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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jiaming Tang, Cinema Love, John Murray, 2024. 304 pgs. Cinema Love is the impressive debut novel by Chinese-American writer Jiaming Tang. The book’s blurb and the opening chapters may…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Gut-punching Melodrama: Jiaming Tang’s 𝐶𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jiaming-tang-cinema-love-john-murray.jpg?w=975)
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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 Mina’s Matchbox. Yōko Ogawa (author), Stephen B. Snyder (translator), Mina’s Matchbox, Pantheon Books, 2024. 288 pages. In Yōko Ogawa’s previous novel, The Memory Police, set…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Memory-keeping: Yōko Ogawa’s 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑎’𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑏𝑜𝑥” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/819ycgclrml._sl1500_.jpg?w=940)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Lauren Walden, Surrealism from Paris to Shanghai, Hong Kong University Press, 2024. 152 pgs. In Surrealism from Paris to Shanghai, Lauren Walden has done modern Chinese art history a…
![[REVIEW] “Recovering Shanghai’s Lost Surrealist Tradition: Lauren Walden’s 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑚 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔ℎ𝑎𝑖” by Paul French](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/surrealism-from-paris-to-shanghai.jpg?w=1024)
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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 Listen. Chan Kwan Ee Tom, Listen, Atmosphere Press, 2023. In monochrome, a fallen beast is manipulated by puppet strings that ensnare a hand. Upon closer inspection,…
![[REVIEW] “What Did I Hope to Hear?: A Review of Chan Kwan Ee Tom’s 𝐿𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛” by Lian-Hee Wee](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/listen_chan-kwan-ee-tom.jpg?w=1024)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Wong Siu-pong (director), Obedience, 2024. 71 min. Although Wong Siu-pong’s latest observational documentary, Obedience, does not actively stir emotions in its audiences, it is laden with unspoken weight. Featuring…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Place’s Sorrowful Tomorrow: Wong Siu-pong’s 𝑂𝑏𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒” by Vanessa Winghei Yeung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/obedience_wong.jpg?w=1024)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jose Lorenzo “Pepe” Diokno, Isang Himala, 2024. 145 min. Isang Himala (A Miracle), directed by Jose Lorenzo “Pepe” Diokno, is an adaptation on three levels—of the screenplay by National…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Miracle of Adaptation in Pepe Diokno’s 𝐼𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑔 𝐻𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑎” by Richell Isaiah Flores](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jose-lorenzo-pepe-diokno-isang-himala-2024_2-2.jpg?w=1024)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Sawako Nakayasu, Pink Waves, Omnidawn, 2022. 90 pgs. When I received Sawako Nakayasu’s Pink Waves, I was drawn to its cover. Green, black, and blue arranged in shapes suggest…
![[REVIEW] “She Was Elegylight: Sawako Nakayasu’s 𝑃𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑊𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑠” by Tim Tim Cheng](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/pink-waves.png?w=1024)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Stuart Heisler (director), Tokyo Joe, 1949. 89 min. Of all the gin joints in all the world, Humphrey Bogart had to walk into yet another one. Swap North Africa…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Play it again… Ito?: Stuart Heisler’s 𝑇𝑜𝑘𝑦𝑜 𝐽𝑜𝑒” by Jeremiah Dutch](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/tokyo-joe-old-japan-hollywood-movie-humphrey-bogart-film-shibuya-tokyo-japanese-history-9.webp?w=1024)
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [ESSAY] “A History of Peel Street Poetry” by Akin Jeje](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/images.png?w=225)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Izumi Kyōka (author), Charles Shirō Inouye (translator and author of introduction and afterword), Japanese Gothic Tales, University of Hawai’i Press, 1996. 202 pgs. Japan Gothic Tales comprises four short…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS]“The Haunting World of Random Encounters in Izumi Kyōka’s 𝐽𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝐺𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠” by Vanessa Winghei Yeung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/japanese-gothic-tales-1.png?w=1024)
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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
Cha 