Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy, Princeton UP, 2024

Grazia Ting Deng, Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024. 264 pp.

Grazia Ting Deng’s Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy (2024) is a compelling ethnographic study that explores the paradox of Chinese immigrants managing and owning coffee bars in Italy—an industry traditionally regarded as a cornerstone of Italian cultural identity. Coffee bars are ubiquitous across Italy, scattered throughout piazzas, residential neighborhoods, small towns. They are not just places to drink coffee but integral spaces of social life, embodying a deep-rooted sense of italianità. Deng begins her analysis by introducing the “paradox of Chinese espresso,” highlighting the significant shift that has taken place since the financial crisis of 2008, when migrant ownership—particularly by Chinese entrepreneurs—of Italian coffee bars began to rise dramatically. This shift has transformed one of the most iconic symbols of everyday social life in Italy into a site of cultural métissage and exchange—an apt reflection of how the forces of global mobility and transnational interaction permeate even the most intimate and ordinary spaces of social life.

The book meaningdully explores the apparent paradox of a “Chinese espresso”, as espresso is widely considered an Italian national icon. However, such juxtaposition challenges the assumption that cultural and national identities are fixed, and aims to problematize the complex colonial history and global commodification that lies underneath the surface of Italian coffee culture. Over time, Chinese-managed coffee bars have become a part of Italy’s evolving urban landscape: The book delves into the racial, economic, and social dynamics at play in this transformation, offering a nuanced analysis of how Chinese baristas navigate cultural expectations, conviviality, and exclusion in contemporary Italy.

Chinese Espresso thus accompanies us across an intriguing gallery of encounters, exchanges and renegotiations in contemporary postmodern and postcolonial societies, where cultural hybridity and global mobility continually reshape everyday spaces. To explain how Chinese baristas navigate and reshape these social spaces, Deng introduces a compelling notion of convivial bricolage. Drawing on theorists like Michel de Certeau and Claude Lévi-Strauss, she argues that Chinese baristas engage in a form of cultural improvisation, adapting to local expectations while simultaneously introducing their own strategies of social and economic adaptation: convivial bricolage as a dynamic and cooperative process through which immigrant communities foster urban conviviality. “Conviviality” as a social and cultural practices is thus central to the book, identified as a critical notion able to highlight “how people contrive to live together in an era of unprecedented mobility” (p. 8). This hybrid approach challenges the conventional binary that often counterposes and contrasts assimilation and/or cultural distinctiveness. By examining the transformation of a quintessential Italian institution, Chinese Espresso reverses such binarism and offers critical insights into the broader processes of globalization, migration, and the reconfiguration of cultural identity in an increasingly interconnected world.

Deng’s research is based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Chinese-owned coffee bars across Italy. The first chapter of the book, “The Paradox of Chinese Espresso” establishes the book’s conceptual foundation by exploring how espresso—a national symbol of Italianità—has come to be produced and served by Chinese immigrants. Deng examines the racial, economic, and social implications of this shift, arguing that the phenomenon challenges the essentialist view of national identity. The second chapter, “Becoming Baristas”, investigates how Chinese immigrants entered the coffee bar industry, focusing on the economic and social factors that contributed to the transition from Italian to Chinese ownership. Deng examines the availability of family labor, different ideologies of work, and the aspirations that drive these entrepreneurs. The chapter also explores the role of transnational networks, showing how Chinese immigrants have leveraged communal ties to establish themselves in the Italian service sector.

Chapter three, “Situating Space” discusses how Chinese baristas position themselves within the social landscape of Italian coffee bars. Deng examines how different types of coffee bars cater to distinct social groups and how class dynamics shape these spaces. She explores how Chinese baristas navigate customer expectations and negotiate their roles within the social fabric of their neighborhoods, highlighting how space is both produced and transformed by migration and commerce. The fourth chapter, “Reproducing Taste,” explores the dynamics of adaptation, learning, and acquisition in the process by which Chinese baristas learn to replicate the sensory and manual labor involved in making coffee, in a context where “taste becomes a commodity and a consumable good” (p. 111). The chapter thus explores how taste is re-constructed and re-negotiated between migrants baristas and customers, demonstrating how Chinese workers adapt to Italian coffee culture while subtly reshaping it. The chapter also considers the significance of bodily labor and sensory training in the making of "authentic" espresso.

The fifth chapter, “Performing Sociability”, shifts focus to the emotional labor of Chinese baristas, analyzing how they navigate cultural expectations, stereotypes, and structural inequalities. Deng highlights how these baristas must perform sociability and hospitality while managing racialized perceptions of their work. She explores the ways in which they strategically deploy cultural essentialism and negotiate misunderstandings to foster conviviality within their coffee bars.

The final chapter, “Contesting Racialization” addresses the broader racial formations that shape the experiences of Chinese baristas in Italy. Deng discusses how race and ethnicity are constructed and contested within and beyond the space of the coffee bar. She explores how the conviviality of these spaces is both enabled and constrained by structural inequalities, illustrating the limits of social integration in contemporary Italy. The “coda” of the book, “Closing Time” concludes with an apt reflection on how the dynamics of Chinese-owned coffee bars have evolved over time. Deng acknowledges the uncertainties surrounding the future of this phenomenon, emphasizing that while the book’s ethnographic study must end, the story of Chinese Espresso continues to unfold in Italy’s shifting social landscape.

Chinese Espresso offers a rich ethnographic account of how Chinese immigrants have become key players in one of Italy’s most iconic social institutions. Through concepts like convivial bricolage and an analysis of everyday interactions, Deng provides a nuanced exploration of race, labor, and cultural adaptation in contemporary Italy. The book challenges essentialist notions of national identity, illustrating how globalization permeates even the most intimate spaces of social life. It offers a much-needed contribution to ongoing debates on migration, diaspora, and mobility in an increasingly globalized patterns of mobility, exchange and cultural métissage.

Tommaso Pepe, Wenzhou-Kean University