- Words and visions around/about Chinese transnational mobilities 流动
- Edited by Valentina Pedone, Miriam Castorina
Representations of labour mobility from China to Italy by worker writer Deng Yuehua
- Valentina Pedone
- © 2023 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0068-4.05
Within the many typologies of mobility between China and Italy, labour mobility is the one that is numerically most important, constituting over 80% of Chinese citizens living in Italy. In terms of cultural productivity, however, it is the one that is least represented. While Chinese international students who live in Italy are very active in the visual arts and individuals who reached Italy through other forms of privileged mobility are also well represented by their literary production in Italian or Chinese, immigrants who work in sectors that require lower skills appear to be under-represented as far as their cultural production is concerned. In this chapter, I introduce the work of Deng Yuehua, a migrant from Fujian who arrived in Italy in 1991. Since then he has been working in different factories and sweatshops run by other Chinese migrants while constantly publishing his writings. In the mid-2000s, he started publishing works in Chinese in local Sinophone magazines and newspapers, as well as on the web. I observe how his production revolves around the trope of the youzi 游子, the wanderer, which has a long tradition in his area of origin. Moreover, by drawing on the new mobility studies paradigm, I highlight how through textual analysis of the production by mobile subjects, we can infer knowledge on the implications of specific mobilities that would be hard to gain otherwise. Specifically, Deng Yuehua’s work casts an important light on the private and personal dimensions of individuals who are involved in labour mobility flows from Southern China to Italy.
- Keywords:
- Chinese migration,
- SIno-Italian writers,
- China-Italy labour mobility,
- Sinophone Italy,
University of Florence, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-2617-6886
- Benton, Gregor, and Frank N. Pieke, eds. 1998. The Chinese in Europe. Houndmills, Basinstoke, Hampshire - New York: Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-26096-6
- Carmosino, Daniela. 2020. “Il cambiamento come opportunità mobilità sociale e mobilità identitaria nel romanzo A modo nostro di Chen He.” [Change as chance: Mobility and identity mobility in the novel In our own way by Chen He]. Scritture Migranti 14: 230-47. DOI: 10.6092/issn.2035-7141/13872
- Ceccagno, Antonella. 2017. City Making and Global Labor Regimes: Chinese Immigrants and Italy's Fast Fashion Industry. Cham Switzerland: Palgrave Mcmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-59981-6
- Chen, He. 2012. Hong bai hei 红白黑. [Red white black]. Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe.
- Chen, Ningyang. 2021. “Translation as subversion and subjugation: Sándor Petőfi’s ‘Liberty and Love’ in China.” Neohelicon 48: 577–97. DOI: 10.1007/s11059-021-00593-y
- Clifford, James. 1997. Roots: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard U.P.
- Cresswell, Tim. 2006. On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western World. New York: Routledge.
- Deng, Yuehua. 2005. Wo zai Ouzhou de rizi li 我在欧洲的日子. [My days in Europe]. Serialized on Ouzhou huaren bao/Europe Chinese News.
- Deng, Yuehua. 2007. Dou xiang you ge jia 都想有个家. [Everyone wants a family]. Serialized on Yidali Ouzhou qiaobao 意大利欧洲侨报.
- Deng, Yuehua. 2021. Zhongguoren zai Yidali 中国人在意大利 [Chinese in Italy]. <https://book.qq.com/book-read/38637405/1>.
- Hannam, Kevin, Mimi Sheller and John Urry. 2006. “Editorial: Mobilities, Immobilities and Moorings”. Mobilities 1, no. 1: 1-22. DOI: 10.1080/17450100500489189
- Hockx, Michel. 2015. Internet Literature in China. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Merriman, Peter, and Lynne Pearce. 2017. “Mobility and the Humanities.” Mobilities 12, no. 4: 493-508. DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2017.1330853
- Moore, Marketa, and Czeslaw Tubilewicz. 2001. “Chinese migrants in the Czech Republic. Perfect Strangers.” Asian Survey 41: 611-28.
- Pedone, Valentina. 2013. A Journey to the West: Observations on the Chinese migration to Italy. Firenze: Firenze University Press. DOI: 10.36253/978-88-6655-462-2
- Pieke, Frank N., Pál Nyíri, Mette Thuno, and Antonella Ceccagno. 2004. Transnational Chinese: Fujianese Migrants in Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Sheller, Mimi, and John Urry. 2006. “The New Mobilities Paradigm.” Environment and Planning A 38, no. 2: 207–26. DOI: 10.1068/a37268
Chapter Information
Chapter Title
Representations of labour mobility from China to Italy by worker writer Deng Yuehua
Authors
Valentina Pedone
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0068-4.05
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2023
Copyright Information
© 2023 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Bibliographic Information
Book Title
Words and visions around/about Chinese transnational mobilities 流动
Editors
Valentina Pedone, Miriam Castorina
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
204
Publication Year
2023
Copyright Information
© 2023 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0068-4
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0067-7
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0068-4
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-0069-1
Series Title
Studi e saggi
Series ISSN
2704-6478
Series E-ISSN
2704-5919