We are excited to share that Dr. Gaoheng Zhang, Associate Professor of Italian Studies, has published two new monographs this October 2025—each exploring cultural exchanges between Italy and China from a unique angle:
Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Why might it feel surprising to link “Chinese” with pizzas or “Italian” with dumplings? Why do we need to care for such labeling dilemmas? Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas shows how China–Italy food mobilities, relayed in popular culture since the 1980s and 1990s, have shaped socioeconomic identities and consumer cultures. The book proposes a critical framework for understanding these transcultural exchanges and argues that such insights can help build understanding in today’s polarized world.
Fashion Communications between Italy and China: Unfolding a Sartorial Relationship
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
This book analyses the relationship between the Italian ready-to-wear “slow” fashion industry and the Chinese “fast” fashion industry, focusing on the 2000s and 2010s. In doing so, the book exposes the nuances, controversies and ambivalences of Italy’s and China’s intertwined fashion systems, revealing not only the competition between these two countries, but also their collaboration. Applying the lenses of communication, cultural and fashion studies to this analysis, the book also reflects on related topics such as globalized fashion-making, fashion-facilitated transcultural identity construction, and fashion-led negotiation of national economic issues.
Congratulations to Dr. Gaoheng Zhang on this remarkable scholarly achievement with the twin release.
