Narrator of exemplary stories about China’s latest turbulent years, Acheng helps us catch the humors and courses of a great country that, under certain aspects, for us westerners remains a mystery. “The king of children”, “The king of chess”, and “The king of trees”, are the titles of the works that have made him known in Italy and that can be considered useful instruments to follow, from inside (which means through the lives of men and women who will never be included in history books), epochal courses, whose phases are marked by the cultural revolution, the great leap, the re-education in the country, with the results we all know, Tiananmen included. A passionate witness of his time, the exile Acheng (he lives in California) has recently published the book of short stories “Minimal lives”. “Minimal lives”, minimal stories, in fact: hidden in the depths of the great History.