Learning western ways

Vittorio’s family-given name is Qun, but his love for and knowledge of Italy have led him to adopt this very Italian sounding name.
Our meeting with Vittorio is at his interior design atelier in Beijing, where he has been working for eight years now, especially for nouveau rich Chinese families whom he furnishes with many Made in Italy products.

Eight years in Beijing astride two Millenniums is practically equivalent to eternity!
In an attempt to come to terms with such turbulent changes, in 2002 Vittorio starts a journal, not surprisingly called “Casa International”, with the scope of spreading the good-design news to the Chinese.

What do the Chinese think of the famous “Made in Italy” brand?
To the average Chinese the idea and image of Italy is very much tied up with a classical style. It’s an association that makes it very difficult to explain what modern-day Italian production for interior decoration is really all about. I see our role as educating local taste to appreciate Western styles. It’s the groundwork required for opening up the domestic market to Italian and European manufacturers in general.

There’s a lot of talk about market niches and nouveau rich. But what do you reckon are the actual figures?
At the moment, we’re talking of three to five percent of the population. Bearing in mind that the overall population is around a billion three hundred million, it’s not surprising that luxury good manufacturers are already queuing to get into such a hot market. And that’s not only luxury furniture manufacturers, but also car makers, designer fashion houses, fine food producers, you name it!

How has Italian enterprise reacted to all this?
Essentially, I’d say Italian firms neglected what was happening when all this buoyant growth started budding several years ago. Not the sort of mistake made by other European countries like Germany and France. The fact is that these latter countries have a different approach to trade than Italy.Business is more big-industry driven, whereas in Italy the industrial scenario is fragmented into so many small and medium-size firms, each very much a loner.

What’s the winning approach for doing business in China, then?
Moving in on the Chinese market as if it were a blank sheet open to all takers, simply importing one’s product on an “ex store” basis and solely relying on a local distributor without striving to get into the mentality of the local consumer is definitely no go! There’s currently a great demand for after-sales services. Publicity campaigns to get the message across of the added value the Chinese consumer is acquiring by purchasing a given commodity are of paramount importance.

After-sales services and publicity overheads are usually too hefty for a small or medium-size company to bear on its own.
Actually, the modern-day Chinese consumer is on the lookout for whatever is exclusive and shuns the idea of commodity standardisation for the masses.
Products with an arts-and-crafts-like content, like those turned out by small manufacturers, exert a great pull on consumers because of their intrinsic uniqueness value. Communication is a must, though, for big industry. In addition to providing much appreciated efficient after-sales services, they must be able to convey a persuasive image of a practically personalised product built with the consumer in mind.

What about Italy’s famous cuisine and food products? How do they fair in China?
I know what you’re getting at. Let me quickly add, though, that the Chinese are not unlike Italians on this score; they’re confident their cuisine’s the best in the world. Exporting “goodness” to China, as I’ve heard several Italian business people propose, doesn’t go very far. Getting a Chinese to regularly drink wine with meals is practically a lost cause. It’s more likely that a Chinese will choose to live it up the Italian way for an evening or a weekend every month or so. And then it’s not just a bottle of wine this type of consumer will buy, but all the accessories that go to make up the experience.

Do you mean to say that it’s not products that have to be exported but fully-fledged life styles?
That’s precisely what the large American fast-food and café chains have done.
There wasn’t a Chinese consumer concerned about product quality. Full immersion was what the consumer was after. Demand was for an allenveloping experience in a setting made up not only of commodities but also of typical spatial relations, ambience, and images. It’s increasingly complex models the consumer is willing to pay money for. There are countless variables that need to be taken into account when building up and selling these models, and you Italians have to learn how to best use something for which you’ve really got a knack, namely the way you look at things and imagine them. According to the Buddhist view, the visible is governed by the invisible. In other words, you can’t expect successful models to spring from poor projects.

Can you give us a snap-shot of modern-day China from your point of view?
There’s this quip going around that says China’s indicator blinks left but the country always swerves right. As a matter of fact, we’ve managed to get two systems to simultaneously work together in the same country, namely capitalism and communism. It’s as if a computer were running two different operating systems, like Microsoft and Mac, in tandem. You see, the backbone of government in China was for centuries the books of Confucius. It wasn’t governed by laws or bookkeeping practices, but by philosophy. Then along comes this European invention called communism, and we import it. While we’re about it, we also decide to import capitalism, very pragmatically, though. And now it’s our turn to teach capitalism to the capitalists.

Have you any future projects with regards to Italy?
I’m currently trying to set up a meeting involving members of the Chinese and Italian business communities. I’m striving to get partnerships going on design-related projects so that the country with the greatest inventiveness may best exploit the production resources of the world’s fastest growing workshop, China.