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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kyung-Ran Jo (author), Chi-Young Kim (translator), Blowfish, Astra House, 2025. 304 pgs. Blowfish is a taut, deceptively quiet novel, structured as a contrapuntal meditation on grief, disconnection, and stillness. The stillness seethes…
![[REVIEW] “To Stay, To See, To Not Flee: Kyung-Ran Jo’s 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑓𝑖𝑠ℎ” by Ananya Singh](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/blowfish-a-novel-hardcover-e28093-july-15-2025-by-kyung-ran-jo-author-chi-young-kim-translator-1.jpg?w=979)
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Editor’s note: Lydia Wong’s evocative essay explores salt as both a material and metaphorical force in Hong Kong’s cultural, political, and sensual identity. From ancient salt fields to contemporary political repression, she traces how salt symbolises preservation, resistance, and longing.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “SALTY WET 鹹濕” by Lydia Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/salted-fish_peng-chau_december-2019_oliver-farry.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Worst Kind of Dystopia: Hon Lai Chu’s Mending Bodies” by Luca Griseri Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies, Two Lines…
![[REVIEW] “The Worst Kind of Dystopia: Hon Lai Chu’s 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠” by Luca Griseri](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/hon-lai-chu-author-jacqueline-leung-translator-mending-bodies-two-lines-press-2025.-240-pgs.jpg?w=938)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Thammika Songkaeo’s Stamford Hospital: Love and Loneliness in a Capitalist City” by Fathima M Click HERE to read Thammika Songkaeo’s “Twist of Fate” Thammika Songkaeo, Stamford Hospital, Penguin Random House…
![[REVIEW] “Thammika Songkaeo’s 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙: Love and Loneliness in a Capitalist City” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/thammika-songkaeo.jpg?w=977)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Party’s Interests Come First: Joseph Torigian’s The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping” by Susan Blumberg-Kason Joseph Torigian, The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi…
![[REVIEW] “The Party’s Interests Come First: Joseph Torigian’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑋𝑖 𝑍ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑥𝑢𝑛, 𝐹𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑋𝑖 𝐽𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/xi-jinping.png?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: “Widow” by Aidan Bernales inaugurates the REVERSE feature of Cha. In this searing and lyrical narrative, a grieving politician navigates the intersecting terrains of power, memory, and private sorrow, as his late wife’s sacrifice reverberates through both his…
![[REVERSE] “Widow” by Aidan Bernales](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/filipino-artist-ang-kiukok.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kim Won‑seok (director), When Life Gives You Tangerines, 2025. 16‑episode Netflix original series, split into four volumes. Falling under the category of K-drama, When Life Gives You Tangerines is Netflix’s…
![[REVIEW] “The Sweetness of Resilience: Unraveling Netflix’s 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝐺𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑇𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠” by Dinisha Nayak](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/aaaabfesqbulveyjma9rfwntp2u9hy-6mavdb4lcblrsvdvhzrh8w6dh4ity37vmdt1pnjzdsmaz2jrr6noncmrimqhvgyu6cdsxalvb.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Girish Karnad, This Life at Play: Memoirs, Fourth Estate, 2021. 320 pgs. Memoirs strip writers of their literary pedestals. They become characters in their own narratives—curious onlookers of…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Playwright’s Memoir: Girish Karnad’s 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑦” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/girish-karnads-this-life-at-play.jpg?w=998)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on A Woman Burnt. Imayam (author), GJV Prasad (translator), A Woman Burnt, Simon and Schuster India, 2023. 336 pgs. “Every woman adores a Fascist, / The…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Portrait of a Burning Woman: Imayam’s 𝐴 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑡” by Swagatika Rath](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/a-woman-burnt-1.jpg?w=952)
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Header artwork by Annysa Ng 茶 First Impressionsclick for information 茶 Essays click for information 茶 En Routeclick for information 茶 XI XI—Can We Sayclick for information 茶 Write to Powerclick for information 茶 Auditory Cortexclick for information
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