8 C3 s9 Y8 V1 ]$ b5 ?) y0 t" W% yLanterns to come down5 w& Q) x4 ^0 p0 W* k
4 y, D V9 j: A& V$ f, J0 kMonday, May 07, 2007 # b5 O& p* O' v& n8 i0 h3 G$ _& Q- ~ Z" p0 m0 @+ J
A city government in northern Italy has ordered Chinese restaurants to remove red lanterns from their windows because they look too "oriental." ; a# k/ G+ c! ?" M5 S
"It's spoiling the appearance of the city," the head of Treviso council's town planning department, Sergio Marton, told Corriere della Sera daily. "The Chinese put up all sorts of stuff: lanterns, lions, dragons, there's even one [establishment] that did its whole front in oriental style." Treviso, just outside Venice in the northeastern Veneto region, is run by the populist, anti-immigrant Northern League. Last month tensions between the police and the Chinese community in the city of Milan flared into street clashes over a traffic dispute in the city's Chinatown district where wholesale clothing stores are located. The tensions come amid fears by many Italian businesses over what they see as unfair competition from low-priced Chinese products. But calls by Italy for duties to be imposed on Chinese exports have died down in recent months as the country's economy has recovered. "Treviso is a city of Veneto and Padania, it's certainly not an oriental city," deputy mayor Giancarlo Gentilini said, justifying the order to take down the lanterns. The order states that the three restaurants had made no formal request to put up lanterns.
