Book Release: Khun Khmer: Cambodian Martial Arts Diary, By Antonio Graceffo

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The world’s first, ever, book dedicated 100% to Cambodian martial arts. In this rare work you will find stories about the three Khmer martial arts: Bradal Serey (kick boxing), Jap Bap (wrestling), and the ancient fighting system of Bokator. The book includes interviews and profiles with most of Cambodia’s living masters and some of Cambodia’s top fighters.

Between the stories of martial arts and fighting you will get an incredibly close and intimate look into Cambodian culture. Traveling with Graceffo you experience Cambodia as few people ever can.

From the publisher:

Antonio Graceffo, in his 7th book, returns to Cambodia in search of the elusive origins of Bokator, the unabridged original fighting style of Cambodia.  His search, 10 years in the making, has taken him from Cambodia’s capital city of Phnom Penh, to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and many villages and towns in between.   Along the way, Graceffo details the people, culture, and mindset of a civilization far removed from his Brooklyn upbringing.

Always behind his journey, is Graceffo’s determination to find documentation and proof of Bokator’s roots.  This is Graceffo’s motivation, his holy grail, his passion.  Come along as Graceffo combines his passion for Martial Arts and culture to learn what it means to be human, in a sometimes inhumane world.

Experience with Graceffo the beauty of a country where few Americans live, eat with the locals where you can dine like a king for $4.00, travel the many dirt roads to people’s grass hut homes and dirt floors that welcome you with a smile.  Meet the young men who train 8 hours a day, but do not have enough money for food or competition fees.    Understand a country coming to terms with its’ own turbulent past and trying to carve a place for itself in the 21st century.

Discover why this book ends with more questions than answers, but rest assured, Graceffo will take you on a journey that you will never forget.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Article written by Antonio Graceffo

Antonio Graceffo PhD China-MBA, works as an economics researcher and university professor in China. He holds a PhD from Shanghai University of Sport Wushu Department where he wrote his dissertation “A Cross Cultural Comparison of Chinese and Western Wrestling” in Chinese. He is the author of 8 books, including Warrior Odyssey and The Monk from Brooklyn. His regular column, Destinations, has been running in Black Belt Magazine since 2009. He has fought professionally as a boxer and MMA fighter as well as fighting as an amateur in boxing, sanda, and wrestling. Having spent over 15 years studying martial arts in Asia, he holds black belts in Cambodian Bokator, Filipino Kuntaw and Cambodian traditional kick boxing. In Malaysia, he was the first non-Malay to be awarded the title of Pahlawan Kalam (warrior of Silat Kalam). Currently, he is pursuing a second PhD in economics at Shanghai University, specializing in US-China Trade, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and Trump-China economics. His China economic reports are featured regularly in The Foreign Policy Journal and published in Chinese at The Shanghai Institute of American Studies, a Chinese government think tank.