Category: 2022 Entries
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “When Goodbyes Are Not Permanent: Kit Fan’s Goodbye Chinatown” by Susan Blumberg-Kason Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Goodbye Chinatown. Kit Fan, Goodbye Chinatown, World Editions, 2026. 268…
![[REVIEW] “When Goodbyes Are Not Permanent: Kit Fan 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑏𝑦𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛 by” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/goodbye-chinatown-kit-fan-cha.jpg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Aesthetics of Obsolescence: Dung Kai-cheung’s A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On” by Jennifer Eagleton Dung Kai-cheung (author), Bonnie S. McDougall and Anders Hansson (translators), A…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Aesthetics of Obsolescence: Dung Kai-cheung’s 𝐴 𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑆𝑡𝑢𝑓𝑓 𝑎𝑠 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑂𝑛” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a-catalog-of-such-stuff-as-dreams-are-made-on_cha-banner.png)
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EDITORIAL / FEBRUARY 2010 (ISSUE 10) OTHER EDITORIALS There are two conflicting images of train travel. The first is of a train journey as romance, an unhurried and meandering trip through exotic lands—a luxurious ride eastward on the Orient Express,…
![[ARCHIVE] “Thoughts of Trains; Trains of Thought” by Jeff Zroback](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/cha-an-asian-literary-journal-issue-10.png)
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EDITORIAL / NOVEMBER 2009 (ISSUE 9) OTHER EDITORIALS Anniversaries are, of course, a traditional time to take stock, find your bearings, make predictions about future directions. On the occasion of our second anniversary issue, I felt this would be a…
![[ARCHIVE] “Better Housekeeping” by Jeff Zroback](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/cha-an-asian-literary-journal-issue-9.png)
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EDITORIAL / AUGUST 2009 (ISSUE 8) OTHER EDITORIALS The current issue of Cha features a review of Todd Swift’s latest poetry collection, Seaway: New and Selected Poetry. One of the poems in the book, “Kanada Post”, offers this meditation on the expatriate experience. I remember…
![[ARCHIVE] “Some Other Life” by Jeff Zroback, Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, Eddie Tay, and Royston Tester](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/issue8-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.png)
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EDITORIAL / MAY 2009 (ISSUE 7) OTHER EDITORIALS Normally, the process for choosing a cover image for an upcoming issue of Cha is quite straightforward, and my co-editor and I come to a consensus without much trouble. This time, however, the selection proved more…
![[ARCHIVE] “Under the Moon, Under the Rain-Hat” by Jeff Zroback](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/cha-an-asian-literary-journal-issue-7.png)
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EDITORIAL / FEBRUARY 2009 (ISSUE 6) OTHER EDITORIALS For a few days following the incident at Cambridge University in which a young German protestor threw a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiaboa, the small thread of the web that originates…
![[ARCHIVE] “The Year of the Shoe” by Jeff Zroback](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/cha-an-asian-literary-journal-issue-6.png)
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EDITORIAL / NOVEMBER 2008 (ISSUE 5) OTHER EDITORIALS Recently my Hong Kong-born co-editor has developed a series of strange new habits, or, perhaps more accurately, several symptoms of the same habit. Her new quirks include buying instant noodles in bulk,…
![[ARCHIVE] “Time and Distance” by Jeff Zroback](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/issue5.png)
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EDITORIAL / AUGUST 2008 (ISSUE 4) OTHER EDITORIALS [See contributors’ photographs taken when they were young here.] The cover of this issue features two family photos, one taken in Hong Kong, one in mainland China. There is a striking formality…
![[ARCHIVE] “The Family Album” by Jeff Zroback](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/cha-an-asian-literary-journal-issue-4.png)
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Editorial / May 2008 (Issue 3) OTHER EDITORIALS In the first major treatise on the subject of tea Chajing (The Classic of Tea) (8th century), Lu Yu categorized the different varieties of the drink by name: When tea has a sweet flavour, it…
![[ARCHIVE] “𝐶ℎ𝑎: Some Thoughts on a Name” by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Jeff Zroback](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/cha-an-asian-literary-journal-issue-3.png)
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Editorial / November 2007 (Issue 1) OTHER EDITORIALS Why start an internet journal? Why add another voice to the cluttered and overexposed world of creative writing online? We believe that these are questions that must be considered by anyone who…
![[ARCHIVE] “Why Start an Online Journal?” by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Jeff Zroback](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/screenshot-2022-11-23-at-12.55.09.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Strange Beasts of China: Harnessing Zhiguai and Magic Realism to Satirise Othering” by Cyril Camus Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Strange Beasts. Yan Ge (author) and Jeremy Tiang (translator), Strange Beasts of…
![[REVIEW] “𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎: Harnessing 𝑍ℎ𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑖 and Magic Realism to Satirise Othering” by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/strangebeastsofchinav3ccorrected_v3c-copy.jpg)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films} Philip Bowring. The Making of the Modern Philippines: Pieces of a Jigsaw State, Bloomsbury, 2022. 272 pgs. The thing with a jigsaw puzzle is it is a mental pursuit of completion; that somebody shuffles…
![[REVIEW] “Sifting Through The Rubble: Reading Philip Bowring’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑃ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠” by Jose Santos P. Ardivilla](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/the-making-of-the-modern-philippines-1.jpeg)
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[Chris Song’s Mobile Diary] Being Born, Getting Old, Falling Sick, and Dyingby Chris Song, translated from the Chinese by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho {{{ Hong Kong—Wednesday 26 August 2020 }}} Twenty-four Covid new cases confirmed today in Hong Kong. The aircon…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Being Born, Getting Old, Falling Sick, and Dying” (Wednesday 26 August 2020) by Chris Song, Translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hong-kong-2020-1.jpeg)
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A Son of Hanoi . Kenneth on “A Son of Hanoi”: It is worth considering the idea of the 1.5 generation and how a few years of schooling in an imperialist country can be so strongly internalised. What does it…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Son of Hanoi” and “Tấm and the Peasant Farmer” by Kenneth Tanemura](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hanoi.png)
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[Chris Song’s Mobile Diary] Workers’ Expression of Romanceby Chris Song, translated from the Chinese by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho {{{ Hong Kong—Monday 24 August 2020 }}} Today there were nine confirmed Covid cases in Hong Kong. It’s the first time in…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Workers’ Expression of Romance” (Monday 24 August 2020) by Chris Song, translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/star-street_wing-fung-street.png)
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[Chris Song’s Mobile Diary] Every Lovely Little Thingby Chris Song, translated from the Chinese by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho {{{ Hong Kong—Tuesday 25 August 2020 }}} Nineteen confirmed Covid cases today in Hong Kong. The lunchtime news reported that pandemic measures…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Every Lovely Little Thing” (Tuesday 25 August 2020) by Chris Song, translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/k-town_oliver-farry-1.png)
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[Chris Song’s Mobile Diary] That Moment Balances Fiction and Realityby Chris Song, translated from the Chinese by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho {{{ Hong Kong—Friday 28 August 2020 }}} Twenty-one confirmed Covid cases in Hong Kong today. Last night the rain was unforgiving.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “That Moment Balances Fiction and Reality” (Friday 28 August 2020) by Chris Song, translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hong-kong_28-august-2020_chris-song-1.jpg)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films} Against the backdrop of ongoing wars and climate crisis, I found myself reading Daryl Lim Wei Jie’s Anything but Human, Gwee Li Sui’s This Floating World, and Heng Siok Tian’s Grandma’s Attic,…
![[REVIEW] “Toying With Lost Time: A Review of Three Poetry Collections from Landmark Books” by Cheng Tim Tim](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/landmark-books.png)
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Photographs of jellyfish are by the author. Of course we don’t keep records—why would we?—but my understanding is that we have been around for at least 500 million years, and maybe 700 million. I don’t believe there are any other…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Jellyfish Explains Life” by David Clarke](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/jellyfish-in-an-aquarium-boston16-may-2017originalsize-1.jpg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Giving a Voice to Those With None: Karen Ma’s China’s Millennial Digital Generation” by X. H. Collins Karen Ma. China’s Millennial Digital Generation: Conversations with Balinghou (Post-1980s) Indie Filmmakers, Long…
![[ESSAY] “Giving a Voice to Those With None: Karen Ma’s 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎’𝑠 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐷𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛” by X. H. Collins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/chinas-millennial-digital-generation-conversations-with-balinghou-post-1980s-indie-filmmakers-1.png)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Choi Jin-young (author), Soje (translator). To the Warm Horizon, Honford Star, 2021. 172 pgs. Originally published in 2017, To the Warm Horizon is perhaps best seen as a curious example of a…
![[REVIEW] “Weirdness Unfulfilled: Choi Jin-young’s 𝑇𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑚 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑧𝑜𝑛” by Michael Tsang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/warm-horizon.png)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Wesley Leon Aroozoo. The Punkhawala and the Prostitute, Epigram, 2021. 352 pgs. A finalist of Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2021, Wesley Leon Aroozoo’s The Punkhawala and the Prostitute tells the tale of…
![[REVIEW] “Quintessential Singlit? Wesley Leon Aroozoo’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑢𝑛𝑘ℎ𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑒” by Michael Tsang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/wesley-leon-aroozoos-the-punkhawala-and-the-prostitute.png)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Nabina Das (translator), Alam Khorshed (curator), Arise out of the Lock: 50 Bangladeshi Women Poets in English, Balestier Press, 2022. 176 pgs. Arise Out of the Lock is a poetry collection by…
![[REVIEW] “𝐴𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑂𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑐𝑘: On Resistance, Connection, and Enchantment” by Sharyn Phu](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/arise-out-of-the-lock.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Chinese Poetry and Translation: A Multi-Angled Overview of What Happens When Worlds Collide” by Cyril Camus Maghiel van Crevel and Lucas Klein (editors). Chinese Poetry and Translation: Rights and Wrongs,…
![[REVIEW] “𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑃𝑜𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: A Multi-Angled Overview of What Happens When Worlds Collide” by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/chinese-poetry-and-translation-lucas-klein-.png)
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Reflections on “Q & A” E. Ethelbert Miller: The title is actually what occurs in the poem. Often Miho and I will exchange lines and stanzas as we construct our poems. In this poem I felt it was more like…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Q & A” by Miho Kinnas and E. Ethelbert Miller](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/frederick-j.-brown.png)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Perhat Tursun (author), Darren Byler and Anonymous (translators), The Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang, Columbia University Press, 2022. 168 pgs. A man leaves an office in Ürümqi, and starts walking. The sun…
![[REVIEW] “A Psychoanalytical Auto-fictional Biography of a City: Perhat Tursun’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑠” by Serena De Marchi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/the-backstreets-perhat-tursun.png)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Indelible City. Louisa Lim, Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong, Text Publishing Melbourne Australia, 2022. 306 pgs. Louisa Lim’s 2022 book Indelible City:…
![[REVIEW] “Beyond Birth, Blood, and Soil: Reading Louisa Lim’s 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦” by Emma Zhang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/indelible-city-louisa-lim-1.jpg)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Monika Gaenssbauer and Nicholas Olczak (editors). Of Forests and Humans: Hong Kong Contemporary Short Fiction. Edition Cathay, vol. 74, Bochum, Projekt Verlag, 2019. 126 pgs. In Of Forests and Humans, Monika Gaenssbauer…
![[REVIEW] “Stories Grow in Hong Kong: A Review of 𝑂𝑓 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑠” by Astrid Møller-Olsen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/of-forests-and-humans-1.jpg)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Phoebe Tsang, Setting Fire to Water. Thistledown Press, 2022. 220 pgs. Phoebe Tsang’s short story collection Setting Fire to Water is a delightful debut that transforms seemingly prosaic lives and events into…
![[REVIEW] “Dream-like Reality: Phoebe Tsang’s 𝑆𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟” by Aerith Au](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/fire-to-water_phoebe-tsang.png)