• Kristine Ong Muslim in Softblow

    – Four poems by Kristine Ong Muslim, “P is for Phyllis”, “The Gospel of Tango”, “Blink Once, Said the Little Town” and “The night he died” are now published in 2010’s last edition of Softblow. Read the poems here. –…

  • Wish You Were Here? Postcards from the Future

    “Wish You Were Here? Postcards from the Future” is an exhibition of fourteen digitally-transformed photomontages of recognisable London landmarks by Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones showing at the Museum of London. These images depict the possible impact of climate change…

  • Seriously?

    Colin Thubron’s Shadow of the Silk Road (2006) contains the following baffling passage: It has been said that the Chinese do not love. Observers of their family hierarchies have written that the only true tenderness exists between mother and son.…

  • Shakespeare’s curse

    Click image to enlarge. | Picture taken on Tuesday 28 December 2010 | Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare, To digg the dust encloased heare; Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be…

  • Cha’s Ode to Hong Kong

    [Click the images to enlarge.] From Issue 1 [Link] From Issue 1 [Link] From Issue 1 [Read the entire poem] From Issue 2 [Read the entire poem] From Issue 3 [Read the entire poem]  From Issue 9 [Read the entire…

  • The Habit of Art

    Last December, we went to see Alan Bennett’s new play, The Habit of Art, which is about an imaginary meeting between W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten (this is in a way similar to Adam Fould’s novel The Quickening Maze, which…

  • Nicholas Y.B. Wong in nether

    – Two new poems by Nicholas Y.B. Wong, “This is an Error” and “The Hour”, are now published in nether. You can download the PDF here. – See Nicholas Y.B. Wong’s Cha profile. ––

  • "What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet."

    Namesby Wendy Cope She was Eliza for a few weeksWhen she was a baby —Eliza Lily. Soon it changed to Lil. Later she was Miss Steward in the baker’s shopAnd then ‘my love’, ‘my darling’, Mother. Widowed at thirty, she…

  • What was the most superior civilization of premodern times?

    Paul Kennedy in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987) answers: Of all the civilizations of premodern times, none appeared more advanced, none felt more superior, than that of China. Its considerable population, 100-130 million compared with Europe’s…

  • Phill Provance in Arsenic Lobster

    – Phill Provance’s poem “Hard to Say” is now published in the twenty-fourth issue of Arsenic Lobster poetry journal. – Phill Provance’s poems were published in issue #12 of Cha. His poem “St. Petersberg Has Many Churches” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize…