Frames and agendas in Italian films about Chinese migrants

Abstract

In this article, I provide a critical framework to approach the growing number of Italian fiction and documentary films on Chinese migrants in recent years. I contend that Italian cinema deploys two main frames to depict this migration, including paralleling organized crime and negotiating business competitions and collaboration. A minor frame concerns practicing intercultural education. By examining the processes of these frames and the specific agendas that they support, I suggest that they addressed “migrants” social, economic and cultural capital in relation to pre-existing social and media dynamics. Thus these films partook in a rather complex representational regime about this migration, which is part of a larger Italian culture of mobilities.