Renowned for her humorous videos and iconic catch phrases, the 59-year-old owner of a mega-store in Rome has garnered a huge online following. So what has led to Angela’s sudden success – and is she fighting or reinforcing ethnic stereotypes?
ADVERTISEMENT“Ci penso io!” (“I’ll take care of it!”)
It’s this reassuring answer, a deus ex machina come to quell even the most anxious of shoppers, that has become the tagline of Italy’s latest social media sensation.
Meet Angela, the 59-year-old Chinese-born owner of “An Megastore”, a discount shop in Rome’s southern outskirts.
Over the past few months, the local retailer has become a bona fide star and cultural phenomenon. Her Tik Tok and Instagram accounts have amassed half a million followers combined, while her videos have garnered 15.2 million likes on the former platform.
The premise of her videos are simple: Angela helps her…
