Letters Back to Ancient China combines comedy, fantasy and satire in a moving personal odyssey. Mrs Kei-kung is a thoroughly modern women and she introduces Kao-tai, a 10th century Chinese mandarin marooned in modern day Munich by his time machine, to the joys of modern sex and champagne. However everything else he encounters is not to his taste. In his letters back to his friend in the 10th century Middle Kingdom, he expresses his horror at the noise, stench and filth of 20th century civilization. For him the invention and conveniences of modern technology are trifles compared with the pollution and lack of order in a society where women (who have mountainous breasts) presume to talk and think like men. Yet he eventually does find some comfort in the mote shang-dong, (champagne) of which he drinks great quantities and in the arms of Mrs Kei-kung. Letters Back to Ancient China is one of the most successful German novels of the last decade with well over a million copies sold.

Kao-tai, der Mandarin aus dem 10. Jahrhundert, mußte wieder mit seiner Zeitmaschine fliehen und landet diesmal in Köln ("Kö-leng"), und das mitten im Karneval! Von zahllosen Abenteuern gebeutelt und in der Hoffnung, irgendwann in die Heimat zurückkehren zu können, schreibt er abermals an Dji-gu. Die Welt, in der er sich nun wiederfindet, hat sich seit der "Großen Umwendung" 1989 dramatisch verändert. Auf der Suche nach seinen alten Freunden verschlägt es Kao-tai nicht bloß nach Leipzig ("Lip-tsing"), New York und Bozen, sondern auch nach Bayreuth und Rom.