From the late 20th century to the middle of the 21st, Chai Aolan, a young man from Chaijiabao in the northwest, met Amir, a Kazakh classmate, at Fudan University. They became close friends through their shared love of the dombra. After graduation, they went their separate ways: Chai Aolan went to Chongqing to start a business, while Amir returned home to carry on the craft of making and playing the dombra. Years later, a reunion at Chongqing Riverside Square brought them back to the promise they had made as boys: to use the dombra as a bridge between the grasslands and the mountain city.
With architect Lin Mo joining them, the three worked together to put down roots for dombra culture in Chongqing, from free lessons on an open-air stage to establishing the “Dombra Arts Center”; from traditional performances to a high-tech fusion at a metaverse music festival, and then to the successful application to have Kazakh dombra art recognized as intangible cultural heritage. Chai Aolan’s son, Chai Nian’an, and Amir’s daughter, Zoya, took up the baton. As the “Blue Sky Dombra Duo,” they brought this ancient art to the international stage, letting its music flow across the Jialing River and around the world.
The novel concludes with the 2045 opening of the Chai Aolan Dombra Arts Memorial Hall. The story of two generations and the bond between two nations becomes eternal in the music and the passing years.
