Call for abstracts

China and Its Diaspora: The Italian Case

Year 2025, Volume 16, Issue 1

A Call for Abstracts is open for Volume 16, Issue 1 (2025), whose thematic section will focus on the relationship between China and its diaspora, analyzed through the Italian case.

Thematic Section of the Issue

Italy has held the European record for several decades for the size of the stable settlement of citizens from the People's Republic of China on its territory. The Chinese diaspora in Italy includes approximately 300,000 people who are Chinese citizens, as well as about 15,000 individuals of Chinese origin who have acquired Italian citizenship. While this population may appear small compared to the much larger communities of Chinese-origin citizens in Britain or France, what makes it a unique case deserving of deeper and more systematic consideration is the closer relationship it maintains with the homeland.

This connection—political, economic, cultural, as well as personal and emotional—assumes particular importance in the Italian case because over a third of the Chinese population in Italy was born or raised in the country. Many members of this group know China only through narratives conveyed via complementary Chinese-language education during childhood and adolescence, the nostalgic and idiosyncratic accounts of their parents and grandparents, and occasional visits to the ancestral homeland during early childhood or sporadic summer stays.

Despite this, the relationships that link the Chinese homeland to its overseas citizens have intensified and become more meaningful over the past fifteen years. These relationships now go beyond the role historically envisioned during the reform period, when diaspora policies primarily aimed to attract investments for the country's development and modernization. Since the mid-2010s, the Huaqiao ("overseas Chinese") have assumed a much more prominent role in Chinese political discourse, being explicitly identified as key protagonists in the historic mission of the "rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

They are tasked with the honor and responsibility of "correctly" conveying the nation’s image abroad and supporting its political aspirations and priorities. At the same time, there has been a strengthening of the rhetoric surrounding Chinese identity and the eternal belonging to the Chinese nation, which transcends passports and cultural adaptations to non-Chinese contexts. This identity rhetoric has grown even stronger alongside China's economic and political rise.

Diasporic associations and their agencies for cultural socialization and reproduction are thus entrusted with maintaining a strong sense of identity and preserving a narrative of the homeland, its civilization, and its linguistic and cultural heritage. However, in this expanded effort to implement new diaspora engagement and governance strategies, little room is left to recognize the complex processes of identity accommodation and linguistic-cultural integration that have always characterized diasporic experiences. These processes are particularly significant in the context of declining Chinese emigration to Italy, which has been steadily decreasing since 2010.

 

Aim of the Issue

This issue of OrizzonteCina aims to explore the various aspects and implications of the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and its diaspora in Italy. The issue welcomes original articles that have not been previously published and that offer contributions on topics related to these implications, particularly (but not exclusively) within the following areas:

  • Historical, territorial, and social development of Chinese associations in Italy:

    • History of Chinese associations in Italy and their key figures;
    • Characteristics and territorial development of Chinese associations in Italy;
    • Economic, social, political, and cultural relevance of Chinese associations in Italy;
    • Development, characteristics, and activities of complementary Chinese schools in Italy.

  • Characteristics, opportunities, and challenges of the relationship between diaspora organizations, Chinese government and non-governmental institutions responsible for their engagement/coordination, and PRC diplomatic representatives in Italy:

    • Historical development of Chinese diaspora policies by the CCP and the relevant government and non-governmental institutions;
    • Case studies on the implementation of such policies and practices in various contexts of the Chinese diaspora in Italy (e.g., community service centers for overseas Chinese, adoption of specific curricula in complementary schools).

  • Cultural and literary productions related to the diasporic experience and its role in constructing Chinese modernity in Italy and other European diasporic contexts (in a comparative perspective):

    • The importance of diaspora history in the contemporary PRC cultural productions dedicated to history and memory, including museums, exhibitions, monuments, etc.

 

Submission Guidelines

The Editorial Committee of OrizzonteCina invites authors wishing to contribute to these discussions to submit their abstracts to orizzontecina@tochina.it by January 15, 2025. Along with the abstract, please indicate the type of article you intend to propose, as outlined by OrizzonteCina, in case your abstract is accepted.

Authors whose abstracts are accepted will find editorial guidelines for preparing their manuscripts, along with details about the peer-review process, on the journal’s website.

Timeline

  • January 15, 2025 – Deadline for submitting abstracts in response to this Call for Abstracts
  • January 20, 2025 – Notification of accepted and declined abstracts
  • March 31, 2025 – Deadline for submitting the article and starting the peer-review process
  • April 30, 2025 – Notification of the peer-review outcomes
  • June 2025 – Release of the issue in digital format

 

ARCHIVE

A new paradigm of 'Chineseness'?

Year 2024, volume 15, number 2

A Call for Abstracts is open for volume 15, issue 2 (2024), whose subject section will be devoted to new meanings of Chinese identity.

Topics of the subject section of the issue

The end of the pandemic emergency in China and the country's full reopening to international trade seems to have ushered in a new phase in the long-suffering process of redefining Chinese identity. While the reform era (1978-2008) had proposed to the world an open and cosmopolitan idea of "Chineseness", in which the promises of an unstoppable rise on the global stage were combined with the willingness to accept the demands for representation and recognition of an increasingly openly plural Chinese society, shaken by rapid transformations also in cultural terms, the so-called New Era seems to have consolidated its narrative in a symbolic return to the unity and uniqueness of the Chinese experience.

In the political sphere, the teleocratic afflatus (according to Oakeshott's famous definition) inherent to the Leninist party-state is renewed, with an insistent call to 'remember the original mission' of the Chinese Communist Party, which is to be combined with the rebirth and full affirmation of a Chinese national identity that is as compact and unified as possible. This reorientation implies a rigorous monitoring and governance of all marginal and liminal Chinese identities: from ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities to political and cultural ones, including the chaotic universe of the Chinese diaspora. In the cultural field, an increasingly overtly prescriptive vision of the Chinese nation is emerging, conceived as a community of destiny defined in ethnic, linguistic, and historical terms that leave no room for further declinations, alternative interpretations, or cautious academic distinctions.

This redefinition process of the Chinese national identity paradigm goes hand in hand with a growing sense of political and cultural isolation. Signs of this can be seen, for example, in the sharp reduction in the presence of foreign students and scholars, particularly Westerners, as well as expatriate professionals and long-term residents in China, if only compared to ten years ago. In a country historically characterised by very low levels of foreign immigration, this further contraction stands in sharp contrast to the role it has long played as a leading global political player in the diplomatic and economic fields.

This issue of OrizzonteCina therefore aims to explore the possible formation of a new paradigm of 'Chineseness' and the implications of this identity-political construct within and beyond the borders of the People's Republic of China. The issue welcomes previously unpublished articles that offer an original contribution on issues related to these implications, referring in particular (but not exclusively) to the following areas:

New identity narratives:

  • focused on the definition of the Chinese nation and those who are called to be part of it;
  • declined in a proactively assimilatory sense, both towards China's ethnic minorities and Chinese linguistic diversity (repression of the fangyan and related dialects);
  • understood in a militant political sense, i.e. as the mobilisation of members of the CCP and society at large for the sake of greater national awareness;
  • combined with the development of nationalist, nativist and racialising language in political communication, media and academic publications.

Institutional implications:

  • reformulation and reorganisation of the political-administrative bodies responsible for the protection and governance of minorities and the promotion of a national consciousness in politics and society;
  • preservation of interpretation and narrative correctness in the political, communicative and academic spheres;
  • fostering curricula focused on the promotion of a new Chinese national identity in education at every level and in every Chinese context, including autonomous regions and the sphere of overseas Chinese;
  • discursive practices related to national and local processes of supporting or opposing the development of a new Chinese national identity paradigm.