Huang Gongwang (1269-1354)’s Dwelling in Fuchun Mountains (1348-50) is one of the most famous paintings in Chinese history, depicting magnificent ‘mountain and water’ (shanshui) across four seasons. Created during Yuan dynasty's decline, a time marked by upheaval and the end of Mongol dominance. The masterpiece was tragically split into two pieces after Huang’s death—one half now resides in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, and the other in Taipei’s National Palace Museum. This forced dislocation echoes Lam’s personal experience—sense of non-belonging, and internal division between cultures and homelands.

In Lam’s rendition, he deconstructed elements from the separated masterpiece and reproduced them into a new allegorical landscape featuring two mountains situated across a river, like two islands. The reproduction gradually diverged from the original as the artist incorporated trees and plants, revealing layered perspectives between past and present, hope and disillusion.