Special Section

CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Between the Real and Unreal
by Shu-Mei Chan
Korean photographer Jungjin Lee's abstract juxtaposition of images.

A Cosmic Sensibility
by Reiko Tomii
The photographic works of Hitoshi Nomura, "a sculptor who shapes the material of time-space."

Ram Rahman
by Peter Nagy
Exploring the role of the photographer and the place of the photograph within India's feast if visual culture.

Ruins as Autobiography
by Wu Hung
Images that propel the viewer into Chinese photographer Rong Rong's life and psyche.

Features
BATTLE ROYALE
by Linda Hoaglund
Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku's brilliant cautionary allegory.

A MAY THAT WILL LAST FOREVER
by Xu Xiao
A young widow's reflections on her husband's life and the Beijing literary circle they both were part of.

A Conversation with Xu Xiao
by Michael Berry
One of the early contributors to the Chinese underground journal Today.

On-Site: THIRST
by Martha Ann Selby
Living with the drought in Chennai.

Departments
CITY SCAN - Beijing, Calcutta, Chiang Mai, Vientiane

GLEANINGS

WORTH REPEATING

FILM
New Life for an Old Genre: A once-popular martial arts film style makes a comeback in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
by William Rothman
Menace and Malevolence:Kiyoshi Kurosawa's psychothriller Cure
by Mark Schilling

BOOKS

Art Book Roundup

Book Reviews
The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal edited by Elizabeth B. Moynihan, reviewed by Janice Leoshko
Smell by Radhika Jha, reviewed by Andrea Kempf
Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan, reviewed by Jeffrey C. Kinkley
Panic and Deaf: Two Modern Satires by Liang Xiaosheng, reviewed by Michael Berry
A Paradise Lost: The Imperial Garden Yuanming Yuan by Young-tsu Wong, reviewed by John R. Finlay
Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle by Shi-shan Henry Tsai, reviewed by Sarah Schneewind
The Gourmet Club: A Sextet by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, reviewed by Susan J. Napier
Life in the Cul-de-Sac by Senji Kuroi, reviewed by Ronald Suleski
The Man Who Saved Kabuki: Faubion Bowers and Theatre Censorship in Occupied Japan by Shiro Okamoto, reviewed by Michael Guest

POETRY
Map
by Meena Alexander