The Twenty-first Century Italy-China Silk Road and its National Legacies

Speakers: Lisa Rofel, Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz; Sylvia Yanagisako, Anthropology, Stanford University

Since China's entry into the WTO, Italian textile, garment and fashion firms have moved a large part of their production to China. While it might appear to be a sufficient analysis to examine Italy's investments solely in the context of the contemporary moment, a discussion of the distinctive historical trajectories that have led Italian entrepreneurs to China and that have shaped Chinese entrepreneurs' encounters with them highlights the need for culturally and historically specific analyses of transnational capitalism.