Time is a universal concept, a cultural factor that cannot be rendered by a linguistic universal. Temporality in Chinese is a challenge for translators. Unlike the majority of the languages, it is not marked by conjugations, but by external items such as verbal particles at the end of the sentences, temporal adverbs or just by context. Taking as a subject of study a short story by the Chinese writer Lu Xun, The True Story of Ah Q, the author analyses the translation the translator opted for and she suggests other possibilities that she considers more suitable. She aims to establish which are the more appropriate proposals and to reach a series of conclusions that could become a starting point for working with other Chinese texts.