Author: t
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Elizabeth Ai (editor), New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora, Angel City Press, 2024. 192 pgs. Elizabeth Ai’s edited volume New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the…
![[REVIEW] “Archival Rhythms—Youth, Identity, and Cultural Resistance in the Vietnamese Diaspora: Elizabeth Ai’s 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑊𝑎𝑣𝑒” by Nguyễn Minh Tiến](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/acp_11.11.24-54-copy.jpg?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Power of Multilingual Inquiry: Mapping Intra-Asian Relations Beyond Binaries—Satoru Hashimoto’s Afterlives of Letters” by Jennifer Junwa Lau Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Afterlives. Satoru Hashimoto, Afterlives…
![[REVIEW] “The Power of Multilingual Inquiry: Mapping Intra-Asian Relations Beyond Binaries—Satoru Hashimoto’s 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠” by Jennifer Junwa Lau](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/afterlives-of-letters-the-transnational-origins-of-modern-literature-in-china-japan-and-korea.jpg?w=1000)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Editor’s note: Gauri Yadav’s review essay explores Sumana Roy’s How I Became a Tree as an ecofeminist, genre-defying work that reimagines autobiography through plant life. Blending personal narrative,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Sumana Roy’s 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝐼 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑎 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒: Autobiography as Ecofeminist Manifesto” by Gauri Yadav](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/sumana-roy-how-i-became-a-tree-.jpg?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS John Hsu (director), Dead Talents Society 鬼才之道, 2024. 105 min. Put aside the spine-chilling horror of Nosferatu: what if the realm of the dead had its own celebrity influencers,…
![[REVIEW] “Gazing at Ghosts: John Hsu’s 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑆𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦” by Keziah Cho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/john-hsu-director-dead-talents-society--1.jpg?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Fiction as Control: Yiyun Li’s Exacting The Book of Goose” by Zalman S. Davis Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Yiyun Li. Yiyun Li, The Book of Goose, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.…
![[REVIEW] “Fiction as Control: Yiyun Li’s Exacting 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑒” by Zalman S. Davis](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/yiyun-li-the-book-of-goose-farrar-straus-and-giroux.jpg?w=978)
-
Editor’s note: In his reflection “A Slower Mode of Time”, Chris Sullivan contrasts urban haste with nature’s unhurried rhythms, weaving cicadas, childhood memories, and captive flamingos into a meditation on suspended instincts, looping time, and the quiet grace of slower…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Slower Mode of Time” by Chris Sullivan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/a-slower-mode-of-time-chris-sullivan.jpg?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jeremy Atherton Lin, Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told, Allen Lane, 2025. Deep House, a memoir by Jeremy Atherton Lin, may or may not be “the gayest…
![[REVIEW] “On Queerness, Migration and Same-Sex Marriage—A Review of Jeremy Atherton Lin’s 𝐷𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑇𝑜𝑙𝑑” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/deep-house-by-jeremy-atherton-lin--1.jpg?w=987)
-
Editor’s note: Cuiyu Lin’s “Broken English, Sweet Oranges” is a lyrical meditation on language, fragility, and repair, weaving Chinese porcelain mending with personal scars to reveal brokenness as both burden and beauty, and imperfection as a vessel for truth. The…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Broken English, Sweet Oranges” by Cuiyu Lin](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/karolina-grabowska.png?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “As If Present; As If Absent: Fang Fang’s Wuhan” by Angus Stewart Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Fang Fang. Editor’s note: In this eloquent and incisive…
![[ESSAY] “As If Present; As If Absent: Fang Fang’s Wuhan” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/fang-fang.jpg?w=976)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Weike Wang, Rental House, Riverhead Books, 2024. 224 pgs. Reading Rental House is, for a Chinese person, a singularly curious—almost epiphanic—experience. Years ago, slightly tipsy at a reception in…
![[REVIEW] “It’s My House, and I Live Here: Weike Wang’s 𝑅𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒” by Peixuan Xie](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/rental-house.jpg?w=994)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, and V.M.S Subagunarajan, Rule of the Commoner: DMK and the Formations of the Political in Tamil Nadu, 1949–1967, Cambridge University Press, 2022. 280 pgs.…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Politics of the Plebs—𝑅𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑟: 𝐷𝑀𝐾 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑇𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙 𝑁𝑎𝑑𝑢” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/rule-of-the-commoner.jpg?w=419)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Saad Omar Khan, Drinking the Ocean, Buckrider Books, 2025. 250 pgs. “We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Love that Doesn’t Bind: Saad Omar Khan’s 𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑂𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑛” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/saad-omar-khan-drinking-the-ocean.jpg?w=971)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Winifred Dongyi Wang, Dissection of the Moon, Accent Edition, 2025. 232 pgs. Dissection of the Moon is a hybrid work—a knotted thing. It unspools the lines drawn across gender,…
![[REVIEW] “Knotted Threads: Memory, Language, and Violence in Winifred Dongyi Wang’s 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛” by Heather Y. Kim](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/https-accentaccent.comforthcoming-dissection-of-the-moon.png?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Daryl Qilin Yam, Lovelier, Lonelier, Epigram Books, 2021. 496 pgs. In late March 1996, an intruder—tracked by millions around the globe—raced across the sky. This interloper, discovered by an…
![[REVIEW] “Daryl Qilin Yam’s 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑟, 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑟: A Red Pill of Metafiction” by Jason Low](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/daryl-qilin-yam-lovelier-lonelier-1-copy.jpg?w=692)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Vigil. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Vigil: The Struggle for Hong Kong, Brixton Ink, 2025. 176 pgs. Jeffrey Wasserstrom’s Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink was…
![[REVIEW] “Hong Kong Remembered and Rewritten: Jeffrey Wasserstrom’s 𝑉𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑙” by Wayne Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/vigil.jpg?w=977)
-
📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ming-sho Ho, Challenging Beijing’s Mandate of Heaven: Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, Temple University Press, 2018. 270 pgs. Ming-sho Ho’s Challenging Beijing’s Mandate of Heaven compares…
![[REVIEW] “Radicals, Realists, and Revolutions—A Tale of Two Movements: Ming-sho Ho’s 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑒𝑖𝑗𝑖𝑛𝑔’𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/this-is-just-the-begining.jpg?w=720)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ee Ling Quah, Fire Dragon Feminism: Asian Migrant Women’s Tales of Migration, Coloniality and Racial Capitalism, Bloomsbury, 2025. 216 pgs. “An exchange of glances, light nods and eye contacts…
![[REVIEW] “Decorative Roles and Dehumanising Gazes: Reflections on Ee Ling Quah’s 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝐹𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑚” by Loritta Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/fire-dragon-feminism-asian-migrant-womens-tales-of-migration-coloniality-and-racial-capitalism.jpg?w=978)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Alvin Pang, All That is Left of the Sea: Selected Poems, Red River Press, 2025. 148 pgs. Emotions and poetry often operate by falling into sync with one another.…
![[REVIEW] “A Bubble of the Sea Holds the Cosmos and Its Caricature: Alvin Pang’s 𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝐿𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑎” by Kabir Deb](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/alvin-pang-all-that-is-left-of-the-sea-selected-poems-1.jpg?w=792)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kyung-Ran Jo (author), Chi-Young Kim (translator), Blowfish, Astra House, 2025. 304 pgs. Blowfish is a taut, deceptively quiet novel, structured as a contrapuntal meditation on grief, disconnection, and stillness. The stillness seethes…
![[REVIEW] “To Stay, To See, To Not Flee: Kyung-Ran Jo’s 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑓𝑖𝑠ℎ” by Ananya Singh](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/blowfish-a-novel-hardcover-e28093-july-15-2025-by-kyung-ran-jo-author-chi-young-kim-translator-1.jpg?w=979)
-
Editor’s note: Lydia Wong’s evocative essay explores salt as both a material and metaphorical force in Hong Kong’s cultural, political, and sensual identity. From ancient salt fields to contemporary political repression, she traces how salt symbolises preservation, resistance, and longing.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “SALTY WET 鹹濕” by Lydia Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/salted-fish_peng-chau_december-2019_oliver-farry.jpg?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Worst Kind of Dystopia: Hon Lai Chu’s Mending Bodies” by Luca Griseri Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies, Two Lines…
![[REVIEW] “The Worst Kind of Dystopia: Hon Lai Chu’s 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠” by Luca Griseri](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)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Thammika Songkaeo’s Stamford Hospital: Love and Loneliness in a Capitalist City” by Fathima M Click HERE to read Thammika Songkaeo’s “Twist of Fate” Thammika Songkaeo, Stamford Hospital, Penguin Random House…
![[REVIEW] “Thammika Songkaeo’s 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙: Love and Loneliness in a Capitalist City” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/thammika-songkaeo.jpg?w=977)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Party’s Interests Come First: Joseph Torigian’s The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping” by Susan Blumberg-Kason Joseph Torigian, The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi…
![[REVIEW] “The Party’s Interests Come First: Joseph Torigian’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑋𝑖 𝑍ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑥𝑢𝑛, 𝐹𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑋𝑖 𝐽𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/xi-jinping.png?w=1024)
-
Editor’s note: “Widow” by Aidan Bernales inaugurates the REVERSE feature of Cha. In this searing and lyrical narrative, a grieving politician navigates the intersecting terrains of power, memory, and private sorrow, as his late wife’s sacrifice reverberates through both his…
![[REVERSE] “Widow” by Aidan Bernales](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/filipino-artist-ang-kiukok.png?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kim Won‑seok (director), When Life Gives You Tangerines, 2025. 16‑episode Netflix original series, split into four volumes. Falling under the category of K-drama, When Life Gives You Tangerines is Netflix’s…
![[REVIEW] “The Sweetness of Resilience: Unraveling Netflix’s 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝐺𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑇𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠” by Dinisha Nayak](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/aaaabfesqbulveyjma9rfwntp2u9hy-6mavdb4lcblrsvdvhzrh8w6dh4ity37vmdt1pnjzdsmaz2jrr6noncmrimqhvgyu6cdsxalvb.jpg?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Girish Karnad, This Life at Play: Memoirs, Fourth Estate, 2021. 320 pgs. Memoirs strip writers of their literary pedestals. They become characters in their own narratives—curious onlookers of…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Playwright’s Memoir: Girish Karnad’s 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑦” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/girish-karnads-this-life-at-play.jpg?w=998)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on A Woman Burnt. Imayam (author), GJV Prasad (translator), A Woman Burnt, Simon and Schuster India, 2023. 336 pgs. “Every woman adores a Fascist, / The…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Portrait of a Burning Woman: Imayam’s 𝐴 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑡” by Swagatika Rath](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/a-woman-burnt-1.jpg?w=952)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jeet Thayil (author), The Elsewhereans: A Documentary Novel, Fourth Estate, 2025. 219 pgs. With time and the evolution of human civilisation, the significance of stories has become increasingly apparent.…
![[REVIEW] “When Time Flies With Us, We Live Many Lives: Jeet Thayil’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑙𝑠𝑒𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠” by Kabir Deb](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/jeet-thayils-the-elsewhereans-1.jpg?w=1002)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kamila Kuc, Laima Leyton, Dara Waldron, Ecka Mordecai, and Jeremy Fernando (contributors), If loss were a currency: on Kamila Kuc´s I Was There. Delere Press, 2025. 114 pgs. According to…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Whereof One Cannot Speak, Thereof One Cannot Stay Silent—On 𝐼𝑓 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦: 𝑜𝑛 𝐾𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑎 𝐾𝑢𝑐’𝑠 𝐼 𝑊𝑎𝑠 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒” by Anders Kølle](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/kamila-kuc-laima-leyton-dara-waldron-ecka-mordecai-jeremy-fernando.jpg?w=971)
Cha 