The Old Man from the Republic of China, Becoming a Film Emperor in the Modern Era

Huang Laohan is fifty-six years old. Once a tenant farmer for a landed family, he takes his grandson up the mountain to graze cattle in order to ease the burden on his household. But a wrong step leads them through a strange doorway in time—and they emerge near a film studio in the modern day. Believing he has stumbled into a paradise of immortals, Huang is awestruck by towering skyscrapers, metal boxes that carry people at lightning speed, and spotless paved streets. Even more astonishing: leftover vegetables outside the market are free for the taking, steamed buns cost one yuan apiece, and fine white rice sells for just two yuan per catty. Best of all, he discovers he can earn a hundred yuan a day simply by lying still on a film set, playing a corpse for a few hours—enough to buy how many catties of rice? Years later, the films he appears in are released, and a panel of judges awards him the title of Huayu Film Emperor. But only Huang himself knows the truth: he was never merely acting. In every role, he was simply living out his own life.