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📁 Visit Write to Power to read the selected poems and the poets’ reflections on their poems. These days, in many places, many things can’t be said directly. Can we say them in poetry? Cha: An Asian Literary Journal is…
![[CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS] The Write to Power Special Feature](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/write-to-power-banner.png?w=500)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Hsiao-wen Cheng, Divine, Demonic, and Disordered: Women without Men in Song Dynasty China, University of Washington Press, 2021. 244 pgs. I did not find this book an easy read,…
![[REVIEW] “Women without Men: Rethinking Sexuality & Normalcy in Imperial China—Hsiao-wen Cheng’s 𝐷𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/divine-demonic-and-disordered-women-without-men-in-song-dynasty-china-hardcover-e28093-january-31-2021-by-hsiao-wen-cheng-author.png?w=600)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Hisham Matar, The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between, Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2016, 256 pgs. You walk into a memoir anticipating something deeply personal. You expect to encounter…
![[REVIEW] “A Memory of Absence: Hisham Matar’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛” by Varsha Nair](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/hisham-matar-the-return-fathers-sons-and-the-land-in-between-2.jpg?w=660)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “In Their Words, We Find Ourselves: Reading Lin Yi-Han’s Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise” by Hana Kim Yi-Han Lin (author), Jenna Tang (translator), Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise, HarperVia, 2024. 272 pgs.…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “In Their Words, We Find Ourselves: Reading Lin Yi-Han’s 𝐹𝑎𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑖-𝐶ℎ𝑖’𝑠 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑒” by Hana Kim](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/fang-si-chis-first-love-paradise.png?w=600)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “From Silence to Sound: Kaori Lai’s Microhistorical Poetics of the White Terror” by Serena De Marchi Kaori Lai (author), Sylvia Li-chun Lin and Howard Goldblatt (translators), Portraits in White, Columbia…
![[REVIEW] “From Silence to Sound: Kaori Lai’s Microhistorical Poetics of the White Terror” by Serena De Marchi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/portraits-in-white-by-kaori-lai.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Quan Manh Ha and Quynh H. Vo (translators), Longings: Contemporary Fiction by Vietnamese Women Writers, Texas Tech University Press, 2024. 260 pgs. Vietnamese literature in English translation is…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Finding Meaning in the Very Act of Questioning—𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠: 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝐹𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑉𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑊𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠” by Rebecca Maine](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/longings-contemporary-fiction-by-vietnamese-women-writers.jpg?w=907)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jerrold Tarog (director), Quezon, 2025. 135 min. “Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are…
![[REVIEW] “Tarog’s 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑧𝑜𝑛: A Definition of Machiavellian Politics” by Gene Michael M. Atanacio](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/jerrold-tarog-director-quezon-2.png?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: We are honoured to present the personal reflection “Curriculum Vitae in Silence” and the poem of the same title by Liu Hongbin, a Chinese British poet of Tiananmen exile. He was shaped by a childhood torn between pastoral…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Curriculum Vitae in Silence” by Liu Hongbin](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/marble-feature.webp?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Chris Martinez’s Kontrabida Academy and the Anatomy of a Filipino Teleserye” by Bryan Elijah Trajano Chris Martinez (director), Kontrabida Academy, 2025. 107 min. Teleserye (drama), whether on television or in…
![[REVIEW] “Chris Martinez’s 𝐾𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑑𝑎 𝐴𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑦 and the Anatomy of a Filipino Teleserye” by Bryan Elijah Trajano](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/chris-martinez-director-kontrabida-academy-2025.-107-min.jpg?w=1000)
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Chris Song’s Note: Liu Yichang’s 劉以鬯 (1918–2018) short story “Riot” 動亂, set against the backdrop of the 1967 Hong Kong Riots, is a hauntingly experimental meditation on violence, urban alienation, and the blurred boundary between the living and the inanimate.…
![[TRANSLATION] “Riot” by Liu Yichang, Translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/liu-yichang-and-chris-song-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
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