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. Today the situation in Tibet is completely different. People like the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan government in exile in Northern India have not been in China for decades and they probably have no idea of the real feelings of the inhabitants of the TAR. Young people in Tibet live in conditions not so different from the teenagers in the rest of China or Europe. A city like Lhasa is full of commercial activities, shopping centers, there is a well developed tourism industry, bars, karaoke and so on. I could say that is not easy to find traces of the traditional heritage and religious life of the “historical Tibet”. Of course there are reasons for the Tibetan community to be unhappy and unsatisfied but this regards economic aspects and not ideological or political ones: we can’t forget that today most of the people living in the TAR are Chinese migrants and people of different ethnicities. There are many reasons to blame the Chinese government, but to be honest we cannot deny that in the last thirty years it invested huge amounts of money for the development of the area, in terms of infrastructures, education, communications and so on. The biggest problem is that the revenues of these investments are shared more between Tibetan officials and Chinese migrants than directly between Tibetan monks or nomads.

Last but not least, it is of course important not to forget all the matters concerning the preservation of Tibetan culture and language, promoting more autonomy of administration and freedom in the life style. But to support the idea of a “Free Tibet” or the idea that Tibetans are poor and peaceful religious nomads victim of the Chinese imperialism and communist dictatorship is an awful mistake. Let’s do not forget that for the best part of its history and until 1951 Tibet has been a theocratic regime ruled by the Buddhist clergy, with a slave system not so different from that used by other countries during the European Middle Ages.

MM- Following the same lines of the previous question, I think Xinjiang is an infinitely more interesting region of China to explore and study. I know you’ve been there (I’m jealous since that’s first in my “want to go” list of places), can you tell me something about it? It fascinates me how a Muslim minority can be incorporated in the Chinese monster-topography…

I have not studied much about Xinjiang (or Chinese Turkestan), but what I can tell you is what I have seen during my trip there and what I heard talking with specialists of Central Asian studies. To be honest, from an anthropological point of view, Xinjiang fascinated me much more than Tibet.

First of all, as an Italian living in Beijing I find Xinjiang food so familiar in the taste (just think about their bread, they way they cook pasta or use tomatoes). But food is only an aspect. We are similar even in physical features (compared with Chinese, of course!): many of my Italian friends have been called “Xinjiangese” from other Chinese friends. Moreover, many social habits are closer to the Mediterranean culture than to the Chinese. Even if many Muslims live there, they grow grapes and produce one of the best wines in China.

But to see and feel that, you have to visit the more western part of the region, the one closer to Afghanistan. In fact there are so many Chinese migrants in the eastern part or the region capital city Urumqi that sometime it is hard to feel some pure Muslim culture. From this point of view, the city of Kashgar is one of the most amazing places I have ever seen and I strongly recommend visiting it whenever you will have the opportunity to go.

Truly speaking, China has been a religious melting-pot since centuries, with different religious beliefs and philosophies coming from India, Middle East and Mediterranean countries. This is to say that Muslims have been living in China for really long time (especially in the central-western and western part of the country) and, a part from all, they are not only well integrated but an important part of Chinese history, culture and society.

MM- Is Chinese culture somewhat changing? Can you feel it under the skin of the metropolis, or what is left is just a bunch of consumers piling up stashes of money to buy new SUVs, converting the most diverse civilization in the world in the new America?

This is a question which is not easy to answer at all. I do not want to bother your readers with questions like “what is a culture?”, “what is Chinese culture?”, “what is globalization?” and so on, but I truly think the answer is just behind these questions.

What I can tell you is that China, understood as a country of billions of inhabitants and thousands of years culture, is changing and it is changing really fast. No need to say that nothing is motionless and even China has been always changing (and the meaning of “China” has been changing as well), as an historical process. But probably its society and habits have never been changing so fast in both cities and rural areas.

Chinese people know this, but I think that at the same time they can not do much to resist or avoid that. From one side, they are trying to take advantage from this, and on the other side, they are trying to understand “what the hell is going on!”. Chinese culture is changing and many things are going to be forgotten or lost forever, but talking from a more practical and grassroots point of view I would argue that a Chinese teenager in Beijing is not losing much more than a coetaneous in a western country: he goes to drink coffee at Starbucks or eats at Pizza Hut, plays football with friends or dresses western fashion style clothes, while the western teenager is watching Chinese cartoons, easting Chinese noodles or praying for Buddha. Globalization does not mean “westernization” after all, and I think that mutual knowledge in different cultures and the loss of one culture’s elements is nowadays unavoidable.

About “consuming” and spending the whole day seeking money, it is sad to say that in my opinion it is becoming the “new global religion”. Not so “new”, probably.

MM- What about the enormous amount of gay population in China? I think it’s a pretty interesting phenomenon.

As a student of gender and sex studies in China, I am interested in the gay community in Beijing of course. I know some of them and bars they use to meet up. Last year I published an article about a “gay park” here in Beijing on an Italian newspaper. Homosexuals have recently “officially” gained attention and small victories if we think that a few years ago to be homosexual was a kind of “forbidden” thing or considered a mental disease.

Today there are more and more organizations working for the rights of the gay community. And lots of bars and shops, of course. No need to say that the reality and the freedom a gay can live in cities like Beijing or Shanghai or Hong Kong is enormously different from other urban or rural areas. To be homosexual in China is still a “big problem”, because according to the Confucian ethics and Chinese tradition, one of the most shameful things is dying without marrying and having children: it means to have not respect for parents and ancestors, something like a “moral crime”. From this point of view, a funny anecdote that I heard from a gay student about homosexuals in China is: “In most of the western countries gay couples can not marry. In China we can: we marry a person of the other sex only to have a child and in this way hiding our identity of homosexuals and live our life freely from discriminations and prejudices”. Well, he is right, after all.

Ok Daniele, thank you very much for your time and patience, I wish you had fun and that people will start reading your blogs more and more!! You deserve!!

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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”. To live in an urban environment has many advantages but many problems as well (just think about pollution, cracking pace of life, social injustice, discrimination, criminality, food quality and so on). Cities are basically place to consume your life rapidly seeking something you will never obtain: peace and tranquillity. I am not saying that the countryside is such a bucolic and ideal place to live, but I would just like to try to experiment the peasants’ life, working as a  farmer but at the same time creating a new social and cultural reality which actually is not present in the countryside, such as cultural centres, home-made cinemas and theatres, libraries, dance and language classes and so on. To do this we need more “technicians” than “intellectuals”, but I think we can at least just try to do that, looking for a cheap land to rent, farming, cooperating with local peasants and avoiding the stress and “producing-consuming” view of capitalist society. Not exactly a commune, but something along those lines. Of course by now it is just a draft, but it is also a project me and other friends in Italy are seriously thinking about.

This project is inspired to several social experiments realized in different ages and in different places around the world. Someone tried and some of them succeeded. Why cannot we at least try?

MM- Can you please give me some considerations and ideas on being an international student in Beijing, today? I know the city too, and I think it’s one of the most fast-changing, evolving and revolting places I’ve ever visited in the world.

It is. As a foreign student in Beijing, I have been interviewed two times by two different Chinese reviews and by an Italian student for his thesis in anthropology. At the moment being, China is hosting an ever growing number of international students. There are several reasons for this, reasons that are connected with the economic development of China and its empowerment in the world system. Beijing in particular is the best place to study, because it is the cultural and political capitol city of China, and because it has the best universities and research centres, let alone the fact that the language here is really close to the official Chinese (Mandarin). Foreign students in Beijing live a really stimulating and amazing international atmosphere, staying in contact with Chinese students, they are definitely enhanced in their cultural life (concerts, museums, exhibitions, travelling, …), have contacts with international schools, organizations and embassies. And, last but not least, the life in Beijing is much cheaper that in Hong Kong, London, Paris or New York.

MM- Always on young female migrant workers, a very interesting topic, can you describe somehow the underbelly of the Chinese prostitution world? I think it’s a very interesting and complex one, and I’d like to have the opinions of an almost “Doctor of Philosophy” on the matter.

The topic of prostitution in China is definitely a very interesting matter. I have been lucky because in my university there’s the best institute in China regarding sex studies. And one of my professors, Mr. Pan Suiming, is one of the first and most famous scholar on prostitution in China.

First of all, let’s say that, a part from moral or law considerations, prostitution here is (like everywhere) a huge business. “Sex industry” in China involve a unbelievable number of people, including workers, politicians, businessmen and, of course, prostitutes.

As far as my experience in massage centers, karaoke bars or hotels where most of the prostitutes work and on the base of my conversations with them, I could say that those are pretty young ladies, coming from any part of China. Basically they emigrate to find a good job but soon realize that the best way to earn fast cash is working on the field of sex services. This does not necessarily mean that they must have a complete intercourse with their customer (customers could be high officials as well as foreign tourists or construction workers), but basically they have to stay with them, making them relax, singing for them, drinking with them, doing massages or oral sex. Only sometimes “visiting prostitutes” means to have sex with them. A sort of so called “escort”, hot issue that is coming out even on Italian media regarding famous politicians. Do not forget that there is also Chinese prostitution in Italy that involves, for example, Chinese female students or young ladies in hard economic situations.

TO BE CONTINUED

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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.

MM- You are a PHD student in Beijing, but a particular one. Can you briefly introduce yourself, and draft an idea of your life philosophy?

Well, well… I was born in 1982 in Macerata, a peaceful (too peaceful) town in central Italy, close to the Adriatic sea, surrounded by countryside and hills of olive trees and grape vineyards. Since I was 14 I became more and more interested in different countries and cultures, travelling, reading, getting involved with punk music and politics. When I was 18 I move to Rome to study East Asian cultures. A couple of years later I went for my first time to this huge world called China. And here I’m living at the moment, enrolled in a Ph.D. course in the Sociology department of People’s University in Beijing. Travelling, reading, writing, punk music and cultural studies are still my biggest passions.

Life philosophy? Still looking for one. Let’s say that basically (and sorry if I am too insipid) I just try to enjoy the life, do what I like and feel to do, avoiding boredom and trying to leave this world better than it is at present.

MM-  I’ve read you call yourself an anarchist. How would you describe your mindset, especially seen from the perspective of the Chinese Communist Way?

When I was in high school I often played truant and spent all the morning in the library of my city, reading Kropotkin, Bakunin, Necaev. Since the beginning I felt fascinated from those radical thinkers. Anarchism is a political philosophy. I consider myself an anarchist because I refuse authoritarianism, because I dislike borders and property, because I believe in freedom and solidarity between people all over the world. I know it sounds likes an “utopia”, but in my opinion it is important to spend your life being coherent with your ideas, not always accepting compromises, doubting the mainstream. As far as you can, at least. Of course there are many ways to live anarchism (or no one in particular, if you prefer). At present for me to be an anarchist means to learn (that include to travel,  to study, to observe and to discuss) as much as I can and try to realize some social project as an attempt, an alternative to the “mainstream” life in the so called “developed countries” (that is production-consuming society). Be well informed and conscious about what happened around us as much as we can, create social forums, social spaces, social networks, be “open” and not victim of commercial advertisement and politic.

Trying to live like this in China is more difficult than in other countries but maybe more interesting and fascinating. For example, to live in a country with a strong internet control forces you to think about new ways of meeting and sharing information. But to say the truth, living as a foreign student here in Beijing is obviously easier than a Chinese citizen. And, apart from this, sometimes I feel I am more free here (in the meaning of opportunities and things you can do) than in a “democratic and civilized” western developed country as Italy.

MM- You are currently researching on migrant workers in China. Can you briefly explain to my readers what does it mean, and which significant experiences have you got so far approaching this problem?

I am trying to realize an ethnographic research among young female migrants in Beijing. That means among low educated, unmarried and young ladies who leave the countryside to reach the capital city and work as waitresses, maids, shop assistants, prostitutes. I am working on gender and migration studies. And this is hard for me. Because during my studies in Rome my major was Sinology, that means Chinese culture with a classical perspective. But since the first time I came to China (six years ago) I suddenly became interested in contemporary society and I shifted my studies’ focus to social and economic changes. I have no sociological or anthropological background and this make my research harder. Fortunately, my knowledge of the Chinese language and culture helps me a lot.

As you know, “guanxi” (social connections, relations, contacts) is one of the most important things in China. And luckily I can say I know many people and have much guanxi here in Beijing. That is why I can rely on a lot of Chinese and foreign friends who help me in my research. At the same time I met a lot of interesting people (migrants, social workers, NGOs members, students, activists, journalists, …) just thanks to my studies and surveys.

At the same time, I simply cannot completely concentrate and spend all my time on my Ph.D. research. I use to read and work a lot even on other things. For example I am interested even in other fields of Chinese society such as art, music, organizations. Sometimes I do work as interpreter or translator. I collaborate as a free lancer with China Files (an international press agency concerning China). I take part in political and social workshops and meetings. And, of course, I never forget to have fun and go travelling or visiting other countries every time I have the opportunity.

TO BE CONTINUED

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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. Luckily enough, the sheer beauty of this place can still be seen in a couple areas, and we decide to go up to Hsipaw, one of the most visited, and possibly beautiful, cities of the Northeast. As soon as we head out of Mandalay’s flat surroundings, we are welcomed by windy roads laid over the mountains as a sleepy snake, bend over bend, and the bus struggles sometimes when climbing up like a mountain goat.

The sky is so blue and the clouds so fluffy I immediately think of Shan State’s next of kin, my loved Yunnan province in China. And exactly as I was expecting, to foster the theory that are just the men thinking some lousy borders, it’s indeed Mother Earth who actually shows us its incredible topography. I think of all the places I’ve seen in the world, this is so far the area I like the most, because it’s just beautiful, and for a series of depreciable political decisions, one of the most underdeveloped and laid back, stuck back in a time where farmers still plough the land with carts pulled by oxen and women plant and harvest rice by hand, peddling in mud up to their knees. The tentacular claws of China sunk deep into this place: at the first rest stop, Chinese characters ornate the walls and a delicious blend of Southwestern Chinese cuisine is  steaming and sizzling from a large number of hotplates laid on a table on display. The language barrier is easily overcome when Kit Yeng gently asks to the woman seller “Ni shuo putongua ma?” and the cunning sound of Chinese starts filling the air. And even the toilets start becoming the ones of the sewerish channel type, so dear across the not so far away border.

Hsipaw itself is one of those places you probably, as a westerner, wouldn’t like to stop if just glancing from a bus window: small but bustling, clean but dirty, old as a city out of a middle century fairy tale could be. A big covered wet market welcomes us as we step out of the bus’ doors and many eyes start sinking into our bodies, everywhere, who’s smiling and who just saw their next prey… I remember the smell of fresh mountain air, and the temperature that definitely dropped a few degrees leaving a sense of restoration and warm welcome after the sticky afternoon spent roaming around Mandalay.

TO BE CONTINUED

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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.

Cambodia is an experience. It’s interesting and exciting. The fighters are good. But training is pretty basic, almost no equipment and really only one gym where foreigners can train. Learning Khmer Bokator is a good experience, though. It’s the ancient martial art of Cambodia and by learning it, you are helping to preserve the Khmer heritage.

Taiwan is good to live in. very comfortable and developed. You can earn a good living as teacher, if you have legitimate degrees and qualifications. You can train fairly well in Kaohsiung or Taipei but you can’t get many fights.

Korea is horrible. They hate you. You hate them. Everything sucks. Buildings aren’t heated. It’s lonely and awful but you can earn good money and get a free apartment. There is only fighting in Seoul. Training in Busan is less exciting.

Philippines is great for stick fighting. People are great. Crime is off the charts in Manila. There are some excellent fighting teams doing Yaw Yan, Filipino MMA. But again, bring your own money. You can get work as an English teacher, teaching Koreans, for about $700 a month. At which point you think, why not just go back to Korea? You can also get a job in a call center but you work all night, when America is working.

Vietnam: salaries for teachers are quite high but rents are much higher than in other places I have worked. In Taiwan my one bedroom apartment with kitchen and living room and garden was $220 per month. In Hanoi that would probably run about $500. There are a lot of martial arts in Vietnam. And it is an interesting, dynamic place, but there isn’t a lot of fighting.

So far, Vietnamese and Korean are the hardest languages I have ever tried to learn.

China is a good experience. You can live in a full time training school for anywhere from $300 to $2,000 a month, depending if you are a professional victim or not. I even had an invitation from a full time San Da school in shanghai for only $300 a month for room and training. That is even cheaper than what most foreigners pay for their rent. So you can find deals in China. But some people are stupid enough to pay $1,500 a week to stay at Shaolin Temple. I paid $200 a month. Again in China you need to bring your own money. There is unlimited work as a teacher, but the salary is seriously low, often $500 a month.

Malaysia is super for training. There are a few good Muay Thai and Tomoi schools in KL and Selangore. I heard there are Muay Thai camps in the north and there is silat everywhere. If you are a qualified school teacher, a licensed school teacher in your home country, you can get a job at an international school. They pay really well but it is a regular 45 hour per week job.

MM- Have you ever gone back stateside during these expatriate years? How do you feel when you go back there?

I have been back once for a book release after four years in Asia. I was useless in America. I had no function. Here in Asia I train, write and study most of the day and then work when I need to, at most three or five hours per day. In America, you have to work full time and you still can’t afford anything.

MM – Any thoughts about the switch to the Obama administration?

In Taiwan, my friends and I stayed up and watched the entire inauguration. I cried. I was so happy to be rid of Bush and I was very optimistic for president Obama. I still am. And, if called, I would drop everything and serve his administration in a second, with not a single glance backward.

MM- Seen the recent struggles of the Uyghur people culminating with violence in Urumqi and the Chinese renovation plans to bulldoze most of the historical part of Kashgar, how do you feel? I know you have travelled in the Taklamakan desert by bike and met this population long before it was lit by these ridiculous “media dimlights”?

My second book, “The Desert of Death on Three Wheels” was written about that region. I rode from Aksu to Kashgar on a Chinese tricycle. The Uyghur are a sad people. They don’t belong in China. They should be an independent country, as they were prior to 1949, when they lived in East Turkistan. Or, they should be part of Turkmenistan. I hate what is happening to them. I saw a very violent police action when I was there and it frightened me.

MM- You are Italian American and you told me you?d like to go back to Italy and study and live there for a while. What do you expect from our country? Are you aware of the frightening Berlusconi’s era, and the drastic conditions in which our ancient artistic heritage has been flushed down the toilet?

I plan to go back to Italy, teach English and study Italian and martial arts. I have been planning for years to write a book about the experience, and the title would be “Among My Own People.” Berlusconi is my hero. He is like the Donald Trump of Italy. He is a quirky, funny character who I think is a perfect politician for a country which has had 39 governments since World War II. I am extremely close to wanting to move to Italy after Christmas.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH ANTONIO, IT WAS A LONG, INTERESTING TALK THAT I WISH WILL CLEAR SOME ISSUES OR MISCONCEPTIONS PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE ABOUT LIVING IN ASIA. I HOPE THE MONKEYROCKWORLD WILL TREAT YOU AS WELL AS THE MARTIAL ARTS ONE, AND REMEMBER, YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME ON THESE PAGES.

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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.David taught us a lot of military discipline and he is probably one of the big reasons why I joined the military when I was 17. I graduated infantry school and also graduated non-commissioned officers school. The next few years were blurry. I flunked out of college a couple of times, changed from the army to the navy to get a scholarship, which I screwed. I got my first pro boxing trainer somewhere around age 20 and started fighting and working construction jobs and in out of military and school for the next several years. When I was 24 I joined the merchant marines. I graduated their school in piney point and I went to sea as a wheelman on the SS Independence, out of Hawaii. That was probably my first big adventure.

In all of the branches of military I fought in the Friday night fights or fights on the base. I won 41 out of 42 fights. I ate like a fiend and went up to heavyweight division because in the military it is really the least competitive weight because a lot of the guys are blown up middle weights who stopped dieting or training. A lot of them were just tough marines with no skills. It was mostly pretty easy.

Eventually I made it back to college in Tennessee and majored in Foreign Language and English. I went to Germany and studied applied linguistics for four years and worked as a translator for some huge European companies. I spent a year in Costa Rica working as a freelance translator and then finally went back to New York and started a financial career, working as a Financial planner at Prudential. I put my fighting on hold during those years.

MM- You have been in different countries in Asia for the past 8 years now, what made you take this decision, and now, after 8 years, what do you think you’ve learned, and what changed inside of you since your Wall Street days?

The first two years in New York, working in finance were like a long slow nightmare, working 80 and 90 hour weeks with little no pay. But I completed a three year training program in about seven months and sold those skills to ABN Amro for 45,000 pay increase. I stayed with them for a while and moved to one of the largest private banks in America for a 60,000 pay increase. Things were good. Working in private banking I had a lot of free time and money so I started training and fighting again. I just kept dreaming of going to Asia and doing what I am doing now, but I thought I wouldn’t ever get here.

I was ion New York on 911. I decided I didn’t want to work in finance anymore and I also thought that my dream of going to Asia was never going to happen. So, I left. I went to Taiwan first, to learn Chinese and kung fu. Then I went to Shaolin temple in china. Then a Muay Thai temple in Thailand, and then Cambodia….I have spent significant time in about ten countries during the eight years.

I learned to live with almost no money. And I learned that the principle thing people want from money is freedom and freedom is something you can’t buy. You are only free if you can let go of everything.

So, now I am free, but poor. The first six years I thought “a lot of people back home have more money than me but I have freedom, so it is a trade off.” But after the world financial crisis happened I thought “They all lost all their money. So, now neither of us has any money, but I have freedom.” So, I win.

MM- You wrote a book, The Monk from Brooklyn, documenting your martial art training at the famous Shaolin temple in Hunan, China in a time when the country was still ?scary matter? for the West, and you were there during the SARS outbreak too. In light of such perspective, how do you relate to modern day China, and which differences can you draw?

Five of my books have been published. Number Six, “Warrior Odyssey” will be published next year. It documents my first six years in Asia. The Monk from Brooklyn was my first book and it is where I got my nickname. The book means a lot to me.

When I wrote that book, I thought there was no hope for China. Henan, where the Shaolin temple is located is so backward and undeveloped. But after writing the book I lived in Hong Kong, then back in Taiwan, and more Chinese studies and then living in various Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia, and I decided China is a Dragon Rising. It is a huge country with a command economy and a massive population. There is a tremendous Chinese Diaspora network throughout the world which is possibly China’s greatest asset. The Chinese outside of China are linking up. communities in Malaysia coordinate with communities in Cambodia and they sell products to China. Or buy products from China. The Diaspora are like massive tentacles of the Chinese economic machine. They are passive tentacles in the sense that they aren’t actively working for the Chinese government in any way. But they have found a good way of making money for themselves and their local communities. The ancillary benefit to China is that they get richer and more important in the world.

TO BE CONTINUED

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