Matteo studied Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies at Brown University, where he wrote a thesis on the China travel narratives of Curzio Malaparte and Tiziano Terzani. At UC Berkeley, he is preparing a dissertation on the impact of Italian Neo-Realism on PRC, ROC and Hong Kong culture from the 1950s to the 2000s. He is also interested in the films of the Late Maoist era and how they influenced China's Fourth Generation filmmakers.