"I had wanted to translate the book ever since I finished my studies in Japan in 2003," said Zhao in the postscript of the Chinese version. "Lin invited me to lecture at Taipei University of the Arts in 2008, hoping to work with us to publish a Chinese version."

"He knew we were more familiar with Dunhuang Paintings and wanted us to provide high-definition color photos of the paintings to replace the obscure black-and-white ones in the original book," added Zhao.

Zhao took up the translation work from 2011 but found it to be difficult and time-consuming. So he invited Li Mei, who was then studying for a doctorate at the University of Tsukuba, to help him in 2014.

Zhejiang University Press undertook the publishing preparation work of the Chinese version in 2018 with financial support from the National Publication Foundation.

To ensure quality, translators and editors also established a workshop at Zhejiang University in January 2019 to proofread and revise the manuscript.