Author: t
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[REVIEW] “Twinkle Khanna’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑎𝑘𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑖 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑎𝑑: Making Dignity a Habit” by Abhinav Tulachan
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Twinkle Khanna’s The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad: Making Dignity a Habit” by Abhinav Tulachan Twinkle Khanna, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, Juggernaut Books, 2016. 233 pgs. It is remarkable how…
![[REVIEW] “Twinkle Khanna’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑎𝑘𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑖 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑎𝑑: Making Dignity a Habit” by Abhinav Tulachan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/the-legend-of-lakshmi-prasad.webp?w=1016)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Personal ‘I’ and Conflicted Identities: Paritosh Sen’s A Tree in My Village” by Dustin Pickering Paritosh Sen, A Tree in My Village, CLASSIX, 2025. 79 pgs. Many contemporary texts…
![[REVIEW] “The Personal ‘I’ and Conflicted Identities: Paritosh Sen’s 𝐴 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑦 𝑉𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑒” by Dustin Pickering](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/paritosh-sen.jpg?w=765)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In Chris Song’s essay, James Shea’s Last Day of My Face (University of Iowa Press, 2025) is read in relation to Hong Kong as both a lived city and…
![[ESSAY] “𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑦 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑒, Past Light of a City: Reading James Shea and Hong Kong” by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/https-uipress.uiowa_.edubookslast-day-my-face.jpg?w=970)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “James Shea’s Last Day of My Face and the Practice of Not Knowing” by Jennifer Eagleton Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Last Day of My Face. James Shea, The Last Day of…
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Female Researcher and Patriarchal Figures in Hon Lai Chu’s Mending Bodies” by Grace En-Yi Ting Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending…
![[ESSAY] “The Female Researcher and Patriarchal Figures in Hon Lai Chu’s 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠” by Grace En-Yi Ting](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/hon-lai-chu-author-jacqueline-leung-translator-mending-bodies-two-lines-press-2025.-240-pgs.jpg?w=938)
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[ESSAY] “A Woman Named Summer: Rethinking Xu Hongfei’s Early Sculpture at the Guangzhou Museum of Art” by Daniel Gauss Xu Hongfei’s Summer, photos by Daniel Gauss Among the many works displayed in the Guangzhou Museum of Art, one marble sculpture…
![[ESSAY] “A Woman Named Summer: Rethinking Xu Hongfei’s Early Sculpture at the Guangzhou Museum of Art” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/img_20251125_110600.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “The Burden of Representation: 𝑃𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 and the BDSM Representation on Screen” by Hongwei Bao
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Burden of Representation: Pillion and the BDSM Representation on Screen” by Hongwei Bao Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Pillion & Box Hill. Editor’s note: Hongwei Bao revisits the conversations prompted…
![[ESSAY] “The Burden of Representation: 𝑃𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 and the BDSM Representation on Screen” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/pillion-film-review-2025-cha-an-asian-literary-journal-hongwei-bao.png?w=1024)
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[EXCLUSIVE] “Seeing the Unseen: Lessons from Tai Po” by Stuart Lau Wai-shing, translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince (1943). Spoken by the fox during his lesson to the…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Seeing the Unseen: Lessons from Tai Po” by Stuart Lau Wai-shing, translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/hk-fire-3-ap-gmh-251125_1764163221138_hpmain.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Mariko Nagai’s Imaginary Death: The Genre-Bending Architecture of Wartime Testimony” by James Au Kin-Pong Mariko Nagai, Imaginary Death, Punctum Books, 2025. 297 pgs. It is difficult to determine the genre to…
![[REVIEW] “Mariko Nagai’s 𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ: The Genre-Bending Architecture of Wartime Testimony” by James Au Kin-Pong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/imaginary-death-mariko-nagai.png?w=600)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “When News Breaks: Carol Lin’s Memoir of Love and War” by Susan Blumberg-Kason Carol Lin, When News Breaks, Third Rail Press, 2025. 284 pgs. Carol Lin came of age in…
![[REVIEW] “𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑠: Carol Lin’s Memoir of Love and War” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/when.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “STEP OUT Studios’ The Next Movement Blasts Out Futuristic Sounds From the Dancers’ Feet” by by Dawna Fung Wong Chun-ho (director), Zoe Chan & Cal Tang (artistic directors & choreographers), hirsk…
![[REVIEW] “STEP OUT Studios’ 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑀𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 Blasts Out Futuristic Sounds From the Dancers’ Feet” by by Dawna Fung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/the-next-movement2.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Kokuho: Lee Sang-il’s Mesmerizing Portrait of Kabuki Mastery” by Jennifer Eagleton Lee Sang-il (director), Kokuho, 2025. 174 min. What makes Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho special are the tight closeups of onnagata…
![[REVIEW] “𝐾𝑜𝑘𝑢ℎ𝑜: Lee Sang-il’s Mesmerizing Portrait of Kabuki Mastery” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/httpsgkids.comfilmskokuho.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Endearing Sisterhood in Yoko Ogawa’s Mina’s Matchbox” by Fathima M 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…
![[REVIEW] “The Endearing Sisterhood in Yoko Ogawa’s 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑎’𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑏𝑜𝑥” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/819ycgclrml._sl1500_.jpg?w=940)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Consequences of Cosmopolitan Dreams in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s Human Resource” by Lorence Lozano Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (director), Human Resource, 2025. Three years after his last film, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit returns with a new…
![[REVIEW] “Consequences of Cosmopolitan Dreams in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒” by Lorence Lozano](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/nawapol-thamrongrattanarit-director-human-resource.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Where Do We Belong? On Language, Migration, & Teresa Wong’s All Our Ordinary Stories” by Rebekah Chan Teresa Wong, All Our Ordinary Stories, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024. 240 pgs.…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Where Do We Belong? On Language, Migration, and Teresa Wong’s 𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑂𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠” by Rebekah Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/arsenal-pulp-press-our-ordinary-stories.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Ai-Ting Chung’s essay “Toxic Humidifiers and Atmospheric Thinking in Air Murder” examines Air Murder (2022), directed by Jo Yong-sun, as an ecocinema work grounded in real-life tragedy: South Korea’s…
![[ESSAY] “Toxic Humidifiers and Atmospheric Thinking in 𝐴𝑖𝑟 𝑀𝑢𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟” by Ai-Ting Chung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/air-murder-korea.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Etienne Périer’s Bridge to the Sun and Extremism Abroad” by Jeremiah Dutch Etenne Périer (director), Bridge to the Sun, 1961. 113 min. Living abroad and watching one’s homeland descend…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Etienne Périer’s 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑛 and Extremism Abroad” by Jeremiah Dutch](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/bridge-to-the-sun-cha.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Light, Heat, Power: Rescuing the Modern in Leo Ou-fan Lee’s Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945” by Victoria Green Leo Lee Ou-fan, Shanghai Modern:…
![[REVIEW] “Light, Heat, Power: Rescuing the Modern in Leo Ou-fan Lee’s 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔ℎ𝑎𝑖 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑈𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑛 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎, 1930-1945″ by Victoria Green](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/leo-lee-ou-fan-shanghai-modern-the-flowering-of-a-new-urban-culture-in-china-1.jpg?w=1019)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In “E.T. 3 is Lying in a Coffin Outside Wuhan”, Angus Stewart explores Xiaosha Zhang’s 2018 mockumentary My Son Went to an Alien Planet (E.T. Made in China), situating…
![[ESSAY] “E.T. 3 is Lying in a Coffin Outside Wuhan” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/https-mubi.comenbefilmse-t-made-in-china.webp?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Impossible (Between) Girls: Lilly Hu’s One Girl Infinite” by Hongwei Bao Lilly Hu (director), One Girl Infinite 不可能女孩, 2025. 102 min. The Chinese title of Lilly Hu’s (also known in…
![[REVIEW] “Impossible (Between) Girls: Lilly Hu’s 𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝐼𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/one-girl-infinite-e4b88de58fafe883bde5a5b3e5ada9-2025.jpeg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “How Modern China Woke Up: A review of Martin Albers’s Britain, France, West Germany and the People’s Republic of China, 1969-1982” by Mario Rustan Martin Albers, Britain, France, West Germany…
![[REVIEW] “How Modern China Woke Up: A review of Martin Albers’s 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛, 𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑊𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝐺𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒’𝑠 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑜𝑓 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎, 1969–1982” by Mario Rustan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/britain-france-west-germany-1.jpg?w=820)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Who’s Afraid of Not Conjoined Bodies?: Hon Lai Chu’s Mending Bodies” by Tin Yuet Tam Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies,…
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[ESSAY] “Wong Bar Wine: A Cinematic Oasis in Hanoi” by Zalman S. Davis On a calm Monday evening, I found myself at 14B Hai Bà Trưng in Hanoi, drawn to a cosy corner on Tràng Tiền that radiated a warm, amber…
![[ESSAY] “Wong Bar Wine: A Cinematic Oasis in Hanoi” by Zalman S. Davis](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/img_20241222_010158-e1761994105173.jpg?w=1024)
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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)
Cha 