From page 64:
Let us listen then, you and I, to the singing sands of Great Dunhuang, dance with the bodhisattvas of North by Northwest Cathay, connect in the oasis city that has always linked you and I
Here is a Chinese star map from Dunhuang, from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). In our story, in our Cathay, the Tang Dynasty never ended, and Tang Lili’s daughter Wilhelmina Wang is a princess of Chang’an, the capital of the Tang Empire.
From page 4:
Janosch A. Prufrock looked from the peony embroidered on Wilhelmina Wang’s knapsack, to the string of heavy gold Startalers, separated every ten by a silken knot, strung through their square holes particular to the Tang Empire Startalers, to her proud, beautiful face, and said, using the Cathayan formality, “May I ask your honored family name?”
She answered, because she did not want to lie.
“Wang means könig, which is cognate with king,” said Janosch A. Prufrock thoughtfully.
My own family name Kayser looks and sounds a lot like the city Kayseri in Turkey famous for its dumplings, called manti in Turkish. Manti is cognate with the Chinese mantou, and is indeed where both manti and I originated: north China. So here we are, the dumplings and I, joined in one made-in-Germany bag of frozen Turkish-style Chinese dumplings. Let us listen indeed, to the singing sands of Great Dunhuang, that have always linked you and I.