We interviewed the Chinese community about the D&G case

Failing to give us all the explanations regarding what happened in the story that involved Dolce & Gabbana and China, we have tried to collect the opinions of the large Chinese community of Milan, concentrated in the area of Via Paolo Sarpi. To complete the picture we have tried to delineate in previous articles.

In our opinion, it was right to try to understand the point of view of the Chinese people, and reflect with the traders and passersby, experts more or less of fashion, if first, they were aware of the story, and in that case, because the video that triggered the storm may be considered really offensive. We also deepened the cultural discourse, to get more answers and understand the reasons that led Diet Prada to raise the escalation of offenses, started well before the insults in the chat.

The general and most common attitude was reticence, fear of exposing oneself and in some cases, trying to pretend not to know the story, but then to disprove and express just an impartial opinion. Others have accepted a dialogue demonstrating that they feel involved in the first person. We didn't want to even discuss about the chat in which Stefano Gabbana insults the Chinese people and who has understandably offended all the interviewees, we have focused the topic of our investigation on the three videos, first harmless but in bad taste, realizing how the reaction that the Chinese have had in seeing it is less uniform.

The most critical have condemned the way in which the Italian brand represented Chinese culture, stereotyping it with little imagination and in a not funny way. Some of the interviewees pointed out as the real problem of the video is the silly and vain attitudes of the girl - moreover not Chinese according to the interviewees, but Korean or Japanese -, who uses the chopsticks improperly for an action absolutely normal for them, and so there is not much to laugh. The interviewees do not hide the use of chopsticks to eat Italian food, so the action itself is not offensive, but the fact that both the pizza and the cannoli and pasta are disproportionate in size is only a way to diminish the Chinese culture in relation to the Italian one.

"The chopsticks are only a stereotype of China but in reality, it is used for the whole East"

The interviewees feel diminished even before they have been clearly offended by the chat. The caricature of the woman and her gestures is so over to touch racism, and according to a trader

"[...] offends a thousand-year culture"

From a minority, the video is seen on a more superficial level

 "it's just a way of advertising and I know that advertising is used to express concepts"

says the manager of a phone shop, so the content would also be potentially harmless, but has not been able to find the right themes to remain so. A group of guys who are passionate about fashion told us that for them it is

"only marketing"

while another girl tells us that

"[...] fashion spots have reached high levels of fantasy and beauty, so I don't understand why D&G has chosen to use again such a trivial storytelling "

 All this actually lowers the quality of the brand already in itself.

With some Chinese of Paolo Sarpi, more willing to deepen the discussion, we spoke about the diversity of cultures, which caused such a great misunderstanding and then a total disagreement.

"The Chinese way of making irony is very different from the Italian one, if there is not a meeting point you can not joke"

says a shop assistant who sells big fashion brands, the Italians are more used to represent some situation through stereotypes, also because we undergo it, this does not happen in China, and the Italian brand has made the most classic of the tourists mistakes, has not adapted, because the show was in China and not for a European Fashion Week , so it should have foreseen more sensitivity.

Even those who grew up in Italy do not understand, perhaps they are those who have felt offended in a minor way, but have recognized the fool, so a girl explains that

"is used to accept this way of seeing the Chinese culture, but also Italians should take distance themselves to Dolce & Gabbana as in China are doing"

 Deepening the most cultural discourse of this story has allowed us to have new answers and enter into this storm that has swept the fashion system with the right awareness.