Letters Back to Ancient China

By Herbert Rosendorfer

A 10th-century Chinese mandarin travels forward in time, and writes letters home reporting on the strange land of 'Zha-ma-ni' in which he is surrounded by giants with big noses, and frightened by the iron carriages called 'mo-tao-kas'. We gradually realise that he is in present-day Munich, and the hapless voyager's encounters with modern life and love, make delightful reading." Scotland on Sunday
Two million copies of the German edition have been sold which belies the claims that the Germans do not have a sense of humour and do not like satire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dedalus
• Release date: Nov 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781910213223

Reviews for Letters Back to Ancient China

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting story of a man from 10th Century China stranded in 1980's Munich. Interesting and well written, it would be better if there was a glossary of the names he uses for different personal names. Some I guessed but others were impossible, and would probably require knowledge of German. Interesting look at the mores and social problems in the 1980's which have continued to today. Written in letter form (I know there's a word for that but my brain isn't helping with the spelling) to a friend back in China, of his own time it is well worth a read even if you do spend several hours trying to work out what the names are.

[bookswamp · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Kao-Tai's letters of his time travelling from 10th century China to his stay in Munich of 1986 is vastly amusing, but requires a bit of knowledge of the basic pronunciations and syllable build-up of the Chinese language in order to figure out all of the names. I get better with every reading (at least 4 times so far).