Coronavirus: how Chinatowns from Milan to London are coping with the fallout

From Milan to London, Chinatowns in Europe and elsewhere in the world are reeling from the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak. Coupled with a disturbing rise in xenophobia, anxiety is growing among the Chinese diaspora.

But while cities in mainland Europe are seeing the indigenous population staying away in what the Italian media has dubbed “coronapsychosis”, in London’s Soho, home of Europe’s largest Chinatown, the vanishing foot traffic is mainly Chinese.

Italians can be germaphobic at the best of times, and ignorance and racism has been quick to raise its head. The country has already suspended flights in and out of mainland China, where more than 2000 have died, to stop the spread of the virus.

Adding to the mix is domestic resentment about Italy’s growing economic ties with China, which some there blame for the decline of local manufacturing and the surge in migration from mainland China over the past 10 years.

Italy’s media has been awash with stories of Chinese, both locals and tourists, being insulted on the street. In one video, posted on social media, a Chinese couple try and walk quickly past while a man shouts profanities at them in Italian: “Disgusting, filthy, go and cough in your own home … you’re infecting everyone”.

“It’s bad, really bad, I didn’t think it could be this bad,” Sonia Hang, owner of Hang Zhou, Rome’s best-known Chinese restaurant told Il Messaggero newspaper.