Chris Bates

For the past twenty-five years Christopher Bates has designed his life around his interests in Asia, martial arts, business, and his family. He holds a third-degree black belt in Bando (Burmese fighting arts) and has had over thirty years of training in Chinese martial arts, including Northern Shaolin, hsing-i, and t'ai chi. He is also familiar with a number of traditional Japanese martial arts, and is an expert in kukri combat techniques used by the Gurkhas. Since graduating with degrees in Asian studies and international management, Bates has spent nearly twenty years in Asia, residing in Singapore and Taiwan and traveling frequently throughout the region. He lives in Singapore with his Taiwanese wife and their three children. Author of articles on Burmese fighting arts for Crossed Swords and Hoplos, Bates is fluent in Mandarin and has translated part of Tales of Chivalrous and Altruistic Heroes into English. He is presently at work on a book on martial arts, a novella, and a philosophical children's book. The Wave Man is his first novel.