Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy - Paperbackby Grazia Ting Deng (Author) Why and how local coffee bars in Italy those distinctively Italian social and cultural spaces have been increasingly managed by Chinese baristas since the Great Recession of 2008 Italians regard espresso as a quintessentially Italian cultural product so much so that Italy has applied to add Italian espresso to UNESCO's official list of intangible heritages of humanity. The coffee bar is a cornerstone of Italian urban life,