At the end of February, a 15-year-old Chinese boy was punched and kicked in the face after his attackers told him, “What are you doing in Italy? Go away! You're bringing us disease." Even though the boy was born in Italy as a Chinese-Italian, he was told to leave his own country. On February 20th of 2020, Italy reported its first case of local coronavirus transmission. Initially spread in China, the virus took root in northern Italy and over the course of the next 30 days wreaked havoc and hysteria until Italy finally shut down its nonessential businesses. People were ordered to stay inside. Today, although the virus shows signs of slowing down, Italians still live quarantined in their homes. As cases and deaths continued to mount, many Italians resorted to scapegoating one group: Asian residents.

Although Italy is among many other western nations that experienced a rise in anti-Asian racism, this project will focus on discrimination in that country alone. It will examine the contributing factors to the Italian atmosphere of hate, the manifestations of racial tensions, and finally the response of the Chinese community. Italy was already on the brink of racial conflict, the COVID-19 outbreak was simply a trigger for pre-existing anti-Asian discrimination.