In 1966, Mao Zedong starts the Cultural Revolution in China, the big uprising of the young people against everything which seemed to be old, intellectual or occidental. By then, Ante Zhang is 13 years old and feels attracted and repelled at the same time. He yearns for joining his generation fellows, but his father, a famous poet, will be humiliated and sent to prison.

Why should writing poems and reading book be a crime? Are not people supposed to rule their own lives? Ange dreams of being an artist. Nowadays, he is, and he narrates his young years, under Maoist  dictatorship, in this book.

Bologna Ragazzi Prize.

“Ange has achieved something bit: to settle accounts in a soft way, like in a parable, with the abused committed on a whole generation.” (Der Spiegel).

"A succesful example of subjective interpretation of History, from a teenager’s point of view.” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)