2021, issue 46, Laura Leonardi and Giulia Marchetti: This paper examines how COVID-19 is reframing social relations between the Chinese and the Italian communities in Prato, Italy. Here the unexpected and voluntary adhesion of the Chinese community to the rules of self-isolation in times when the alarm was not yet high in Italy, raises questions as to whether some behaviours should be obtained with measures that limit the individual freedom of agency, or whether individuals are motivated to adopt them even without their freedoms being limited by external institutions.