“No Chinaman Must Figure in the Story”

Abstract

The present article, developed in partnership with Michele Righini, focuses on the comic book series Long Wei, set within the large Chinese community of Milan. The series brings to light the tensions between said community and Italian citizens, as well as with an underworld of foreign gangsters standing as the primary opponents of the series’ main character, unsurprisingly versed in martial arts. In Long Wei – just as in several novels by Lucarelli, Pincio, Scurati and Cotti – dramatic actions, dangers, murders and mysteries characterize the narration of an unfamiliar and suspicious universe originating from migration. Despite their authors’ intentions, these works present a consistent set of stereotypes in the representation of scenes, characters, habits and customs of foreign communities that are largely imagined and fictional, answering readers’ deep-rooted expectations instead of opening new perspectives as in the graphic novels by Rocchi and Demonte, emerging from an authentic Chineseness.