Jao Tsung-i was China's last great traditional man of letters, polymath, and pioneer of comparative humanistic inquiry during Hong Kong's global heyday. Dunhuang is China's traditional northwest frontier and overland conduit of exchange with the Old World. In this volume, Jao proposes an entirely new school of Chinese landscape painting, reconsiders Dunhuang's oldest manuscripts as its newest research field, and explores topics ranging from comparative religion to medieval multimedia.

India's Punjab is the land of the five rivers, five (Punj) rivers (Aab) - Ravi, Satluj, Chenab, Beas and Jhelum. It is also the birthplace of Max Kandhola's family, who historically were landowners, with connections to farming, agriculture and also to the military. Max Kandhola decided to go back to Punjab after completing his project "Illustration of Life" (2002) in which he documented his father's last moments of life, and reflected on issues within Sikh ritual, immortality and death. Over the last four years, he has visited the region as part of a continuing project to map family history through an odyssey of ancestral narratives, exploring memory, diaspora and identity. For him it is a land which is unfamiliar, yet it provides both a context and a beginning. Kandhola's journey began in Nurmahal, in the district of Jalandhar, from which most of his family originally came. Using this as a starting point he travelled from the centre of Punjab outwards.

This book of humorous, philosophical, allegorical and nature-loving poetry with its beautiful original illustrations came about through a son's love for his mother. The poems in this book should paint meaningful pictures in your mind. As you read them I hope you are prompted to think deeply and explore their resonance for you, but also to laugh out loud.