Tom Mangione came to China in 2007 for a brief stint as an intern working with factories in Dongguan, China. Here he discovered that he loved China, but maybe that the rough and tumble world of manufacturing wasn't for him (although man, does he have some stories). After that, he took off to Shanghai to study Mandarin, write and ponder what China is all about. He has been published in the Shanghai's HAL Literature's two anthologies Party Like It's 1984 and Middle Kingdom Underground. He's also the co-founder of United Verses, a bilingual poetry event which helps connect local Chinese and English-language poets. When he is not writing, Mangione also plays in a local folk band called The Horde under the moniker Ho-Tom the Conqueror. [Read]