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No Drachentor, no red lantern sky. Unlike the famed Chinatowns of New York or San Francisco, the boundaries in the heart of Milan are unspectacularly fluid between Italianità and Chinese tradition.
The displays change from one aisle to the next. Colorful clothing, glittering knick-knacks, electrical items, mobile phone accessories. And lots of exotic takeaways. The Chinese script extends over the facades of the old buildings and adorns countless small shops. The smell of frying oil hangs in the air. Where quality Italian craftsmanship was once home to, cheap Asian goods and spicy street food now lure thousands of tourists and locals to the alleys around Via Paolo Sarpi. Pizza and pasta have long since given way to Szechuan hot pot, fried sesame dumplings, ramen soup and steamed dumplings.
Chinatown is very competitive
Vera (77) and Willy Baumgartner (65) also stroll through the pedestrian area. The two Germans have a vacation apartment in Capolago TI. Milan is only an hour from the south of Ticino by car. “We didn’t know Chinatown yet, we wanted to eat something here,” says the retired teacher to Blick. “We were a bit disappointed. A lot of things seem run down.” The couple had also expected a bit more Chinese splendor.
Chinatown in Milan is not Disneyland. It’s a hard-fought patch. Chinese dealers generate a billion euros a year and provide 5,000 jobs in the metropolis. The 30,000-strong Chinese community also has all its drawbacks: illegal prostitution, money laundering, extortion, drug trafficking. Crime that remains exclusively in the “family”. The most recent incident happened on Easter Monday. In a Chinese restaurant, a 25-year-old was stabbed by a compatriot.
The center of the big business world was and is Milan’s Chinatown. It is firmly in the hands of overseas Chinese, mainly from the southern Chinese province of Zhejiang. Most families come from the trading city of Wenzhou, today the center of Chinese textile and shoe production.
Street food instead of traditional companies
100 years ago, the first immigrants fled poverty from China. Nowadays, more and more Chinese drive around in expensive Teslas and their apartments in the neighborhood now cost between 8,000 and 10,000 euros per square meter. Chinatown has its own newspapers, medical center, hotels and travel agencies – exclusively for Chinese people.
Almost all the shops in the busy maze of alleyways are Chinese. “Where the Oriental Mall is now, there used to be an Italian bookstore,” says Pier Franco Lionetto (80) from Milan. «Igor, the orthopedist, has now also given up. We hardly have any bakeries anymore.” Even the traditional butcher shop has now sold the business to the Chinese, 70 years after it was founded. Although only one in ten inhabitants of Chinatown is Chinese, Asians dominate the area. “Most live on the affordable edge of the city and come to work here,” says the pensioner.
Every day trucks in the narrow streets
Pier Franco Lionetto knows Chinatown inside out. He grew up in the neighborhood and has been president of Vivi Sarpi for 24 years. The citizens’ movement was founded in 1999 when Chinese wholesalers began to overtake the area. At the beginning of the last century, the Chinese still made silk ties and leather belts. 20 years ago there was a new wave of immigration. No poverty refugees. The new Chinese have money, take over entire streets and use more than 300 shops as warehouses. At the same time, they buy market stalls all over Europe. “They stored their stuff imported from China in our neighborhood, but sold it all over Europe,” says Lionetto. “Trucks and vans drove through the streets all day long.” This angered many citizens.
When the city authorities restricted truck traffic to certain times, a Chinese uprising broke out in April 2007. Three years later, the Milan government turned the district into a pedestrian zone. Wholesale was pushed to other parts of the city. “It’s been much better since then,” says Lionetto. “Now we have a waste problem on the street food mile at best.” However, the Milanese were never really warm to the Chinese community. “The Chinese are very closed. Many elderly people hardly speak Italian. They keep to themselves,” says Lionetto.
Stephane Hu’s (39) great-grandfather once fled to Milan. Hu himself grew up in France and has lived in Italy for years. He is a businessman and president of the Trade Association of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Italy (UNIIC). «The second and third generation Chinese speak Italian like the natives. You know European culture well. Many study at universities. Some become lawyers or doctors and stop doing business. I think the younger generation will integrate better and better. It will become part of society, as it is now in the United States.”
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
