in the areas of origin of Chinese in Italy, I participated in two group interviews with two families, the family of a returned migrant (guiqiao) and that of a relative of migrant (qiaojuan), about their ideas and judgments on Italy. Emphasis is given to economic and legal aspects, while criminality and dishonesty of Italians are especially emphasized. The myth of Wenzhoueseness also plays a bigger role than what is observed in similar contexts in Italy, filtering the narrative about Chinese in Italy.