He combines an eclectic education with his travelling and research nature. He graduated from Classics (Latin and Greek) with Honors, and also swam under the waters of Sociology and Asian Studies. He has lived in Rome, Vienna, India and China.
He lived in India for half a year studying Sanskrit and Vedanta Philosophy with local teachers. Two years later, in 2004, ICO Foundation granted to him a one-year-scholarship to study Chinese in Beijing Foreign Studies University. It allowed him to deepen his knowledge about Chinese language, and experience Chinese culture and society. He spent the following year working in some tv series as an extra actor, and in a kindergarten as an English teacher.
In September 2006 he published L’art de trontollar. Teràpia de xoc (The art of staggering. Shock therapy). It contains 545 short philosophical texts. In spring 2008, was successfully released both in Catalan and Spanish his two-year experience in China in the book El país del mig / El país del medio. In December 2008, he published Ser humano, ser precario which deals with the unstable, precarious and never-fulfilled nature of the human being. It is a sharp look inside the present political, economic and social crisis. In December 2008 was released his collaboration in the first bilingual Greek-Catalan translation of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. At present time, he is finishing the first Latin-Catalan translation of De subuentione pauperum (On assisting needy people), a major work of philosopher and humanist Joan Lluís Vives (1492-1540).
JOAN LLUÍS VIVES, ON ASSISTING NEEDY PEOPLE (2009)
Bilingual Latin - Catalan translation. Forewords by Charles E. Fantazzi and Josep Enric Rubio. Translation, notes and Catalan edition by Joan Tello Brugal.
Original Latin title: De subuentione pauperum. Original title in the Catalan edition: Joan Lluís Vives. L'assistència als pobres. First edition: Fall 2009. Pages: ISBN: 978-84-96563-85-8 Publisher: Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad.
If any publishing company or individual is interested in getting in touch with Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad, please click on the Catalanor Spanishlink.
MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS (2008)
Bilingual Greek-Catalan translation. Introduction, translation and notes by Joan Alberich i Mariné. Edition by Joan Tello i Brugal.
Original Catalan title: Marc Aureli. Meditacions. First edition: December 2008 Pages: 306 ISBN: 978 - 84 - 96563 - 74 - 2 Cover image: Marcus Aurelius. National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona. Publisher: Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad.
If any publishing company or individual is interested in getting in touch with Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad, please click on the Catalanor Spanishlink.
TO BE HUMAN, TO BE UNSTABLE (2008)
Original Spanish title: Ser humano, ser precario. First edition: December 2008. Pages: 112. ISBN: 978 - 84 - 7948 - 093 - 6. Publisher: Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad.
If any publishing company or individual is interested in getting in touch with Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad, please click on the Catalanor Spanishlink.
COUNTRY CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE (2008) Living, studying and working two years in China
Originally written in Catalan and Spanish.
Original Catalan title: El país del mig First edition: May 2008
Pages: 276 + 8 (visual materials)
ISBN: 978 - 84 - 96563 - 66 - 7
Original Spanish title: El país del medio First edition: July 2008
Pages: 291 + 8 (visual materials)
ISBN: 978 - 84 - 79480 - 88 - 2
Publisher: Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad.
If any publishing company or individual is interested in getting in touch with
Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad, please click on the Catalanor Spanishlink.
The book.
El país del mig / El país del medio depicts, without the least censorship, what the author saw and experienced during a two-year stay in China. Along with pen-portraits of the people with whom he lived, there are his accounts of attempts at swindling, descriptions of the educational system (university and kindergarten), comments on the environment, philosophy, and television filming, stories of possible and impossible loves, teachers, a Japanese woman, Filipinos, a journalist traumatised in her childhood, a rebel artist, bureaucratic problems, families and, finally, journeys and situations in which he describes cities, customs and modes of behaviour. This book casts an ironic and at once tragic gaze on a country that is trapped between the horns of a dilemma: whether to advance in the economic domain alone and lose itself as a country and as a culture, or to put an end to the false appearance of progress and try to correct the ravages that the religion of unlimited growth has inflicted on ecological balance, the society and people.
El país del mig / El país del medio is, in brief, a direct source through which to discover and learn more about the China that nobody dares to describe. A China experienced and conveyed by a European who is critical not only of the Chinese but of ourselves as well.
From the author's Prologue.
Whatever country that mixes up honour with arrogance, discipline with authoritarianism, progress with destruction and freedom with consumerism is step by step nourishing its fall.
This book enlightens some dark points, hoping that once they have been given light they will have a chance to be healed.
The history of cinema cherishes with deep feelings films which seem to deal with war but that in the end are unequivocal hymns to peace. I hope the reader will realize that the only purpose in my writing is to help to build a better world.
What some newspapers have said.
Abc. “He (Tello) came up to China with a huge curiosity and an ability to observe the surface and what was hidden beneath (…) The reader will feel the variety of the Chinese Microcosm pass through in front of his eyes (…) Lots of questions float throughout the book”.
Maritimas. (…) We find lots of books concerning China. Most of them are informative and lack of insightful reflection. They keep on the surface and even mislead the audience. But there are some exceptions, like El país del mig by Joan Tello. He is neither a journalist, nor a writer who explains a tourist trip, nor a western citizen who spends some time in China and feels that he has mastered great knowledge about the country. Quite the other way round. Tello is in love with Oriental cultures (he had previously lived in India) and he spent two years in the Peoples’ Republic of China. At first, he was a student. Afterwards he was a kindergarten English teacher. He lived among Chinese, he travelled with Chinese public transports, he had three Chinese girlfriends and, in short, he speaks Mandarin and knows Chinese way of thinking (…) The author describes a messy and dirty country, full of polluted cities which live eternally drowned with noise. He also depicts its society: impolite, disrespectful towards coexistence rules and environment care, absolutely crazy for personal profit and making money (…) The book is extremely revealing.”
● THE BOOK IN THE MEDIA.
1. El Punt (June 23, 2008). Link in Catalan. Click on the picture or here.
2. Abc(June 30, 2008), p 54. Link in Spanish. Click on the picture.
3. Diario Maritimas (July 02, 2008), p 5. Link in Spanish. Click on the picture.
4. Avui (July 08, 2008), p 38. Link in Catalan. Click on the picture or here.
5. El Periódico de Catalunya (July 12, 2008), p 37. Link in Spanish. Click on the picture or here.
6. El Mundo. Suplemento Tendències (July 24, 2008). Link in Spanish. Click on the picture.
7. 25tv. (July 31, 2008). One hour interview in the magazine "L'hora d'en Reixach". Click on the pictures.
8. RNE - Spanish National Radio (August 03, 2008). 20 minutes interview in the magazine "Revolución Caliente".
9. La Vanguardia (August 08, 2008), p 37. Link in Spanish. Click on the pictures or here.
10. TV3 - Catalonia Television (August 11, 2008). 20 minutes interview in the magazine "L'Entrevista". Tv3 Newschannel "3/24". Click on the pictures.
11. Diario Información (August 24th, 2008). Digital newspaper. Link in Spanish. Click on the pictures.
12. Travelport. Travel and Tourist Magazine. (October, 2008). "China, ¿el país de la apariencia?" Article. Pages 42 to 50. Link in Spanish. Click on the pictures.
13. Leer. Revista decana de libros y cultura(November 08), page 64. Literature and Culture Magazine. Link in Spanish. Click on the picture.
14. Guest in the Documentary Series "Made in China" (November 27th, 2008), organized by the Catalan Federation of Cinema Clubs, Barcelona Espai de Cinema and Casa Elizalde. Furher information can be found here or clicking on the first image (AVUI newspaper).
15. Catalunya Informació - Catalonia National Radio (November 28th, 2008).Interview in the magazine "Mapamundi".
16. Setmanari El Temps (December 02, 2008), #1277. Page 87. Click on the image. Link in Catalan.
THE ART OF STAGGERING (2006)
Original Catalan title: L'art de trontollar First edition: September 2006 Pages: 168 ISBN: 84 - 96563 - 29 - 4
Publisher: Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad If any publishing company or individual is interested in getting in touch with Llibres de l'Índex - Ediciones La Tempestad, please click on the Catalanor Spanishlink.
FRAGMENTS FROM THE BOOK
The problem is not being a man or being a woman. The problem is… having to be.
You will never defeat me. Although I am competent, I do not compete.
The lesser we understand, the closer we get.
The good question, the one which is a true question, is the one which has not got —can’t have— an answer.
The word does not give a response to the question. It can explain the question but does not answer it.
If you always walk on a pathway, you will never reach anywhere.
One never gets so far away as when he does not know where he is going.
To get out is to get in.
Better being truly empty than falsely full.
If death could be mended, life would be a fraud.
OTHER MATERIALS
Peter Sellers in Being There (1979), directed by Hal Ashby. Quotation from Life and death of Peter Sellers (2004), directed by Stephen Hopkins.
The day the Earth stood still (1951), directed by Robert Wise.
Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), directed by Stanley Kubrick.
He combines an eclectic education with his travelling and research nature. He graduated from Classics (Latin and Greek) with Honors, and also swam under the waters of Sociology and Asian Studies. He has lived in Rome, Vienna, India and China.
the following year working in some tv series as an extra actor, and in a kindergarten as an English teacher.
