Small dramatic and laughable tales, in the Chinese way, by a playful sinologist

Piquant variations from a sinologist who stages very diverse characters, these eight short stories come straight from a French writer who knows China in depth and who, through well-defined characters, depicts a Chinese society confronted with a changing world and an authoritarian regime where a misstep can have formidable consequences. The stories presented here are deliberate attempts at cultural appropriation. They would be translated from an original collection in Chinese which was not; a sham. They take place in recent times. The characters, with some exceptions, are middle class. There are resourceful people, greedy people, people full of virtue and others a little less. Something to tell. In this collection, which has the originality of being a fake, the duplicity implemented aspires, in all innocence, to disorientate and at the same time to «de-Westernize», as Victor Segalen proposes.

• A tender and realistic look at Chinese society of today.
• After the success of Lettres d'Ogura and De Thé et d'amour, the new opus of an erudite and sensitive writer.
• An invitation to the knowledge of facets of China in tales with timeless flavors.