章杲恆 Gaoheng Zhang I am an Associate Professor of Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia. My research seeks to provide a road map for analyzing cultural mobilities concerning contemporary Italy’s and Europe’s global networks with Asia, America, and Africa, which are created through migration, colonialism, tourism, business travel, and other forms of human mobility. My intellectual project is focused on transculturality and dialogism while my methods are multi-lingual, multi-perspectival, and multi-sited.

I have published the first detailed media and cultural study of contemporary Chinese migration to Italy from both Italian and Chinese migrant perspectives, which is also one of the few book-length analyses of migration and culture: Migration and the Media: Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992-2012 (University of Toronto Press, 2019). I am also the co-editor with Valentina Pedone of the first scholarly volume that foregrounds mobilities in analyzing China-Italy cultural exchanges: Cultural Mobilities Between China and Italy (Palgrave Macmillan 2023). Since 2024, Valentina and I have also been under contract with Brill Publishers to work on The Handbook on China-Italy Relations.

My forthcoming monograph (Fordham University Press, 2025), titled Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities, examines Chinese and Italian socio-cultural identity-making through food-related representations of labor migrants and culinary tourists from the 1980s through the 2010s. Another forthcoming monograph, Unfolding Sartorial Stories: Italy-China Fashion Communications (Bloomsbury, 2025), addresses the cultural dynamics of ready-to-wear and fast fashion in the Italy-China context. The two recent monographs articulate my intention to use the Chinese concept of 衣食住行 (clothing, food, residence, mobility) to structure analyses of transnational Italian and Chinese material cultures. A co-created website https://mobilitiesitalychina.com provides further explanations in layman’s terms.

My current project is titled “Scrambles for East Africa: Media and Cultural Debates between China, Western Europe, and East Africa.” The monograph will highlight the economic, military, and cultural ties that China as well as former East African colonizers Britain, Italy, and France have created with Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. In specific, the project analyzes the tension between economic development and the environment in relevant media and cultural debates about migration, tourism, food (agriculture), and the clothing sector in the African region. Using moblities and postcolonial studies, I aim to understand the agendas and implications of the competing cultural frames and resources that stakeholders deploy when discussing socio-economic issues.

I am the recipient of several highly coveted fellowships and grants: a Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholarship in the Humanities at the University of Southern California (now the USC Society of Fellows); a SSHRC Insight Development Grant; a Jean Monnet Fellowship from the European University Institute; and the UBC Killam Faculty Research Fellowship.

At UBC, I serve on the executive committee of the Centre for Migration Studies and on the advisory board of Green College. I am affiliated with the Centre for European Studies and with the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies program.

Interests

• Italian Studies
• Cultural Studies
• Migration Studies
• Mobility Studies
• Gender Studies
• Masculinity Studies
• Ethnic and Racial Studies
• Media and Film Studies
• Rhetoric and Communication Studies
• Ethics and Morality

Invited Stand-Alone Talks and Lectures

“Italy’s Chinese Migrant Fast Fashion in Contemporary Artworks,” keynote address, The Calandra Italian American Institute, City University of New York, 2023.

“Dogmeat, Chop Suey, and “Mozzarella Gialla”: Communicating Chinese Migrant Alimentary Stereotypes in Italian Popular Culture,” Asian American Studies Program, Purdue University (remote), 2023.

“Italy’s Chinese Migrant Fast Fashion in the Arts,” Monash Prato – Monash University, 2022.

“Dogmeat, Chop Suey, and “Mozzarella Gialla”: Communicating Chinese Migrant Alimentary Stereotypes in Italian Popular Culture,” Yale University, 2022.

“Chinese Migrant Culinary Culture in Italy,” Pennsylvania State University, 2022.

“What ‘Italian Cuisine’ Means in China: A Media and Cultural Perspective,” Centre for European Studies, UBC, 2022.

“Issues of Orientalism and Fashion in the 21st Century: Fascination, Approximation or Appropriation?,” New York University Florence, 2022.

“Italy’s Chinese Migrant Fast Fashion in the Arts,” Wellesley College, 2021 and Georgetown University, 2022.

“Covid-19 and Anti-Chinese Racism in Italy,” Italian Canadians for Black Lives, 2021.

“Migration and the Media: Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992-2012,” Johns Hopkins University, 2020.

“Made in Italy by Chinese Migrants,” ElderCollege Delta, British Columbia, 2019.

“Chinese Food Cultures in Italy,” University of California, Irvine, 2019.

“Media Framings of Made in Italy Fast Fashion by Prato’s Chinese Migrants,” University of California, Irvine, 2019

“The Chinaman and the cinesina: Gendering Chinese Migrants in Italian Culture,” University of Florence, 2018.

“Made in Italy or Made in China? Chinese-Italian Cultural Identities in the Age of Migration and Globalization,” Villa La Pietra, New York University in Florence, 2018.

“Made in Italy or Made in China?” University College Cork, 2017 and The Dante Alighieri Society of British Columbia, 2017.

“I cinesi che non muoiono mai. Viaggio tra film, libri e mass media, tra luoghi comuni e (s)commode verità a proposito dell’immigrazione cinese in Italia,” Biblioteca Dergano-Bovisa, Milan, Italy, 2017.

“Recent Italian-Chinese Cultural Relations,” The Center for Italian Studies, Stony Brook University, 2016.

“Italian Cinema Looks East,” Department of Italian Language and Literature, Smith College, 2016.

“Contemporary Chinese Immigration to Italy: Encounters and Representations,” University Seminar, Studies in Modern Italy, Columbia University, 2013.

Books

Cultural Mobilities Between China and Italy (Palgrave Macmillan 2023), co-edited with Valentina Pedone.

Migration and the Media: Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992-2012 (University of Toronto Press, 2019).

Reviewed by Journal of Asian Studies, The China Quarterly, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Modern Italy, Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, Forum Italicum, LEA: Lingue e Letterature d’Oriente e d’Occidente.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

“International Students’ Cultural Engagement through Constructing Distance or Proximity.” With Anne-Cécile Delaisse (first author). Mobilities, published online in May 2024.

“A Dynamic and Critical Approach to Belonging as a Dimension of Occupation.” With Anne-Cécile Delaisse (first author), Tamsin Barber, and Suzanne Huot. Journal of Occupational Science, published online in September 2024.

“Federico Fellini’s 2020 Centennial Screenings in South Korea, Japan, and China.” With Hiju Kim and Hiromi Kaneda. Italian Studies in Southern Africa/Studi d’Italianistica nell’Africa Australe, Vol. 35 No. 1 (2022), 165-203.

“Introduction/Introduzione: Diversity, Decolonisation, and Italian Studies.” With Simone Brioni, Marie Orton, and Graziella Parati. Italian Studies in Southern Africa/Studi d’Italianistica nell’Africa Australe, Vol. 35 No. 1 (2022), 1-28.

“Frames and agendas in Italian films about Chinese migrants.” LEA – Lingue e letterature d’Oriente e d’Occidente, 8 (2019), pp. 123-137.

“The Chinaman and the cinesina: Gendering Chinese migrants in Italian novels.” Journal of Romance Studies, 19/1 (2019), pp. 69-97.

“Documentary films on migrations in Italy: characteristics and ethics.” Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, 6/1 (2018), pp. 3-14.

“Chinese Migrants, Morality, and Film Ethics in Italian Cinema.” Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 22/3 (2017), pp. 385-404.

“Il razzismo anti-cinese nella stampa italiana e la reazione della stampa migrante cinese: il caso della rivolta della Chinatown milanese,” Studi culturali, 2/2016 (2016), pp. 195-208.

“Insegnare la lingua e la cultura italiane agli studenti di origine cinese in Nord America: nuove risorse didattiche per un approccio multiculturalista,” Cultura & Comunicazione, 6:9 (2016), pp. 23-25.

“Contemporary Italian Novels on Chinese Immigration to Italy,” California Italian Studies Journal, 4:2 (2014), pp. 1-38.

“The Protest in Milan’s Chinatown and the Chinese Immigrants in Italy in the Media (2007-9),” Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, 1:1 (2013), pp. 21-37.

“Italian Male Travelers at the Borderline: Masculinities and Liminal Spaces in Lamerica and Il ladro di bambini by Gianni Amelio,” The Italianist (Film Issue) 32 (2012), pp. 238-55.

Peer-reviewed Book Chapters

“Mobility, Architecture, Chronotopes: Tianjin’s Italian Concession, the 1930s,” in Cultural Mobilities Between China and Italy, edited by Valentina Pedone and Gaoheng Zhang, pp. 113-135. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.

“Chinese Migrants and the ʻChinese Mafia’ in Contemporary Italian Culture,” in Transcending Borders: Selected Papers in East Asian Studies, edited by Valentina Pedone and Sagiyama Ikuko, pp. 67-86. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2016.

“Comedy Film and Immigration to Italy: Reading Masculinity, Hybridity, and Satire in Lezioni di cioccolato (2007), Questa notte è ancora nostra (2008), and Into Paradiso (2010),” in The Cinemas of Italian Migration: European and Transatlantic Narratives, edited by Sabine Schrader and Daniel Winkler, pp. 263-279. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.

“The Three Riddles in Puccini’s Turandot: Masculinity, Empire, and Orientalism,” in Der musikalisch modellierte Mann: Interkulturelle und interdisziplinäre Männlichkeitsstudien zur Oper und Literatur des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts, edited by Ester Saletta and Barbara Hindinger, pp. 397-416. Vienna: Praesens, 2012.

Non-peer-reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

“‘衣食住行 (Clothing, Food, Residence, and Mobility)’ in Scholarly Practices of Transnational Italian Studies,” in “Critical Issues in Transnational Italian Studies,” Special Issue of Forum Italicum, edited by Serena Bassi, Loredana Polezzi, and Giulia Riccò, May 2023.

“From Roots to Routes: Italian Studies Between China and Italy via North America” in Diversity in Italian Studies, edited by Siân Gibby and Anthony Julian Tamburri, pp. 193-98. New York: John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 2021.

Edited Journal Issue
“Documentary Films on Migrations in Italy”. Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, 6/1 (2018), pp. 3-122.

Exhibitions
“Global Routes: China, Italy, Toronto” (co-curated with Paolo Frascà and Jennifer Lau), an exhibition at the John M. Kelly Library at the University of Toronto (May-June, 2016), at the Carrier Gallery at Columbus Centre in Toronto (July, 2016), and at UBC Robson Square. (Funded by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, 2016.)

Invited Media Essays
“Made in Italy by Chinese in Prato: The ‘Carrot and Stick’ Policy and Chinese Migrants in Italy,” China Policy Institute Blog, University of Nottingham, UK, October 22, 2015.

“Italy and China, Europe and East Asia: Centuries of Dialogue,” Corriere Canadese, April 5, 2016, p. 16.

Interviews

“Movement and Mobility – a European Perspective,” The Source, November 7-21, 2017 (Interviewed and cited by Jake McGrail).

“Tra vecchi stereotipi e nuove abitudini inizia l’anno del serpente nelle Chinatown italiane,” Huffington Post Italia, January 30, 2013 (Interviewed and cited by Francesca Bellino).

Film Reviews      

“Puoi baciare lo sposo by Alessandro Genovesi (2018),” gender/sexuality/italy, 7 (2020): 258-259.

“Caffè, by Cristian Bortone (2016),” Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, 6/2 (2018), pp. 252-254.

“My Reincarnation, by Jennifer Fox (2011),” Italian American Review, 3/2 (2013), pp. 151-153.

Translation
“La Fuga/Escape” by Francesca Bellino, Journal of Italian Translation, VI:1&2 (2011), pp. 100-115.

Co-Edited Volumes

Ed. (With Jessica Goethals and Valerie McGuire) Power and Image in Early Modern Europe. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.

Ed. (With Francesco Guardiani and Salvatore Bancheri) Italy and China: Centuries of Dialogue. Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore, 2017.

Main awards and fellowships:

Jean Monnet Fellowship, European University Institute, 2022-2023.

UBC Killam Faculty Research Fellowship/Killam Laureate, The Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Fund for Advanced Studies, 2022-2023.

SSHRC Insight Development Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Government of Canada, 2018-2020.   

The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Grant, 2016.

Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholarship in the Humanities (now The USC Society of Fellows), University of Southern California, 2012-14.

Full scholarship from the Refresher Program for Teachers of Italian Abroad, University for Foreigners in Perugia, 2008.