Between "Humanistic Capitalism" and "Shared Prosperity".
A talk with Brunello Cucinelli
Francesco Boggio Ferraris
Director of the Italy-China Foundation's School of Lifelong Learning

In a world that seems to be going back to the rhetoric of ideological blocs, characteristic of the past century, talking toBrunello Cucinelli is a therapeutic experience, capable of re-aligning expectations, even the most cautious, to a confidence
in the future that draws from a profound vision of the dialogue between western and eastern civilisations. Not at all aneasy exercise these days. When listening to him, one instinctively thinks of a chengyu whose origins are lost in the mistsof time: tianxia yijia (天下一家). The idiomatic expression, a product of ancient Chinese folk wisdom, has been areminder for centuries that "under the sky", i.e. throughout the world, there is "one single family". As if to say thatmankind is one and only one, and that any divisive striving is doomed to failure: four simple characters that sum up aworldview often hampered by an anxiety-ridden reading of the present. There is no doubt that these are the same
coordinates guiding Brunello's philosophy, who in the marvellous park of Solomeo, the Umbrian village of cashmere andharmony, splendidly restored and brought back to life thanks to the economy of beauty, has erected the Monument to theDignity of Man: a travertine exedra surmounted by five arches above which the words "Tribute to the Dignity of Man"
are inscribed in bronze letters, and below each arch the names of the five continents are carved. A work built in the mannerof the ancients, based on the rules of Vitruvius, Palladio and Sebastiano Serlio. Nor is it the only sculpture in the small
medieval hamlet that suggests an ideal bridge to classical Chinese thought. Strolling through the centre of Solomeo, theencounter between the two civilisations takes plastic form in the marble busts of Plato and Confucius, who seem toconverse with each other, inspiring the idea that the values that bring them closer are more relevant than those that drive
them apart.
Brunello Cucinelli was born in 1953 into a family of farmers in Umbria. "As a child I lived with my grandfather, without
electricity or running water, running every day in the fields, looking after the farm animals and watching the stars at nightwith my family". Having moved with his family to the city at the age of 15, having experienced first-hand the humiliations
his father suffered while working in the factory, he began to conceive the idea of fighting for "the moral and economic
dignity of man". During the university time, with $550, he established the eponymous brand, and with an original
cashmere dyeing technique applied to women's clothing he breathed new life into a market where, at the time, the colours
used were only almost exclusively classic. Today, the total capitalisation value of the company, which was listed on the
Milan Stock Exchange ten years ago, is around 3.5 billion euros.
Passionate about philosophy, he has always believed in humanism, finding comfort and inspiration in the greats of thepast, from Dante to Galileo, who applied it to spirituality and science. Brunello felt the need to place the dignity of man
and care for Creation at the heart of his industrial work, conceiving an idea, that of humanistic capitalism, which permeates
every aspect of his entrepreneurial vision. And he translated a dream into reality. The dream of Solomeo. Beginning in
1982, he began the restoration of the village, where he established a Forum of the Arts dedicated to culture, opened a
School of Arts and Crafts, and adapted old factories just outside the village so that the arts that had existed there for
centuries, those of knitwear, tailoring, and the processing and colouring of cloth, could once again flourish.
If it is clear that Brunello's cultural references are rooted in the Italian Renaissance, in the thought of St Francis and St
Benedict and in Hellenism, what makes his project even more fascinating and universal is his declared love for
Confucianism. He told this story himself in a recent interview published in the Chinese edition of Tatler magazine, themost authoritative voice of British and global elegance, to which he revealed that his company's management principles
are explicitly based on Master Kong's thinking. "Nobody clocks in or out, there are long breaks and, regardless of tenure,
you can buy the company's products at cost price. Employees' salaries are 20 per cent higher than in the industry. E-mails
or telephone calls after 5.30 p.m. are prohibited. One phone call only in case of real need. All people must have moretime for family and rest, to cultivate their interests and passions, only then can they develop more creativity the day after
at work". One associates this vision with the Xi Jinping government's condemnation of the oppressive "996 model" work
culture, which imposes a twelve-hour workday for six days a week, especially in Chinese tech companies. A practiceirreconcilable with the values of gongtong fuyu (共同富裕), "shared prosperity", an essential element of Chinesesocialism, already present in the political debate since the 1950s and taken up by Xi at the 10th meeting of the Central
Committee for Finance and Economy in 2021.
But it is above all a letter that Brunello wrote in May 2020, immediately after the lifting of the lockdown and upon thefirst tentative return to a new normality, that proves the ideal thread linking "humanistic capitalism" and "sharedprosperity". Here is a passage from Lettera di un nonno nel giorno natale della vita nuova (Letter from a Grandfather on
the first day of a new life):

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My dear grandchildren, you will understand that we must distance ourselves from any wealth that is not earned withhonesty, and that wealth itself is nothing if it is not also for others. ■2

INTERVIEW / Brunello Cucinelli
Executive Chairman and Creative Director – Brunello Cucinelli SpA
What was Brunello Cucinelli's first Chinese experience?
The Franciscan monk Giovanni da Pian del Carpine was born just five kilometres from my house, in the late 12th century,and in 1244 he decided to go to Karakorum. I was a boy when I discovered his story. I have always been a lover of history
and Franciscanism. Brother John had heard about these distant lands, where, according to the chronicles of the time, half
men and half dragons lived. Curiosity about a different culture moved him, and this immediately bewitched me. It took
him two years to reach Mongolia and two years to return, on foot.
My first trip to China dates back to 1989 and the reasons were partly work-related, partly cultural. I brought with me theexpectations of a man in love with history, a man who lives as an Italian but has always thought as a Greek. Even today,
reflecting on what is happening in the world, I am reminded of Thucydides and his account of the twenty-seven years of
the Peloponnesian War. How wonderful are the words of the Greek historian when he tells of Pericles. Right when his
consensus begins to wane, Pericles himself says: "The empire is like a tyranny". Or even earlier, when in the 6th century
BC, the Athenians asked the wise Solonto stay in power longer, as he was a good ruler, and he replied: "No, because I
might turn into a tyrant. Remember, O my esteemed Athenians, from the throne of a tyrant, no one comes down alive".
China immediately revealed to me the greatness of its people and the weight of the immense and tangible legacy of its
Celestial Empire. Confucius was born in China in the same 6th century B.C., in the era of Solon and Cyrus the Great, theman who enlightened mankind for sixty years; and the splendour of Confucius' thought began to radiate to the other halfof the known world.
Confucius, Plato, Pericles, Solon and Cyrus influenced the cultural roots of East and West more than anyone else. As ayoung man, I felt I was growing up with their words. If you think about what they said, you can intimately perceive justhow eternal their thinking is. In my home, among many others, I have a large bust of Cyrus, but the force that the discovery
of China and its thought exerted on me was immense. Perhaps today, unintentionally, I feel even closer to Confucius andhis vision than I do to that of Plato.
In recent years, when talking about China, the name of the Greek historian is mostly associated with the theory ofthe "Thucydides trap", an expression coined by the US political scientist Graham Allison in an article publishedin the Financial Times in 2012. The theory holds that political tensions for supremacy between the emerging powerin the international system and the declining power inevitably lead to war. Just as the Athenian historian andmilitary man of the classical age assumed that the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta had been causedby Spartan fear of growing Athenian territorial hegemony, the clash between the US and China seems inescapablein the third millennium.
I have faith in humanity. St Francis of Assisi went to the Sultan of Egypt in 1219. The Christian friar and the grandson of
the great Saladin and lord of Egypt became friends. The Sultan was the most powerful man and for Francis also thepotentially most dangerous man. Two worlds theoretically distant, but capable of meeting, of finding a synthesis. Twenty
years later, it was Frederick II who, as soon as he was elected Christian emperor, went to the Sultan and became his friend
to the point that in 1229, together they signed the first pact for the pacific demilitarisation of Jerusalem that we know of.
I believe this is also true today: if you have great respect for the cultures of others in all their facets, from language toreligion to philosophy, peace is possible. Instead, we are often inclined to place the alleged supremacy of our own culture
before others. We have to accept that the 19th century was Europe's century, the 20th century America's, and that this is
China's century. Only those who do not want to know, understand and empathise with Chinese culture might truly havea problem. I often say this to the Chinese staff I work with: you are the masters of humanity for this century, be
enlightened.

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Let's go back to that first trip in 1989. Was it a pure pleasure trip or was it the entrepreneur travelling in searchof inspiration and opportunity?
I went as an entrepreneur, a small businessman who first stopped in Hong Kong and then moved to mainland China. Of
Hong Kong, I still remember the feeling of being projected into the future. During a meeting, two people had their first
mobile phone on the table, something I had never seen before. At lunch, I was eating with a person who kept on making
calls. I remember my astonishment and his thoughtfulness: "I'm sure you will have the same before long". We would talkhonestly, he would tell me about production, about what they were doing. It was a very frank and open way of doing
business. I decided to take a two or three-day holiday in Guilin and then visit Beijing for a few days, together with myJapanese partner at the time. We travelled with the spirit of someone who is ready to discover new opportunities. From
Beijing, we moved north to Mongolia to see the world's finest cashmere. I like to think that this inclination of thought
towards China, more philosophical if you like, finds material correspondence in the product: if the fascination for ideas
brought me to China with my heart, cashmere has then tied me in a double bond to this world.
Those who take a close look at things in China cannot help but perceive an ideal value juxtaposition between thecornerstones of Humanistic Capitalism, outlined in October at the G20 summit in front of the world's greats, andcertain "shared welfare" policies implemented to counter economic and social inequalities in China.
I often hear President Xi say in his speeches: "We want prosperity for our people and harmony for human beings". China
has defeated hunger in a country where less than a hundred years ago there were famines and enormous hardships. We
no longer reason with the yardstick of someone who has suffered hunger and still has to deal with an immense populationand land. It is a different feeling, which has a national dimension but also an intimate one, present in every individual. A
few nights ago I hosted five Buddhist monks for dinner. Charming people. I was struck by one of their statements: "Letus eat a fair amount so that there may be enough left for all mankind". Simple and powerful. It agrees perfectly with avision I have always sought. There was a beautiful full moon. At one point in the evening, one of them looked at the moonand said to me: "There are three things you cannot hide for long: the sun, the moon and the truth". Moreover, it is thevision of time and the orientation to the long term that wins me over. We here at Solomeo also tend towards a long-term
conception of planning and this year we enter our eleventh five-year plan.
I believe I have seen something in the square of Solomeo that is unique in Italy, if not in the world: on either sideof the entrance to one of the marvellously restored medieval buildings in this village of the spirit, there is a marble
bust of Confucius and one of Plato. Under that of Confucius, a plaque, also made of marble, reads "I invent nothing
new. I have faith in the ancients and I love them", while under Plato's the following is written: "The soul of man
is immortal and incorruptible". They seem to converse. A connection we perhaps desperately need these days.
Sure. I think so, too. And we have placed Confucius on the right when looking at the castle, not by chance, to emphasisethat reflection on human nature was born in China with Confucius, about a century earlier than in Greece.
I wonder if this strong inclination towards China and its culture has ever encountered obstacles or resistance. It isincontrovertible that the fashion industry, and in particular its absolute luxury segment, has enjoyed theexponential growth of Chinese consumers in terms of spending power over the last two decades. But it is equallytrue that there have also been critical issues on the production and commercial side. I am thinking of the problems
related to the respect of intellectual property rights, of the market control with 'Italian sounding' products, or, tocome to the present day, of the growing competition from local companies with increasingly higher quality
potential, represented by the 'China chic' phenomenon, which is literally all the rage among the linglinghou, thoseborn after 2000.
Distrust is an attitude I have also seen in the past towards other cultures, other nationalities. Towards the end of the 1990s,
it happened with Russian customers, who were often forced to pay 30 per cent in advance, even after many years of clientor partnership relations. What we are saying here is noble, but often the popular, superficial myths about China concern
only a few clichés. One is under the illusion that this dimension is sufficient to describe a complex reality, a history
thousands of years long, one of the cradles of human civilisation. I am not interested in this simplistic thinking. Instead,I find points of contact with the deepest values of our culture. Perhaps, when we take a closer look at ourselves, we
discover that we are more alike than we imagine. The value of family and the ambition for great projects, those that remainin the ages, unite us. Is this not the same view as Emperor Hadrian when he said, "We build for eternity"?
Because we have perhaps somewhat lost this long-term orientation, this ability to abstract ourselves fromcontingency in order to plan for the future?

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We are struggling. In recent times, I believe, so much of what has come to us from the West, and from America inparticular, has raised our standards of living. In all areas of living: in the sciences, in medicine, in everyday habits.
Technological innovation has revolutionised our world, raising the quality of our material existence, but it has left us withan increasing malaise of the soul. Perhaps guiltily, we have not equally drawn from the East.
On my first trip to China, I went with my partners to Shenzhen to visit a family-run factory that, like us, worked in the
knitwear and yarn industry. I was immediately struck by the presence of two children near the knitting machine. I comefrom the countryside, from a farming family. My mother would often knit with the needles and I would help her unroll
the skein of wool. These two children, who helped their parents in Shenzhen, projected me back to my childhood andmade me feel a kinship with this people, with whom I feel I share deep roots. As a child, I had as many as two uncles wholeft the countryside to go and work abroad. When I heard that these and other Chinese families had left their villages, up
to a thousand kilometres away, to find work in Shenzhen, I empathised with the somewhat sorrowful soul of those who
leave their homeland to work far away. I still nostalgically relive the festive atmosphere when my uncles returned for
Christmas, but I remember that when they left after the holidays, on 3 January, we all cried. Perhaps it is in these simple
things that lies the sympathy I have always had for this people.
On the one hand the common peasant roots, on the other the shared moral universe. These seem to be the extremesof the thread linking Brunello Cucinelli to China. In between, a story that tells of the valorisation of ancientknowledge, the inheritance of tradition, the relationship between profit and giving back.
We are a fashion house but at the same time I would like my company to be considered an 'Industry' in the classic senseof the word. A reality capable of remaining in the Solomeo valley for hundreds of years. I come from a family of socialist
background, where the word "people" had a deep meaning. I believe that kindness in dialogue and a harmonious encounter
with others always wins out. Today, I am proud to say that among the many small factories working for our company,
there are two led by two lovely Chinese families.
What future does Brunello Cucinelli imagine? Should we expect a return to a world divided into blocs, similar towhat we experienced during the Cold War, or can we be more optimistic?
Young people dress alike, they have the same ideal and material dreams. Cultures are bound to mix much more easily
than in the last century. I see a great openness in the new generations. This is certainly not enough to hide from our gazethe subject of tyranny, which we still experience in our time and which is part of humanity. The past teaches us this. Not
only Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War, but the Thirty Years' War itself has much to teach us these days. In the first
unfortunate days of this war, I immediately went back to history, to my safe references.
Humanity needs to find a new Peace of Westphalia. In 1648, after thirty years of war, there was a strong need to findpeace again, a peace that was skilfully and laboriously woven by the delegations of many countries, and not directly by
the kings. Today, I believe, we need a new Westphalia more than ever.

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