• Director(s):

    PAOLI (TERESA)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE G.E.I.E, Upian

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2017

  • Language(s):

    German, English, French

  • Rights:

    TV, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET

In Tuscany, near Florence, the decline of the Italian textile industry has given way to the Chinese ready-to-wear industry.

The arrival of the Chinese in Prato dates back to the 1990s. Hailing from Wenzhou, the first arrivals worked in the textile sector. Some of them soon set up their own businesses, extending their activities to making clothes, whereas the Italian industrialists only made the fabric.
The Chinese community in Prato today numbers some 50,000 people in a population of 190,000, and is the third biggest in Europe after London and Paris.
A school has been set up for the children of the diaspora in a former factory building. Every weekend, around 1,500 youths keep alive their connection with their origins, learning Chinese, martial arts, and traditional dances.  
Those aged 16 to 18, who were born in Italy but find themselves buffeted between two cultures, talk about the difficulties of building a future for themselves without renouncing their roots.