How does one culture ""read"" another? This book is a series of conversations between a scholar from China and a scholar from the West, each reading texts from the other's culture. One of the key issues is the nature of religion and what we understand by that term in a world in which ancient religious and customs seem to be dying or under threat. Does literature and religion offer the possibility of mutual understanding--or merely illustrate our differences? These conversations between scholars are also between friends. And that, too, is important.