Much attention has been paid to about musical exchanges between Western and non-Western cultures, e.g. Europop influences on Afropop, or African influences on white Western artistes. Collaborations of the "Asia meets Europe" variety also garner much interest. While such exchanges and collaborations are indeed interesting and worthy, musical exchanges between non-European individuals and/or cultures are no less important and fascinating.

There is a whole world of musical collaborations and influences beyond the Asia-Meets-Europe or Africa-Meets-Europe paradigm. For example, the pipa/biwa lute played in China and Japan originated in Western Asia. During the Tang Dynasty, Persian performers and teachers were in demand in the Chinese capital of Chang'an. (See wikipedia entry on pipa.)

Non-Europeans have been drawing inspirations from each other's cultures for millenia. In this issue, we feature cross-cultural collaborations involving traditional music, traditional musicians or ethnopop artistes of non-European background.