Authors: Laura Leonardi, Giulia Marchet
The butterfly and the cocoon: The Chinese community of Prato (Italy) during COVID-19
Abstract
This paper examines how COVID-19 is reframing social relations between the Chinese and the Italian communities in Prato. Here the unexpected and voluntary adhesion of the Chinese community to the rules of self-isolation in times when the alarm was not yet high in Italy, raises questions on whether some behaviors should be obtained with measures that limit the individual freedom of agency or individuals are motivated to adopt them even without their freedoms being limited by external institutions.
Photo: Prato’s China Town, April 10, 2020 (taken by Giulia Marchetti) Introduction
Despite its biological origin, COVID-19 is, without risking misuse of the term, a total social fact [1]. It is a global fact, illustrating the "Butterfly Effect" metaphor, where small local events can have global effects that can in turn stimulate profound changes in social relations in local contexts [2]. We suggest considering the local context as a cocoon for a new social formation, a result of the reframing of meanings, forms of communication, and recognition among different subjects at individual and collective levels.
With the virus spreading beyond the Chinese borders, it was immediately clear that two orders of authorities were needed to defeat the invisible enemy: the medical authority and the political authority. The strategies that are put in place to slow down the contagion are based on the temporary suppression of physical contacts, entailing the suspension of civil rights such as the right to freedom of movement. The draconian measures put in place by the Chinese government have proved to be successful, causing in Western democracies a review of the role of the state and the limits that can be overcome or not.
Today, in our everyday lives, we are witnessing quantitative methods take a leading role. People’s lives are marked by daily statistics releases regarding the spread of the pandemic, the death toll by age group, the number of tests carried out, and the availability of beds in intensive care. Meanwhile, social distancing has prevented social researchers from using qualitative methods that require physical interaction. The novelty of this situation requires nontraditional literature
references like newspaper articles, TV programs, and social media. A combination of participant observation and these empirical materials are the sources of this short paper.
The Chinese community in Prato: From scapegoat to savior
The textile city of Prato (Tuscany) is home to one of the most concentrated Chinese communities in Europe, with almost 23,000 Chinese immigrants making up ⅛ of the population. They are largely from Wenzhou (Zhejiang), and began immigrating in the mid-1990s. Prato also has around 6,000 Chinese-owned companies, mostly in the fast fashion sector. There have always been challenges to the integration of the Chinese community, as its presence has provoked strong anti-immigrant sentiment, which has not deeply explored yet. It has been scapegoated for the decline of the city’s primary economic sector, the textile industry, a decline based in international economic dynamics but whose beginnings coincided temporally with the first arrivals of Chinese [3] [4] [5].
Shortly after Chinese authorities reported Wuhan (Hubei)’s novel coronavirus outbreak at the end of December 2019, Chinese diasporic communities around the world began experiencing verbal attacks, discrimination, and even physical aggression [6].
In Italy, the Chinese community immediately attracted scrutiny from both national right-wing parties in the media and Prato natives in everyday life. At the end of January 2020, local health authorities and the Florence Chinese consulate estimated that around 2,000 Chinese were returning to Prato after celebrating the Lunar New Year in China. Many expected Prato to become the Italian epicenter of the virus outbreak [7].
Chinese in Prato are often stereotyped as people who do not respect the law. They have been accused of flouting tax and labor laws, enabling their economic success. Yet with the COVID-19 crisis, they are now being praised as models of responsible behavior. The mayor of Prato has publicly thanked them for enabling Prato to be one of the Italian cities less vulnerable to the virus in terms of contagions and deaths [8]. “Once scapegoats, they are now held up by authorities as a model for early, strict adoption of infection-control measures and among Chinese residents in Prato there isn’t even one case of COVID contagion” [9].
Prato’s Chinese community went into lockdown starting as early as the end of January, almost one month before February 21, the date “patient one” was identified in the Codogno outbreak. While the native population of Prato still believed that the novel coronavirus was akin to a tough flu, the Chinese community disappeared. Prato’s China Town streets, usually teeming with people at any time of the day, were deserted. Chinese restaurants and takeaways closed their doors. Electronics stores, small supermarkets, pastry shops, wedding planners and even slot machine businesses were also closed. When the national government suspended all nonessential factory work on March 21, the Chinese fast fashion factories also ceased activity. Also the Chinese Buddhist temple that organizes annual Lunar New Year festivities, instead of flying its Chinese dragon along the streets of Prato during the first weekend of February, kept it lying on the floor. Instead, the temple rallied its community to collect 10,000 medical face masks for those affected by the virus in Codogno [10].
In the days we are writing this paper, Italy is one of the most affected countries in the world and Prato’s people are finding in their mailboxes face masks donated by their Chinese neighbors. The envelope has a hand-drawn rainbow and the words, “Forza Italia!!!”. And almost naturally in these
days of social distancing, posting the gift given by the Chinese has become a new social media meme.
The reasons for self-isolation
Why, in the absence of strict authoritarian constraint, did the Chinese in Prato adopt self-isolation? How have they organized themselves to implement it? What has changed within their community and with its relations with natives?
Journalistic accounts have explained the relative success of the Chinese community in protecting itself from the virus as due to the process of “double quarantine” both before departing China and upon arriving to Italy, the respect of strict hygiene rules, community control via social media, its younger population, the fact of Zhejiang having fewer cases [11][12]. However, the reasons behind the behavior of the Chinese community are deeper and manifold. The following paragraphs contain results from participant observation in Prato’s China Town up until March 12, 2020 during the first period of local virus transmission1. In particular, some key aspects emerge, relating to the circulation of knowledge about the effects of the virus through narratives, risk awareness, and the adoption of forms of social control.
Access to firsthand knowledge of COVID-19 and SARS. Since the Chinese community in Prato is recently immigrated, many have family in China with firsthand experience with the virus and ensuing lockdown. The community uses Chinese media and social media – WeChat, Huarenjie – so horror stories direct from China circulated widely outside of family networks too. Furthermore, many have personal or cultural memory of SARS. The Chinese community recognized the seriousness of the virus early on.
Higher risk of interacting with potential carriers traveling from China. In contrast to Milan’s, Prato’s Chinese community is insular, so despite Italian fears, the people most at risk of interacting with possible carriers traveling from China were Chinese. And the Chinese knew this, hence the caution, fear, and mistrust among the community, of each other. Posters on doors of Chinese businesses and social media posts alike reprimanded all recent travelers from China to self-quarantine for 14 days. These behaviors were responsible but also self-protective.
Snowball effect of economic and social pressure. The Chinese community is not a monolith. Not every individual was inclined to take protective measures. What made the difference was the critical mass. When scared customers stopped coming to businesses, this placed economic pressure on businesses to close. Customer pressure could work alongside business leadership. For example, a Chinese school closed from February 6-14, then again from February 26 (shortly after the Lombardy outbreak began) onward. It announced its closing was based on “conversations with students and parents, and on account of social responsibilities and student safety.” There was also social pressure, compounded in a tight-knit community: “If you go outside, people will talk.” This social dimension extended to actively helping each other limit outside contact, like shopping for supplies for each other.
Economic inter/independence. Extending the previous point, Chinese businesses survive off of Chinese customers. When those customers stop coming, the businesses can only close because they don’t have another customer base.
1 Participan observation was carried out by Chinese American writer Julie Chen. She was awarded a
Risk to be stigmatized if people became sick. The risk of increased racism if Chinese became sick may have been a motivator to be more proactive about virus protection. Chinese who publicly objected to racism, mostly younger — 1.5 or second-generation Chinese — stressed the importance of anti-racism alongside advocating for virus protection measures. For example, the Florence-based organization of Unione Giovani Italiani Cinesi (UGIC), the association of young Chinese Italians, held the viral #IoNonSonoUnVirus performance in part fighting the stigma against masks. They have encouraged mask-wearing in other social media posts. On March 5, UGIC circulated a petition calling for a lockdown of all cities with cases, citing how this policy had worked in China. The fights against racism and the virus could be intertwined.
Lack of faith in Italian government and natives’ response. In contrast to China’s powerful state and virus response, the Chinese community saw Italy’s notorious bureaucracy as likely to fall short. A February 25 article in the Chinese European newspaper New Europe, “Prato’s Chinese Scared, Italy’s Outbreak Prevention Has Already Miscalculated,” describes the Italian government response as “negligent” and sure to lead to “frightening consequences.” Even before the virus, Chinese had limited trust in the government that they generally couldn’t vote in, and whose failings they knew intimately through its long, convoluted residency permit process. They have since expressed that they also feel that Italian citizens don’t take the virus seriously. Lacking faith in the state or local society to protect them, they protected themselves.
Conclusions
While in Wuhan a policy of close surveillance and severe sanctions was carried out by the Chinese government, the Chinese population of Prato has adopted self-isolation without external coercive intervention. In Prato’s case, individual behaviors are not only due to the effectiveness of social control mechanisms and internalized rules, in the Durkheimian sense. What has emerged is the importance of the increased reflexivity of the subjects involved, assumption of responsibility on an individual level, and changes in forms of communication, even symbolic, between the Chinese and Italians, in which the proactive role of young Chinese Italians suggests fruitful considerations. These observations about Prato in the time of COVID-19 raise questions about new forms of transnationalism in diasporic communities and the emergence of new forms of political action and citizenship that transcend the territorial and political boundaries of states [13] [14].
Are there foundations for a new fabric of social relations, inclusive of the Chinese population? A social change is underway. We will see if it will remain a cocoon or become a butterfly that with its flapping wings can generate wider transformations.
References
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Laura LEONARDI is professor of Sociology at the Department of Political and Social Science, at the University of Florence and President of the M.A degree in Sociology and Global Challenges. Her research interests and her main publications are social inequalities, social citizenship; the impact of Europeanisation and globalisation on local societies; work and welfare; identity and solidarity, social theory.
https://www.unifi.it/p-doc2-2012-200011-L-3f2a3d2f3b2b2a.html
Giulia MARCHETTI is a PhD candidate in Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia. Her research project is part of the YMAP Project and examines how transnational mobility impacts on identity and youth-to-adulthood transition among young Italians. Giulia’s research interests centre on migration, refugees, racism, women, youth and aging population in Italy.
