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Letters Back to Ancient China

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Letters Back to Ancient China / Briefe in die chinesische Vergangenheit is a German book about the adventures of the time-travelling medieval Chinese mandarin Kao-tai. Having arrived not only 1000 years to the future, but also at the wrong place (Munich, Bavaria) he struggles a lot to understand our world. (For kids: Well, without wide-spread internet, cell phones and such.) The novel is written as an epistolary novel; we only see Kao-tai's letters.

Examples of Letters Back to Ancient China include:


  • Bilingual Bonus: There are many bilingual puns. One example: The German unions are mentioned, which are all named "IG ...". This abbreviation is pronounced like Mandarin for "give once", but Kao-tai writes that they rather should be named "take ten thousand times".
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: Kao-tai doesn't understand why he shouldn't have an affair with two women at the same time, as long as he can satisfy them both. Also, when he compliments one of them on her breasts, she is miffed. And he misses cooked dog. And so on.
  • Eat the Dog: Sadly, in Germany you won't get Pekingese's liver and such.
  • The Eighties: When it was written and set.
  • Cute Kitten: Kao-tai likes his Shiao-shiao and misses her.
  • Fish Out of Temporal Water: Not just that.
  • Freudian Excuse: Said woman (see above) rationalized his odd behavior by concluding that he wasn't breastfed enough.
  • Genius Bonus: Many details about Munich.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: There's one poet whom he calls "Si-gi who only writes during summer". Also a minister who's only mentioned as "demonic southern barbarian".
  • The Sequel: Came out in 1999 and features a lot about the German reunification.
  • Take That: Several.
  • Toilet Humor: Since Kao-tai doesn't know how modern German toilets work and didn't want to ask. But it's still done in as good taste as possible.
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