Author: t
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[ESSAY] βDoes MOCA Bangkok Have a Soft Porn Problem?β by Daniel Gauss It is time for museums, especially those dedicated to contemporary art, finally to understand the objectification of women. It is also time to ask why one of Asiaβs…
![[ESSAY] “Does MOCA Bangkok Have a Soft Porn Problem?β by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/museum_of_contemporary_art_moca_bangkok_thailand_-_20161201-05.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “FOUR TWENTY PM: A.T. Apichart at the National Gallery of Thailand” by Daniel Gauss There is a famous painting by Caravaggio of St Jerome translating the Bible. He is old, gaunt, and frail, and he works with a skull…
![[ESSAY] “FOUR TWENTY PM: A.T. Apichart at the National Gallery of Thailand” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/https-__www.facebook.com_photo__fbid2572090546292510seta.633624243472493.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βClaire Lee’s On The Verge: Silence, Urban & City Life, and Quiet Chaosβ by Tin Yuet Tam Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon On the Verge. Claire Lee, On the Verge, Independently…
![[REVIEW] βClaire Lee’s On The Verge: Silence, Urban & City Life, and Quiet Chaosβ by Tin Yuet Tam](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/on-the-verge_claire-lee.png?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] βShaped by Hong Kong, Sharpened by Wudang: Gigi Changβs Translation Practiceβ by Debra Liu For those of us influenced by the legendary Jin Yong (Louis Cha) Legends of the Condor Heroes series, yet unable to read lengthy works in…
![[ESSAY] βShaped by Hong Kong, Sharpened by Wudang: Gigi Changβs Translation Practiceβ by Debra Liu](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/gigi-chang.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βOf Mirth-merchants and Humour Literature: Ankit Raj Ojhaβs The Bare Bones Book of Humourβ by Pradip Mondal Ankit Raj Ojha (editor), The Bare Bones Book of Humour, Bare Bones…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βOf Mirth-merchants and Humour Literature: Ankit Raj Ojhaβs πβπ π΅πππ π΅ππππ π΅πππ ππ π»π’πππ’πβ by Pradip Mondal](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/https-__barebonespublishing.in_product_the-bare-bones-book-of-humour_.png?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Freedom from Time and Space: On James Sheaβs Last Day of My Face” by Jonathan Han Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Last Day of My Face. James Shea, The Last Day…
![[REVIEW] “Freedom from Time and Space: On James Sheaβs πΏππ π‘ π·ππ¦ ππ ππ¦ πΉπππ” by Jonathan Han](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/https-uipress.uiowa_.edubookslast-day-my-face.jpg?w=970)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βCultivating the Infinite: The Art and Spiritual Vision of Zhao Hai Tienβ by Jennifer Eagleton Zhao Hai Tien, Cultivation: The Art of Zhao Hai Tien, University of Hong Kong Press,…
![[REVIEW] βCultivating the Infinite: The Art and Spiritual Vision of Zhao Hai Tienβ by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/https-__www.haitienart.com_.webp?w=1024)
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All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] βThe Pleasure Principal: A Conversation on Wregas Bhanutejaβs Levitatingβ by Nirris Nagendrarajah & Wregas Bhanuteja Wregas Bhanuteja (director), Levitating, 2026. 119 min. INTRODUCTION Nirris Nagendrarajah Levitating, the third feature by the Indonesian filmmaker…
![[SUNDANCE 2026] βThe Pleasure Principal: A Conversation on Wregas Bhanutejaβs πΏππ£ππ‘ππ‘πππβ by Nirris Nagendrarajah & Wregas BhanutejaΒ Β](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image-2.png?w=680)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βLai Wenβs Tiananmen Square: A Coming-of-Age Dramedy Culminating in a Historic Massacreβ by Kevin McGeary Lai Wen, Tiananmen Square: A Novel, Spiegel & Grau, 2024. 528 pgs. βIn China,…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βLai Wenβs πππππππππ πππ’πππ: A Coming-of-Age Dramedy Culminating in a Historic Massacreβ by Kevin McGeary](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/lai-wen-tiananmen-square-a-novel-spiegel-grau.jpg?w=667)
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Call for abstractsCha: An Asian Literary Journal Workshop Hong Kong & Ireland:Interwoven Histories, Shared Languages, & Connected Futures Format: Virtual Dates of workshop: TO BE CONFIRMED (July 2026) Workshop focus: This symposium invites proposals that place Hong Kong and Ireland…
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Aastha Upretyβs essay reads Jia Zhangke’s Still Life and Razan AlSalah’s A Stoneβs Throw as twin elegies of engineered upheaval, where dams and pipelines reorder earth and memory. Through…
![[ESSAY] βEnergies of Displacement: Transformation in Jia Zhangkeβs ππ‘πππ πΏπππ and Razan AlSalahβs π΄ ππ‘πππβπ πβπππ€βby Aastha Uprety](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/energies-of-displacement-transformation-in-jia-zhangkes-still-life-and-razan-alsalahs-a-stones-throw-by-aastha-uprety.png?w=935)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βKarbala and the Ethics of Resistance: Premchandβs Vision of Communal Harmonyβ by Fathima M Premchand (author), Haris Qadeer and Sami Rafiq (translators), Karbala, Sahitya Akademi, 2023. 232 pgs. The tragedy…
![[REVIEW] βπΎππππππ and the Ethics of Resistance: Premchandβs Vision of Communal Harmonyβ by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/02smpremchand-removebg-preview.png?w=494)
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Editor’s note: Anna Nguyen’s essay “A Dead Language” turns on an offhand slight, βNo one speaks Vietnamese,β and worries it into grief, form, and theory. Between a fatherβs aphasic silence and a motherβs nightly monologues, Vietnamese persists. English, institutional and…
![[ESSAY] βA Dead Languageβ by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/anna-nguyen.jpg?w=933)
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All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] βJosef Kubota Wladyka’s Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!: A Bird, a Body, and the Illusion of Depthβ by Nirris Nagendrarajah Josef Kubota Wladyka (director), Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, 2026. 122 min. In Ha-Chan, Shake…
![[SUNDANCE 2026] “Josef Kubota Wladyka’s π»π-πΆβππ, πβπππ πππ’π π΅πππ‘π¦!: A Bird, a Body, and the Illusion of Depth” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image.png?w=1000)
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[SUNDANCE 2026] “Rafael Manuel’s FilipiΓ±ana: Beneath the Manicured Surface” by Nirris Nagendrarajah
All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] βRafael Manuel’s FilipiΓ±ana: Beneath the Manicured Surfaceβ by Nirris Nagendrarajah ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ FilipiΓ±ana. Rafael Manuel (director), FilipiΓ±ana, 2026. 100 min. A successful short does not necessarily yield a successful feature. One…
![[SUNDANCE 2026] “Rafael Manuel’s FilipiΓ±ana: Beneath the Manicured Surface” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image-1.png?w=1000)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βWhat We Keep: Memory, Migration, and Survival in M Lin’s The Memory Museumβ by Susan Blumberg-Kason M Lin, The Memory Museum, Graywolf Press. 2026. 272 pgs. Nostalgia is a…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “What We Keep: Memory, Migration, and Survival in M Lin’s πβπ ππππππ¦ ππ’π ππ’π” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/memory-museum-m-lin-cha-asian.jpg?w=1000)
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All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] βWounded Souls in Stephanie Ahn’s Bedford Parkβ by Nirris Nagendrarajah Stephanie Ahn (director), Bedford Park, 2025. 121 min. I did not like Celine Songβs Past Lives (2023), not for lack of desire to…
![[SUNDANCE 2026] “Wounded Souls in Stephanie Ahn’s π΅ππππππ ππππ” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/bedford-park.jpg?w=230)
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All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] βThree Perspectives on a Haunting: Vera Miao’s Rock Springsβ by Nirris Nagendrarajah Vera Miao (director), Rock Springs, 2026. 97 min. Gracie, played by Aria Kim One leaves Rock Springs with two impressions: that…
![[SUNDANCE 2026] “Three Perspectives on a Haunting: Vera Miao’s π
πππ πππππππ ” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/rock-springs-cha-nirris.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: PΓ‘l DΓ‘niel Levente, a guest of honour at the 2026 Brahmaputra Literature Festival, proposes a poetics of butterflies, stones, and blades. The five poems move within that range. India, New Delhi, Agra, and the Ganges become sites of…
![[ESSAY] βButterflies, Stones, and Bladesβ by PΓ‘l DΓ‘niel Levente](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/shot-by-cerqueira-hemgxmfpsaw-unsplash.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Jonathan Chan reads She Follows No Progression (Wendyβs Subway, 2024), edited by Juwon Jun and Rachel Valinsky, as a collective meditation on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, attending closely to…
![[ESSAY] βReading the Gap: Indeterminacy, Translation, and Legacy in πβπ πΉπππππ€π ππ πππππππ π πππβ by Jonathan Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/she-follows-no-progression-a-theresa-hak-kyung-cha-reader-edited-by-juwon-jun-and-rachel-valinsky.png?w=579)
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Editor’s note: In this reflective essay, Gutierrez Mangansakan II recounts acting on a film by Lav Diaz to examine how Mindanao shapes Diazβs cinema. Blending personal observation with critical analysis, he argues that the directorβs duration, restraint, and resistance to…
![[ESSAY] βIn Search of Mindanao in the films of Lav Diazβ by Gutierrez Mangansakan II](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/lav-diaz.webp?w=1024)
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θΆ LEEDSθΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [LEEDS | REVIEW] “Building Shenzhen from the Ground Up: Sheng Keyi’s Northern Girls” by Todd Foley Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Northern Girls. Sheng Keyi (author), Shelly Bryant (translator), Northern Girls:…
![[LEEDS | REVIEW] “Building Shenzhen from the Ground Up: Sheng Keyi’s ππππ‘βπππ πΊππππ ” by Todd Foley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/https-www.penguin.sgbooknorthern-girls.jpg?w=974)
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Editor’s note: In Gutierrez Mangansakan IIβs essay, growing trees in red-clay pots becomes a metaphor for exile, love, and impermanence. Through memories of family, cats, and lost homelands, he reflects on denied inheritance and chosen distance, arguing that care, memory,…
![[ESSAY] βReflection on Exile, Impermanence, and Red Clay Potsβ by Gutierrez Mangansakan II](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/aslan-and-buffy-in-the-dirty-kitchen.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βOn Grief, Diaspora, and Grace Loh Prasad’s The Translatorβs Daughterβby Rebekah Chan Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Translator’s Daughter. Grace Loh Prasad, The Translatorβs Daughter, The Ohio State University Press,…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βOn Grief, Diaspora, and Grace Loh Prasad’s πβπ πππππ πππ‘ππβπ π·ππ’πβπ‘ππβ by Rebekah Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/the-translators-daughter.jpg?w=880)
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θΆ LEEDSθΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [LEEDS | REVIEW] “Primal Energy and Female Defiance in Sheng Keyi’s Northern Girls” by Cuilin Sang Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Northern Girls. Sheng Keyi (author), Shelly Bryant (translator), Northern Girls:…
![[LEEDS | REVIEW] “Primal Energy and Female Defiance in Sheng Keyi’s ππππ‘βπππ πΊππππ ” by Cuilin Sang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/northern-girls-cha.png?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles considers the films Big Fish and Little Fish in relation to his father and the Filipino seafood dish kinilaw, using cinema as a lens for…
![[ESSAY] βπ΅ππ πΉππ β, πΏππ‘π‘ππ πΉππ β, & The Fake Legend of Kinilawβ by Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/big-fish-little-fish.png?w=940)
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All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] βVisions of a Future Self: Kogonadaβs ziβ by Nirris Nagendrarajah Kogonada (director), zi, 2025. 199 min. In cinema, whenever I see a shot of the back of a characterβs head, I think of…
![[SUNDANCE 2026] βVisions of a Future Self: Kogonadaβs π§πβ by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/zi-film-cha-nirris.png?w=702)
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θΆ LEEDSθΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [LEEDS | REVIEW] “Memory, Fiction, and Subjective Reality in Ge Fei’s A Flock of Brown Birds” by Todd Foley Ge Fei (author), Poppy Toland (translator), Flock of Brown Birds, Penguin…
![[LEEDS | REVIEW] “Memory, Fiction, and Subjective Reality in Ge Fei’s πΉππππ ππ π΅πππ€π π΅ππππ ” by Todd Foley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/poppy-toland.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Zalman S. Davis places XuΓ’n Diα»u and Huy CαΊn within Vietnamese literary history shaped by Confucian ethics, French colonial modernity, and revolutionary discipline. The essay reads ThΖ‘ Mα»i poetry as a space where male intimacy could appear through…
![[ESSAY] “Between Confession and Restraint: Queer Intimacy and the Making of Vietnamese Modernist Lyricism in XuΓ’n Diα»u and Huy CαΊn” by Zalman S. Davis](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/xuan-dieu-1916e280931985-and-huy-can.webp?w=700)
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Please click LEEDS to view selected pieces,updated regularly. We are very pleased to announce that we have formed a collaboration with the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing to republish selected reviews of translated titles from their platform. These reviews…
Cha 