Author: t
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A scan of a photo I took in August 2015, with a Polaroid camera, using film made by the Impossible Project. It shows a section of a tree that was cut down. A time named “just the next day” and…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Just the Next Day” by Lydia Kwa](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/tree-shaman-1-1.jpg?w=907)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1989. 288 pgs. The day I began writing this piece, a family of Chinese descent were killed in a shooting…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Amy Tanβs πβπ π½ππ¦ πΏπ’ππ πΆππ’π and the Will to Live” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/le_joy_luck_club__c1.jpg?w=1024)
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I’ve cried a little todayβat church, during the opening lines of the liturgy, and then again over Sunday brunch with my husband. Little ripples of grief bubble up to the surface, then recede. Another month of trying to get pregnant,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Early Spring” by Sheela Jane Menon](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/story_pandemic-pup-1.jpg?w=1024)
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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](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/the-laundry-city_photo-by-oliver-farry.png?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Liu Liangcheng (author), Jeremy Tiang (translator), Bearing Word, Balestier Press, 2023. 340 pgs. Liu Liangchengβs 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 π΅ππππππ ππππ” by Serena De Marchi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/bearing-word-1.jpg?w=657)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ 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] βAkira Kurosawa’s ππ‘πππ¦ π·ππ as a View into Post-war Tokyo” by Jeremiah Dutch](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/stray-dog-3.jpg?w=836)
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY In 1992 the writer Ah Cheng ιΏε kept a Venice Diary. One of its entries consisted of a single line: βToday is June 4, itβs been three years.β These words appear in the bookβs Hong Kong…
![[JUST ANOTHER DAY] Thomas Chen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/just-another-day_cha.png?w=1024)
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π 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…
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π 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…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY June 4th! Itβs 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 Gewirtzβs Never…
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π 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 itβs…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Today is Motherβs 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…
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π 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…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Performance Art in a βCity Without Protestβ Hongkongers have long visually resisted the domination of the Chinese communist Leviathan and its collaborators in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) regime. From supporting the democracy…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY I got up early, dressed quickly, had some coffee and a bowl of yogurt with blueberries and raspberries, and got in the elevator at 8:30 am, along with the security man who was finishing his…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Today was a sunny day, so this afternoon I decided to visit a couple of Hong Kong’s urban parks. I headed off from my home in Sheung Wan soon after lunch and boarded a tram…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Your father and aunt were writing to prisoners today. Neat letters with kind words. My page stayed blank, and I felt selfish. I couldnβt write, not even to you. I went to the place where…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Walked my dog in the evening and ran into a gaggle of policemen downstairs handling a domestic dispute. Headed home and read some poems to avoid scanning the news lest I see familiar faces being…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY I get up eventually. I’m happy. It is an incredibly bright day. I read. I think about Jack Spicer’s Martian in his brilliant lectures inΒ The House that Jack Built (Wesleyan University Press, 1998), edited by…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Good Enough β… Iβve lost count of the years …β This day a year ago, during the launch of her published play Wild Boar, Candace Chong said this in passing. It hit me very hard,…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY The June sun warms my skin. It feels like summer. I have come to the public pool to swim laps. It is nearly deserted, except for the lifeguard. The water feels cold at first, but…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Everyday Soundtrack It’s six weeks now since I moved to this other part of town. Into an apartment near the train station. With a kitchen window view to the incoming and outgoing trains. To the passengers, walking…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY We went to Garryvoe beach today during a rare Irish heat wave in early June. The sea water was quite warm but a cold breeze cut through us from the sea despite the brilliance of…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY I take the old ferry across the harbour for the first time in five years; I think of water. Theyβre talking about stopping the ferry service even though it has brought locals from peninsula to…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY On Sundays my son works backstage doing tech for a church in Wan Chai. The dress code for the production team is all black, allowing them to disappear into the shadows. The goal is to…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY A Lazy Sunday in Abu Dhabi June 4th 2023 was a largely unremarkable day. A lazy Sunday in balmy Abu Dhabiβwhere I unexpectedly find myself, having left Sri Lanka when I least expected to do so.…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Never Forget, an Echo will Then Arise In 1993, Charles S. Maier asked, βAre we suffering from too much memory?β βThe fault is not with memory,β he argued, βbut with our current balance of past…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY It happened when I was prepping for a roundtable on Hong Kong I am taking part in tomorrow, deliberately timed to be a day after this, just another day. My soundtrack for work was the…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY In Kuala Lumpur space is on steroids. Swelling, bulging, limitless. Perhaps that’s exactly the reaction you’d expect from someone from an island city-state, where land is so limited that we constantly renegotiate our boundaries with…
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Today is a clean slate. It began with stretches and back exercises, because at some point oneβs biology tips towards sleeplessness and aches. I had breakfast in a wood-panelled dining room that I will probably…
Cha 