This paper reflects on the transpositional comparison in Marginson and Yang's article in this special issue, with a focused discussion on epistemic diversity and cross-cultural comparative research. It argues that in global research, epistemic diversity largely co-exists with epistemic inequity and injustice, despite long-standing normative appeals. Against this backdrop, cross-cultural comparative studies have significant value, albeit facing a range of challenges. There are five outcomes of cross-cultural encounters: "assimilation," "immiscibility," and "being different together" (including "unity in diversity," "harmony with diversity," and "together with diversity"). Although East-West encounters demonstrated all possible outcomes, being "different" together is both possible and valuable, not only for East-West encounters but also for cross-civilisational comparisons.