Contained in:
Book Chapter

Representations of labour mobility from China to Italy by worker writer Deng Yuehua

  • Valentina Pedone

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,
+ Show More

Valentina Pedone

University of Florence, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-2617-6886

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. Chen, He. 2012. Hong bai hei 红白黑. [Red white black]. Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe.
  5. 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
  6. Clifford, James. 1997. Roots: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard U.P.
  7. Cresswell, Tim. 2006. On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western World. New York: Routledge.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. Deng, Yuehua. 2021. Zhongguoren zai Yidali 中国人在意大利 [Chinese in Italy]. <https://book.qq.com/book-read/38637405/1>.
  11. Hannam, Kevin, Mimi Sheller and John Urry. 2006. “Editorial: Mobilities, Immobilities and Moorings”. Mobilities 1, no. 1: 1-22. DOI: 10.1080/17450100500489189
  12. Hockx, Michel. 2015. Internet Literature in China. New York: Columbia University Press.
  13. Merriman, Peter, and Lynne Pearce. 2017. “Mobility and the Humanities.” Mobilities 12, no. 4: 493-508. DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2017.1330853
  14. Moore, Marketa, and Czeslaw Tubilewicz. 2001. “Chinese migrants in the Czech Republic. Perfect Strangers.” Asian Survey 41: 611-28.
  15. 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
  16. Pieke, Frank N., Pál Nyíri, Mette Thuno, and Antonella Ceccagno. 2004. Transnational Chinese: Fujianese Migrants in Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  17. Sheller, Mimi, and John Urry. 2006. “The New Mobilities Paradigm.” Environment and Planning A 38, no. 2: 207–26. DOI: 10.1068/a37268
PDF
  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Pages: 31-44
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2023 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2023 Author(s)

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

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

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

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

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

77

Fulltext
downloads

77

Views

Export Citation

1,297

Open Access Books

in the Catalogue

1,746

Book Chapters

3,070,547

Fulltext
downloads

3,973

Authors

from 817 Research Institutions

of 63 Nations

61

scientific boards

from 334 Research Institutions

of 42 Nations

1,139

Referees

from 343 Research Institutions

of 36 Nations