MM- Your master studies terminated with a thesis on Tibet. I think most of the times people care about this region of China just because Mr. clown Richard Gere has been there and Brad Pitt acted in the movie “Seven Years in Tibet”. Can you give us your honest opinion on the current matters, and maybe some insights from the Beijing perspective?
I recently published an article connected to my master thesis on the Italian review “Quaderni Asiatici” (“Asian Notebooks”). In particular the topic of my thesis was the social and economic development of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) during the last thirty years (1976-2006). A few days ago two authors of China Files published a book in Italy titled “Brand Tibet”.
Even if to talk about Tibet is not easy at all (for historical and political reasons) I think that nowadays in many Western countries the Tibetan culture and people is more than “idealized”, in the sense that it does not really fit with the reality. First of all, this image of a peaceful people victim of Chinese imperialism and violent army is an old idea. (more…)
MM- What about the agricultural project you have in mind?
As I said before, at the moment I am trying to study, travelling and learning as much as I can. This is not for a professional career or with the goal of finding a “good job” for the future, but simply to realize some kind of social project with other people (no matter where in the world) who share with me the same ideas and passions. One of the project is to “go back to the countryside”. In Italy, as in China and in many other parts of the world, our grandparents were farmers and were living in the countryside. In the last half of the century, a great part of the globe population left the countryside seeking better life conditions in cities, creating the phenomenon we call “urbanization”. (more…)
My connection with Daniele started randomly over the internet when a few weeks before embarking on my Chinese teaching adventure, I was googling and researching about Punk in China. His blog “Secondo Me” was the first search result, and he was the first to tell me a few random things about life in Beijing and North east China.
Almost three years passed, me and Daniele had the chance to meet several times over different kinds of mouthwatering bei cang, discuss several topics, and sample several kinds of lung melting Chinese alcohol. Since the first time, I was really captured by the mental intensity of this out of the ordinary character, currently a Phd researcher in the prestigious People’s University in Beijing, writer and academic publisher disguised for a cheap ass punk with holes in his shirt and shoes and a taste for cheap, oily street food. In three words, my kind of guy.
Since then I’ve been an avid consumer of his excellent blogs and have tried to keep in touch as much as I could over the years… and finally decided to show you how much you can learn from this man sending him a few intense questions. For the sake of internet communication brevity, we didn’t engage in writing an encyclopedia, but what follows deserves to be tattooed on your brains with psychedelic ink. Enjoy. (more…)
The Shan State expands out of Mandalay to the East, and reaches out in its vast, sheer mountainous beauty to Yunnan’s western border, and Northern Thailand to the Southeast. This is Myanmar hotspot for trouble, or better, the place where 10% of the world’s heroin production has hardened the plight of these people for a few decades now. The rest is mostly produced in Afghanistan. The Shan State is also where different rebel mountain ethnic groups have been trying to fight back the Burmese junta, and it’s a territory mostly out of reach to foreigners, us included. (more…)
MM- You spent several years in SE Asia, can you briefly tell me, according to your perspective and experience, the best and the worst side every of the ones you lived in and visited has to offer.
The places that are the biggest adventures are those that have the least modern conveniences and comforts. So this is always the conundrum. Do you want to live like a human being or do you want the big adventure? You often can’t have both. Taiwan and Korea are extremely developed, so less adventure. Cambodia and Vietnam are still raw, so it’s exciting, but you have to deal with bad internet service, higher crime rates, dirty food…a lot of potentially uncomfortable situations and conditions. In Cambodia in particular, you want a local experience but local things are often so undeveloped or ill-equipped that you wind up going to foreigner things which cost as much as they do back home but with half the quality. People think living in a poor country is cheap. It’s not necessarily. For one thing, most products are imported, so they cost more than they do back home.
Thailand is by far the best place to train. There are 90,000 professional boxers in Thailand and probably 1,000 gyms with professional training and international fighting experience. The cost of living is also very low in Thailand. BUT bring your own money. There is nearly no way to earn money in Thailand. as a fighter you will some times get as little as $90 for a fight. As a teacher, most jobs only pay about $700 USD a month. (more…)
Antonio Graceffo is an Italian American adventure writer and martial arts enthusiast who left a Wall Street finance background to literally dive into Asian adventures and languages.
I discovered him by chance while surfing the internet in Australia, and I decided that such an interesting character needed some space in the Monkeyrockworld. Adventure writer, martial art fighter and TV host, Antonio spent the best part of this decade living and studying Asian cultures and languages, abandoning a pretty well-heeled New York background. The myths and mysteries about him are all unveiled in this exclusive interview.
MM- Hi Antonio, please briefly introduce yourself to our readers unaware of the fact you are an unstoppable adventure machine…
My parents are Sicilian. I was born in New York. I grew up speaking English, Spanish and Italian. I started martial arts and boxing when I was 12. my first martial arts teacher was a returning Vietnam war veteran named H. David Collins who ran the American school of empty hand fighting in Tennessee. It was 1979. He was way ahead of his time. He taught us boxing and kickboxing as part of martial art and set me on my career as a fighter,. At that time, nearly no one in the martial arts community was doing real fighting. There were always stories of black belts getting beat by street fighters and boxers. Today, things are much different. But at that time, even guys like Chuck Norris, never had any real fights, just point fighting. (more…)
Ci siamo. Finalmente, dopo mesi di duro lavoro e perdita di controllo del progetto dovuta ai soliti casini di una vita semi on the road tutto il tempo, mi commuovo quasi a presentare l’uscita del mio primo libro. Ce l’ho fatta. Finalmente non sono piu’ solo un cianciarone, ma sono uno “scrittore”, che suona come un parolone dal momento che come al solito, un supporto esterno o un editore non ce l’ho, ma come sempre tento di sfruttare le mille risorse di questo mndo spaventoso in cui vivo, e mi improvviso “scrittore indipendente”.
E come al solito, faccio tutto da solo, senza aiuti esterni.
