Enter the Dragon - Inside Rome’s Chinese community

by Fang Yuxiang (staff) | Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

From the TRF archive, Fang Yuxiang goes into the heart of Roman Chinatown, revealing how the city’s ethnic Chinese have learned to adapt, even integrate at times, to the local way of life. First published in October 2006.

Every major city in the world has its Chinese community. Rome is no exception. There are 20,000 Chinese immigrants in the city, according to Chen Shaomin, president of the Zhejiang Association, an association of people from the Zhejiang province of China, from which the vast majority of Rome’s Chinese originate. Most of these people live in the downtown area of Piazza Vittorio, one metro stop away from Termini station. The forming of the Chinese community dates back to the Nineties.
“In 1990, Chinese faces were rarely seen in the Piazza Vittorio area,” says Diego, an Italian who lived there during his childhood. “It was a dirty and unsafe place, with a high crime-rate.” In the following years, the relatives and friends of those early immigrants came and substantially reinforced the community in that area. With the accumulation of their wealth they started their own businesses by buying shops from local merchants one after another.

In his own food supermarket on a street close to Piazza Vittorio, Chen Shaomin says: “In the past there were few Chinese restaurants here and opening one was quite a profitable business for many Chinese here. But shortly after, strong competition forced people to change. Some chose to run Japanese restaurants, some operate fabric wholesale and retail businesses or Chinese food stores and supermarkets. Others quit the food business altogether and took up house leasing, property and hotels. In Rome, there are about 500 Chinese-run restaurants and over 1,000 shops, mostly situated around Piazza Vittorio. “Standing at the street corner, you can see Chinese people behind the steering wheels of high class cars passing by, and almost all of those Mercedes and BMWs parked behind that building belong to the Chinese inhabitants around here”, says Chen Shaomin. Although these immigrants cannot make themselves feel at home by changing the name of their neighbourhood or town as did the settlers in North America when they called their territories “New England”, “New Amsterdam” or “New Hampshire”, they can indeed build up a community thanks to their habit of staying together and their loyalty to hometown flavors, language and culture.
Nowadays, on the streets around Piazza Vittorio, Chinese immigrants as well as their shops are seen everywhere, dialects from the north to south of China are heard and “Made in China” products are sold. Besides the advantage in prices, the abundance and variety of goods make this area the first choice for people seeking food and utensils which cannot be found elsewhere in the city. Even for a haircut people prefer going to Piazza Vittorio where they can communicate more easily with the barber. The restaurants in the area also receive batches of increasing Chinese tourists who it seems cannot do without a Chinese meal for a few days. Although they don’t quite approve of the Chinese food here, they understand they can’t expect the same standards as back home.

Generation gap
Through years of hard work, many immigrants established their own business. But their heirs may have other plans. Growing up in better-off families, the second generation Chinese immigrant has more or less abandoned the doctrine of thrift that passed from one generation to another, and they pretty much knows how to enjoy their life. “Hanging out with those guys may cost you a fortune,” says Ping, a restaurant waiter from the town of Rui An, Zhejiang.“Many well off families choose to send their children to England despite the costly tuition fees and living expenses because the education there is better. But my boy would like to stay and take care of my store. That’s his own choice, I can’t help it,” says Chen Shaomin.
Other young people, however, have chosen to live independently. Li, whose mother is a restaurant owner, was born and grew up in Rome. His speaks Italian not only fluently but with a strong Roman accent. He does speak Chinese but is not able to write it. Although Li is little over 20, he looks mature and experienced. His job is dealing with suppliers in China for his Italian clients so he often travels back to China. “It’s good to go back to China every so often, but what I do is not easy: negotiating with suppliers wears me out,” he says. “I grew up here, my friends are here and the weather here makes me feel so good, especially when I see the blue sky, so I will continue living here.” Li has a girlfriend who is still a university student in China. “I will bring her here in the future, but I think she is still too young to come abroad,” he adds.
Fey, a girl who came to live in Rome at the age of ten, has now been studying at Rome’s ‘La Sapienza’ University for one year. Her family had moved to Paris due to business reasons but she chose to continue her studies in Rome. “I prefer to live on my own instead of staying with the extended family,” she says. “I hope to find a job relating to translation or journalism, that’s what I like. The family business doesn’t interest me much - my elder sister will take care of that.” Thanks to her language skills, she doesn’t have to find a job only in the Chinese community and she has done several part-time jobs to support herself, even if once in a while she has to borrow money from the family.
Unlike most young immigrants here, Fey has an Italian boyfriend, which makes her family a little bit worried. “People may be inclined to seeing their girls have Chinese boyfriends because they think Chinese men are more responsible and reliable, but they don’t really interfere with their choices,” explains Chen Shaomin.
Speaking of her homeland, she says she hopes to go back to improve her Chinese and she believes it would be helpful for her career prospects. “But for the moment I don’t think I will work and live in China,” she says. “I think the pay is lower and my English is not so good, plus I am already accustomed to the life and food here. Sometimes I find people in my hometown are strange, especially girls, they seem to be fond of comparing themselves with you which makes me uncomfortable. That’s what I felt when I was in China last time.” But Fey also adds that despite the fact that she noticed a gulf between herself and the people in her hometown, she still enjoyed her stay so she abandoned her application for Italian citizenship, because otherwise she would need a visa with a time limit to visit her hometown.

Religious diversity
In this Catholic centre of the world, some Chinese immigrants teach students to go to church , and they are keen on developing new members among the people they meet. They have their own Chinese church in Piazza Vittorio and their own priest. But Chen Shaomin doesn’t quite agree with this, “Certainly most of us believe in Buddhism. On the street corner there is a temple funded by the community and every year the dignitary of Pu Tuo Moutain (one of the major Buddhist temples in China – Ed.) is invited to Rome to give a sermon and preside over a Buddhist ceremony.”
Parents are happy to see that some of their offspring have started to step out of Chinatown. But they still see Chinese language and culture as a bridge not only to their origins, but possibly also, with the development of the economy back in China, their career perspectives. Restaurant owner Mr. Wong, who came to Italy more than 10 years ago, says that after working through the difficulties in the first few years he has built up his career by realizing the importance of knowledge and education. So he is happy to see his two children speak good Italian. But he is also a bit worried about their Chinese language ability.
Both of Wong’s children go to the community Chinese language school and Wong even sends them back to China during summer holidays. “Learning Chinese will increase their understanding of China and expand their career horizons. Now they have improved a lot and become interested in it.” But adult or young immigrants may both feel the difference between them and the Chinese in China when they go home to visit their families. The adults would always say: we can’t keep up with the pace in China; kids would probably say: my cousins are funny!
Ling, who moved to Rome from Austria, works in a restaurant. Although he looks fairly young, he is married and over 30 years old. “The development and change in China is so fast. People like us don’t have much knowledge and don’t speak a foreign language well. I’d like to go back but how can we survive there?”, says Ling. His words represent many people of his age and profession. But soon, Ling is going to bring his work in restaurants to an end and open his own souvenir shop business, certainly around Piazza Vittorio.

“’No’ to Chinatown”
The swarm of Chinese immigrants around Piazza Vittorio and neighbouring area, their gift for business, and rocketing rents have made leasing quite a profitable business. Many original residents rent or sell their houses to Chinese people and move away. Due to soaring rent for the business premises, the cost of opening a shop now is way above what it was, but still they don’t want to walk away from this area.
Piazza Vittorio’s dynamism has created employment and business opportunities, but locals do not appear happy about an exclusive area of immigrants arising in the city. Italian residents have complained that they can’t find a shop for their panino or prosciutto nearby. They blame foreigners for being interested only in making money and expanding their businesses, not caring about Roman culture and tradition.
Chen Shaomin told two stories:
During the Chinese new year of 2004, some Chinese in Piazza Vittorio hung red lanterns outside their stores, which resulted in a protest from Italian residents and the intervention of the local government. In the end, a law dating from the 1920s which says that logos in a foreign language cannot oversize those in Italian was cited and the police was sent out to take the lanterns down.
Once they also wanted to hold back the traditional New Year’s lion dance. So the Chinese people’s solution was to invite some Italian Kung Fu students to perform the lion dance. When the local governor and other people found that there were Italian people under the lion model, they were surprised and approved the event.
The Chinese community once applied for official recognition of Chinatown but failed, although there were already a Jewish quarter and a Turkish quarter. The government explained that the establishment of Chinatown would only make Chinese immigrants live in self-confinement. In order to avoid an exclusive area for a certain ethnic group to appear in Rome, Chinatown was not allowed.

Two deep-rooted cultures
According to historical records, Chinatown originated due to racial discrimination. Locals were not willing to sell lands to Chinese so a separate area was given to Chinese immigrants. It is difficult to identify whether it is historical reasons or cultural reasons that make Chinese immigrants live in a closely-knit community, but this fact is a common social phenomenon.
Furthermore, Chinese people adhere to their traditions. Despite the fact that most of the immigrants live in big western cities, they seem to be less open than people in cities in China. They devote all their attention to their families and nothing to the outside world. The Chinese certainly welcome outsiders who wish to understand their culture, but not to enter it. They tend to think their own people are always better than those outside of their circles, and no matter how well their culture is understood by foreigners, it won’t be grasped as intensively as by their own people. Moreover, they care little about adjusting to other cultures. These traits are to some extent shared by Italians. A proud nation with a long history naturally would not stand another strong one carving up on their own domain, especially in the city of which they are so proud.
It is hard to tell what made the Roman council decide against Chinatown. Nor is the question of integration easily solved. But it is worth taking a look at the famous Chinatowns in New York and Los Angeles. There, the attitude toward Chinatown is open. According to an authoritative food magazine, in 2003, Chinese immigrants brought over 20 billion dollars in commercial benefit, including restaurant business and tourism in Chinatowns. But the downside is also obvious: over half of the population living inside Chinatowns is almost totally isolated from mainstream society. Some people stay in Chinatown but can’t speak English at all because they can survive there pretty well without a single word of English: They survive on the lonely island they’ve drawn but which doesn’t actually belong to them.

Whether Chinatown will continue as a historical and cultural witness or move away as a mark of cultural isolation and racial segregation is not answerable here, but what is known is that every Chinese community or Chinatown should always be about extending rather than enclosing.