Dances along the Silk Roads

Escapes and questions

After an hour, half working and half relaxing, we take the car to go see a show of all kinds of dances of the Silk Road. And the dancer’s eyes puncture the spectators’ eyes. I end up next to a group of French people and a slightly round man who was a former rugby player that I saw for the first time with a cigar in his hand, before going in to watch the show. He tells me he’s the representative of a group of people who organize trips on the Silk Road. He asks me if I’m here for the eclipse, I tell him no, for the Olympics, I tell him no, then he asks me if I’m here on family business, I tell him again no. Then he asks me if I understand the Ouigour language. I tell him no but that my dad does. So then he’s persuaded that dad’s an Ouigour, but I tell him no and he asks me if he’s a Kazakh, I tell him he’s French and Iranian born. During the show, I observe keenly the dances, but also the girls. They are so beautiful! Towards the end, one of the French asks me why I came here. I explain to him the trip and give him the site and title of dad’s book on the Silk Roads. Then, in front of the hotel with Harkin we eat but I leave early. Since he said he was going to sleep in his room, Yang Dong gives me the camera. He and Liu Jia are afraid he’ll steel it. The idea makes me laugh, but I take it anyways. In the end, Harkin didn’t even sleep in the room. I write a little then go to bed while dad and Liu Jia keep on working on the captions.