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Japanese cinema has long been a vanguard of distinctive stylistic choices, particularly in the realm of horror. J-horror eschews gratuitous special effects in favour of an atmospheric approach that meticulously cultivates suspense, delivering an experience that is profoundly unsettling. Ringu…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Before J-Horror: The Paranormal in Ancient Japanese Writing” by Tushi Gogoi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/a-traditional-japanese-emaki-scroll-scene-depicting-a-22hyakkiyagyo22-.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jack Weatherford, Emperor of the Seas: Kublai Khan and the Making of China. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024. 368 pgs. Emperor of the Seas recounts one of history’s most remarkable transformation…
![[REVIEW] “The Making of An Unlikely Maritime Superpower—Jack Weatherford’s 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑎𝑠: 𝐾𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑖 𝐾ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎” by Ryan Ho Kilpatrick](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/emperor-of-the-seas-kublai-khan-and-the-making-of-china-1.jpg?w=963)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Uncovering the Truths of the Toleration-Regulation Regime—Park Jeong-mi’s The State’s Sexuality: Prostitution and Postcolonial Nation Building in South Korea” by Jack Greenberg Park Jeong-mi, The State’s Sexuality: Prostitution and Postcolonial…
![[REVIEW] “Uncovering the Truths of the Toleration-Regulation Regime—Park Jeong-mi’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒’𝑠 𝑆𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦: 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝐾𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑎” by Jack Greenberg](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/https-www.ucpress.edubooksthe-states-sexualitypaper-1.jpg?w=1000)
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◉ I Made Sure It Had Nothing Whatsoever To Do With Hong Kong: A Confession◉ The Ballad of Billy Lopez: An Excerpt Stewart McKay, The Ballad of Billy Lopez, Proverse Publishing, 2024. 208 pgs. So I’m walking down the middle of the…
![[FEATURE] “𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝐿𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑧: An Excerpt” by Stewart McKay](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/stewart-mckay.jpg?w=971)
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◉ I Made Sure It Had Nothing Whatsoever To Do With Hong Kong: A Confession◉ The Ballad of Billy Lopez: An Excerpt Stewart McKay, The Ballad of Billy Lopez, Proverse Publishing, 2024. 208 pgs. You have lived in Hong Kong…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Matthew Wong Foreman, Sunset at Lion Rock, Proverse Press, 2024. 288 pgs. ………I’ve no strength left to stop the contradiction………My heart is tired and my eyes blurry you know………—Leslie…
![[REVIEW] “Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Among Many, Many Other Things: Matthew Wong Foreman’s 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘” by Jason S Polley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/matthew-wong-foreman-sunset-at-lion-rock-1.jpg?w=962)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Bong Joon-ho (director), Mickey 17, 2025. 137 min. Header image © bartos. Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 is at once an existential tragedy and a darkly comic spectacle—a sci-fi epic…
![[REVIEW] “Dying for a Living: Bong Joon-ho’s 𝑀𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑦 17 and the Horror of Being Replaceable” by Ananya Singh](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/c2a9marclafon-mickey17-rectangle.jpg?w=1024)
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Russell Leong on these poems: Like apparitions or long-lost friends, these three unpublished poems—written more than twenty years ago in New London, Connecticut; Cuse, France; and Hong Kong, China—have returned to me through the efforts of editor Tammy Lai-Ming Ho.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] Three Poems by Russell Leong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/three-poems-by-russell-leong.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS For Gab Angeles, who lent me the book. Natsume Sōseki (author), Meredith McKinney (translator), Kokoro, Penguin Classics, 2010. 256 pgs. Kokoro is the final novel written by Natsume Sōseki.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “The Virtue of Melancholy: Reading Natsume Sōseki’s 𝐾𝑜𝑘𝑜𝑟𝑜” by Ramzzi Fariñas](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/kokoro.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Can Xue (author), Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping (translators), I Live in the Slums, Yale University Press, 2020. 344 pgs. Can Xue’s I Live in the Slums is an…
![[REVIEW] “A Shifting, Unstable World: Can Xue’s 𝐼 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑠” by Zalman S. Davis](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/i-live-in-the-slums-1.jpg?w=968)
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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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