• [EXCLUSIVE] “The Laundry City” by Meiko Ko

    In Laundry City, all life began with the shirt. The rest was optional. Mustard types of men frequently wore that, believing they were invisible, and shame was the weight of a t-shirt. Houses were made of expensive washable elephant hides,…

    [EXCLUSIVE] “The Laundry City” by Meiko Ko

  • [REVIEW] “Everything Comes Alive, Every Creature Has Agency: Liu Liangcheng’s 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑” by Serena De Marchi

    📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Liu Liangcheng (author), Jeremy Tiang (translator), Bearing Word, Balestier Press, 2023. 340 pgs. Liu Liangcheng’s Bearing Word is a story about a polyglot translator, a donkey who can see…

    [REVIEW] “Everything Comes Alive, Every Creature Has Agency: Liu Liangcheng’s 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑” by Serena De Marchi

  • [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Akira Kurosawa’s 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝐷𝑜𝑔 as a View into Post-war Tokyo” by Jeremiah Dutch

    📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Akira Kurosawa (director), Stray Dog, 1949. 122 min. Tokyo is a city that is always changing. Old buildings are constantly being torn down and new ones put up. As I…

    [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Akira Kurosawa’s 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝐷𝑜𝑔 as a View into Post-war Tokyo” by Jeremiah Dutch

  • [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Thomas Chen

    📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY In 1992 the writer Ah Cheng 阿城 kept a Venice Diary. One of its entries consisted of a single line: “Today is June 4, it’s been three years.” These words appear in the book’s Hong Kong…

    [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Thomas Chen

  • [JUST ANOTHER DAY] William Nee

    📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY On a hot day in July 2022, far from Hong Kong and far from Beijing, I had the privilege of taking part in a tour of the 1863 Bear River Massacre site in southern Idaho…

    [JUST ANOTHER DAY] William Nee

  • [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Karen Cheung

    📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY field notes It is a crisp summer morning and out at the back of the house, Max and Oliver are building a table for the garden. Last week, we cleared the debris dumped by the…

    [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Karen Cheung

  • [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Sabina Knight

    📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY June 4th! It’s June 4th. For 34 years Tiananmen has loomed especially large around the anniversary. Much of last week I was writing about the period as I finished my review of Julian Gewirtz’s Never…

    [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Sabina Knight

  • [JUST ANOTHER DAY] HW

    📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY June 4th is Now a Ghost Festival Since 2019, so many places in Hong Kong have become haunted that we are all used to ghosts. They bleed into the fabric of everyday life, and it’s…

    [JUST ANOTHER DAY] HW

  • [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Cyril Camus

    📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Today is Mother’s Day here, so, a few hours out of the Sisyphus paper-grading: up at 10:30 am, which means six hours of sleep, then a while to get ready, eat a little, go drive…

    [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Cyril Camus

  • [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Laura Wang

    📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY I left my apartment at the worst possible time. There was a moment when I almost took the bus, only I glanced at my phone, knew I had time to walk, and did. But I…

    [JUST ANOTHER DAY] Laura Wang