Narrator old Chinese dignitary fallen, recounts his memories of the time when, during the Cultural Revolution, he was commissioned to write the revolutionary operas, works "without emperors without squires, but with the workers, peasants, soldiers. " Reflections inspired his narrative, however beyond the scope of Chinese history, which makes this new kind of parable dealing sensitively several universal themes: the makeshift variations of a life subject to the vagaries of power links between culture and politics, regrets that can be felt on the evening of his life .... It is beautifully written, moreover, and for example may be mentioned, for fun, this sentence: "Our country is a huge ship; three words whispered on the bridge decide a change; the maneuver, majestic and insensitive, extends over several kilometers, passengers often do notice it in that long after it is over. "
