The Price of Belonging and Honouring One’s Ancestors: The Struggles for Identity, Recognition and Integration of the Chinese Community in Italy

Chinese migration to Italy has been consistent for more than a century, starting with small Chinese shops opening in Milan in the early 1900s. Today, the Chinese community in Italy numbers around 300,000 and is among the most employed and productive non-EU foreign communities residing in the country. Data collected by the CSER (Centre for Migration Studies Rome) further highlights the gender parity when it comes to employment (76% of men and 68% of women) and even in leading and sustaining private enterprises and activities, with almost half of these being owned by women(47%)[1]. Economically, in terms of raw data, Chinese immigration to Italy is thus an undeniable success story; however, culturally and socially, the Chinese community struggles and has struggled to reconcile their traditions with the Italian way of life. This much was true for Shi Yang Shi, an actor raised in Italy who struggled to balance his parents’ expectations of him with his own desire to pursue a career in the arts; there was no space for personal desire, only duty to support himself and his family. Yang’s is but one of many stories that started more than thirty years ago, when he arrived in Milan as an undocumented migrant, and eventually gained a right to reside permanently in the country[2]. By taking a closer look at Yang’s first-hand experience and contextualising it with studies on the integration of the Chinese community in Italy, this article aims to understand just how heavy the burden can be for those who are part of the Chinese diaspora and seek a better life for themselves abroad.

Yang’s Story: Defying Filial Piety

In 1990, 11-year-old Yang left Jinan, one of the largest metropolises in the People’s Republic, for Milan. There, he and his mother joined his father, an engineer, who had been living in Italy’s economic capital since 1982. The first few months were not easy for the child, as he would later recall:

We lived with acquaintances for a time, me and my mother slept in their kitchen, we slept between the dishwasher and the fridge … we could not sleep much, but we wrote letters back to our relatives saying that we were doing great*[2]

If his home life was not ideal, he also started falling behind in school due to a noticeable language barrier. This took the largest toll on him, as he used to excel in his studies back in Jinan. Eventually, Yang came to a simple realisation: ‘If I could learn to speak Italian, I could escape my culture, I would not be isolated as the “Chinese kid” … eventually I started doing well in school’*[2]. The notion of escaping one’s culture would become more significant in his young adulthood. Years later he got accepted into Bocconi University, one of the most prestigious universities in Italy, where he began his studies in economics. With only four exams left, however, he knew he could not stand the kind of office life the degree was promising him, and thus decided to quit the course, much to the dismay of his father, and pursue an acting career.

A. Shi Yang Shi on stage, performing his monologue: ‘“Arle-Chino, Traduttore-Traditore di due padroni”’, 2022.

Taking a quick look at CSER data, Chinese-Italian workers are focused mostly in the trades (28%), industry (30%) and hospitality (28.5%)[1]; pursuing an artistic career is thus not just uncommon, but exceedingly rare and considered borderline immoral. Indeed, Yang himself stated: ‘how can you dream of being an artist when your parents gave up everything for you? … You must honour your ancestors’[2]. According to Yang’s father, his choice tainted the family’s honour, as he bluntly told him: ‘You are the disease which makes my heart ache’[2].

For a Western reader, this might seem like an overly harsh reaction from a parent; however, from Yang’s father’s perspective, his son had defied filial piety(xiao). Filial piety ‘refers to the duty children owe their parents … showing filial obedience consists of following the wishes of one’s parents … [it is] the foundation of all virtues’[3]. According to Hong Kong’s Academy of Chinese Studies, ‘one can see that [filial piety] implies that one is submissive to one’s parents’[3]. The alternative path which Yang chose was and is seen as particularly problematic in Chinese culture, since anyone involved in entertainment was historically regarded as possessing low morals; during the Qing and Tang dynasty, actors were considered part of the jianmin ‘mean people’ alongside sex workers and slaves[4]. It is in this context that one has to understand Yang’s father’s reaction, who had worked hard and planned for his son a life as part of the liangmin ‘good people’, historically involved with studying, trading, and crafting[5]. This explains the high number of Italian-Chinese people dedicating themselves to activities linked to trade, whereby they likely followed in the steps of their family and ancestors, maintaining their honour intact.

B. ‘Illustrations of the Classic of Filial Piety (孝經圖), attributed to Li Gonglin (李公麟), c.1085–1100.

The Challenge of Integration And Seeing One in Another’s Eyes

As has been made clear, reconciling one’s life in a Western country with traditional Chinese values is not easy. In the case of Yang, this was even more difficult, due to the psychological distress of being an undocumented migrant. In a study conducted by the Italian Rivista di Psichiatria, six respondents were interviewed nine years apart; half were undocumented asylum seekers (UAS), while the other three refugees(R). The results showed the refugees struggling more in the beginning, but eventually settling down over time, and learning Italian fluently; undocumented asylum seekers, contrarily, had an easier time at the beginning but were struggling when interviewed again at a later time. According to Aragona and Castaldo[6], the institutional support of the Italian government is crucial for reducing mental stress and thus encouraging integration within the wider society.

Yang himself is passionately committed to promoting cultural dialogue and mutual understanding between the Italian-Chinese community and other cultures coexisting in the Bel Paese. ‘To achieve peaceful coexistence, it is necessary for both Italian and Chinese people to see themselves in the other’[2], he stated, whilst promoting an exhibition called Face Wall Prato Days. This was held in the city of Prato, Tuscany, known for its large Chinese community, and featured pictures of 100 couples of friends from different backgrounds, showing how ‘friendships between different peoples and cultures exist’[6]. The exhibition was also accompanied by a three-day event featuring workshops on traditional Chinese writing alongside lessons on African hairstyling, to show visitors just how many cultures and realities coexist and thrive within the city limits.

While economically well integrated on paper, the sociocultural differences people of Chinese heritage have to navigate in their daily lives make their acceptance of and by Italian society quite difficult. Beyond language barriers, the true civilisational divide lies at the heart of every family; Western individualism against filial piety, living for oneself against living to honour one’s family. Yang eventually managed to resolve this dilemma, as his father is now proud of his son’s success; but that success did not come easily nor without deep wounds needing decades to heal[2]. In his support of initiatives like the Face Wall Prato Days, the Italian-Chinese actor sends an important message to his fellow citizens and to the Italian government; true integration can only start when one starts to see and respect the other in their differences.

Integration is twofold; if Chinese children and their parents struggle to learn Italian, as in the case of Yang, their teachers should perhaps make an effort to learn basic Chinese greetings. Small gestures often go a long way to bridge cultural differences and build mutual trust. For years now, in some Italian primary schools, there have been initiatives to change the canteens’ menus every week or so, in order to teach children the variety of regional dishes that are present in the country. Why not ask Italian-Chinese parents, and others from different backgrounds, to participate in such an initiative? Sharing a meal from one’s own culture with others, and the others reciprocating, can create a relaxed environment where differences can be welcomed. If institutional integration can only come via a signed document, real acceptance is much more difficult to achieve; by organising events such as these, however, one can start bridging that great civilisational divide more effectively.

Post Scriptum

The * character signals translations made by the author of interviews conducted by third parties in Italian.

References

1.Centro Studi Emigrazione Roma (CSER), 2025. Comunità cinese in Italia — Rapporto annuale 2025. Roma: CSER.

2.Le Invasioni Barbariche, 2015. Intervista a Shi Yang Shi. YouTube.

3.Academy of Chinese Studies, 2021. Chinese Spirit of Filial Piety and Fraternal Love.

4.Hansson, H.A. (1988) Regional outcast groups in Late Imperial China. Ph.D. thesis. Harvard University.

5.The Four Occupations or Four Categories of People (士农工商). In: Baofeng, X. (eds) Contextual Dictionary of Chinese Cultural Knowledge. Springer, Singapore.

6.Aragona, M. and Castaldo, M., (2025). ‘An exploratory follow-up study on the relationship between asylum application outcomes, language competence, psychological well-being, and social integration in Chinese fleeing religious persecution. Rivista di Psichiatria, 60(1), pp. 22–26.

Images

A.Retrieved from: Mulas, F. (2022) ‘Teatro, Shi Yang Shi arriva in Sardegna con “Arle-Chino”: “Vi racconto la mia Cina”’, Nemesis Magazine, 12 February.

B.Retrieved from: [Shutterstock-The Art Archive](http://The Art Archive)(2026)