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The people’s food: the ingredients of “ethnic” hierarchies and the development of Chinese restaurants in Rome

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Abstract

In the last 20 years, the growth of Chinese immigration in Italy has increased, being characterized by multiple migration strategies linked to transnational economic activities. This has been particularly the case with the Chinese immigrant community in Rome, where many of these immigrants are involved in the restaurant or import–export business. In this context, the Chinese immigrant presence in the restaurant sector will be analysed in detail within a multimethod approach developed to explore the number, location and characteristics of all Chinese restaurants that were opened and closed since the 1970s. This exercise in economic geography is linked to other questions such as power and cultural relations, urban planning practices and the discourses of racism. The development and the geography of the Chinese restaurants allow us to understand not only how far or close they are to the mainstream Italian restaurant sector, but also the spatial trajectories of Roman Chinese in general within the urban landscape. As Chinese restaurants outside China have become a symbol of transnational Chinese identity, it is worth considering the real spatial practices attached to the construction and negotiation of this transnationality.

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Notes

  1. In 2005, the 111,000 Chinese residents in Italy constituted a quarter of the size of the Albanian, Moroccan and Romanian immigrants. Their distribution of the territory presents the highest concentration in Milan, Rome, Prato and Florence. In Rome the Chinese constitute the seventh group after the immigrants from the Philippines, Rumania, Polonia, Peru, Bangladesh and Egypt.

  2. For administration purposes, the metropolitan territory of Rome is divided into 19 municipalities which are subdivided into 155 urban zones. Each urban zone is identified by a numerical code indicating the municipality and a letter standing for the urban zone. For example, Municipality 1 includes the historical core of Rome and is divided into eight zones including the Esquilino (1E) neighbourhood.

  3. According to estimates of Carchedi and Saravia (1996) around 90% of Chinese immigrants work inside the ethnic entrepreneurship.

  4. Unfortunately there is a practice of exploitation of entry into the Italian economy that supports, in some sectors in diverse areas of the country, the black market economy and consequently illegal workers. In Italy, this involves the exploitation of a number of under-age workers ranging from 100,000 to 400,000. To sum up, that aspect which is stigmatized for the immigrants, is completely removed when being referred to Italians.

  5. This first phase of work has permitted also the construction of a photographic database, which offers the possibility of a visual registration of Chinese presence.

  6. In the past the newspaper dailies had reported diverse valuations that overestimate the effective number of restaurants, never reporting the source of the estimate. La Repubblica of 16th May (1992), wrote ‘in the last year the restaurants that smell of Peking duck and dim sum , which have a menu that combines with great ability ‘colour, fragrance, consistency and freshness’, have tripled, and are becoming more than a hundred’. The next day, La Repubblica of 17th May (1992) wrote “[...] more than three hundred restaurants have sprung up everywhere in the last few years.” La Repubblica of the 6th of Decembre (1998) mentioned the number at 360, becoming 380, after less than a year, in Repubblica of the 7th of November (1999). According to the il Corriere della Sera, 16 September (1998), there were 400. Another 400 restaurants also for il Messaggero on the 22nd of May (2003). On the contrary we have a strong underestimate in Cortese (1991) of 112 restaurants in Rome.

  7. The opening of the first MacDonald’s in Rome came in 1986.

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Acknowledgement

Many thanks to Wei Li, Carlos Teixera and an anonymous reviewer for their comments and support.

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  1. Interdepartmental Centre for Studies on the Population and Society of Rome, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Via Nomentana 41, Rome, 00161, Italy

    Pierpaolo Mudu

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Correspondence to Pierpaolo Mudu.

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Mudu, P. The people’s food: the ingredients of “ethnic” hierarchies and the development of Chinese restaurants in Rome. GeoJournal 68, 195–210 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-007-9080-1

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