As the Chinese middle class keeps growing, their desire to own high-quality, artisan-made materials as opposed to cheap imitations of Western products, has led them to direct their attention to Italy, seen as a land of creative minds, craftsmanship, design, and originality.
One fitting example of this trend, Italian daily La Repubblica reports, is that of Diego Percossi Papi, a Rome-based artisan whose atelier is located just behind the Pantheon. Papi, the jeweler of European royal houses, creates unique objects worn by princesses and celebrities, and has created costume pieces for films. He recently set up a business collaboration with a Chinese company, the Beijing Fuhai Culture Developement Co., for the production of a line of jewels using a rare and precious Chinese stone: the black jade, which some even consider magical.
“We have decided to create a line of jewelry that would combine Chinese symbols and culture with Italian ones,” Papi told La Repubblica. “The first creation was a brooch. Working with Chinese is easy if you establish a relationship of trust. Everything is meticulously planned in a written contract and payments are just as accurate.”
“What we lack is that type of creative intelligence that has been slowed down by our culture and is instead widespread in Italy,” Maddalena Hou Yujing, the cultural mediator for the Chinese company, told La Repubblica. “Today, we are trying to develop a new style of elegance. No more fakes just to prove we are rich.”
And the Chinese delegation for Beijing Fuhai has already eyed its next Italian project: “We're going to look for the artisans of marble in Tuscany,” Hou Yujing said. “We have a new challenge ready: a huge jade to carve.”
