In July Alexander broke the run and went on tour, as was his custom. He believed in keeping in touch with provincial audiences and how wise he was!

He saw the same pattern in the hamlet of Zawa on the edge of the Khotan oasis and not far from present-day Kaifa Qu. Poor soil, scarce water and a lack of irrigation technology prevented serious colonization. “If they want to increase the Chinese population,” Mannerheim wrote, officials “will have to take away land from the [Uyghurs] and give it to the Chinese.”

The Sesame Street Generation, as some teachers are calling the group of children now in high school, know their numbers and the letters of the alphabet.

I spiraled down into all the warnings I had ever received about adopted children from family, from misinformed people I barely knew, instead of thinking: at three kids get tantrummy.