Category: 2023 Entries
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TH: “Like” 讚 is a short story collected in Mary Wong’s Surviving Central 中環人, which won the “25th Secondary School Students’ Best Ten Books Award.” Chandler strolled into the sleek modern Haneda Airport, wearing a casual ensemble. He handed over his passport…
![[TRANSLATION] “Like” by Mary Wong, Translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/like.png?w=873)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS R.F. Kuang, Yellowface, William Morrow, 2023. 336 pgs. The title of the novel and its bright yellow cover suggests that the subject matter might having something to do with…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Can An Author Write About Anything? Reading R.F. Kuang’s 𝑌𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/yellowface_wide-a73252995366ad95b7c30c94329e78559d919765-s1400-c100.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Matt Alt, Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World, Crown Publishing, 2020. 384 pages. The subtitle of the book is enough to entice anyone browsing a bookstore…
![[REVIEW] “We’re All Dreaming of Japan: Matt Alt’s 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝐽𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑛’𝑠 𝑃𝑜𝑝 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑” by Mario Rustan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/pure-invention.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Basil Pao (photographer), Carnival of Dreams, with an introduction by Pico Iyer, Hong Kong University Press, 2023. 208 pgs. Huge cubes float in the air, painted with different images on…
![[REVIEW] “Digital X-Acto: Basil Pao’s photography book 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠” by Junnan Chen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/carnival-of-dreams_basil-pao-1.jpg?w=1024)
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Translated from the Chinese original, also available below, by the author. Drawing of Buji by Tang Yiu Lun 鄧耀麟. The English translation is edited with help from David Morgan. We got to know “Orange” first. “Mummy, Big Brother Orange says he…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Orange and Buji” BY JASMINE TONG](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/buji_watercolor_2023aug-1.jpeg?w=1024)
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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 Lockdown Lovers. Michael O’Sullivan, Lockdown Lovers, Penguin Random House SEA, 2021. 240 pgs. When Lockdown Lovers opens with “Hong Kong February–March, 2020”, we expect a flashback…
![[REVIEW] “Michael O’Sullivan’s 𝐿𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠: The Pandemic as Glocal” by Lucy Hamilton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/lockdown-lovers_michael-osullivan.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Cecil Mariani, Gaze, Grace, Grief, RUBANAH – Underground Hub, 2023. When my friend Tara and I walk into the RUBANAH Underground Hub on a humid afternoon in Jakarta, we find…
![[REVIEW] “𝐺𝑎𝑧𝑒, 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑒, 𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑓: Gallery in a State of Undress” by Julia Merican](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/grieving-path-series-2-the-yellow-kinesthesis.jpg?w=1024)
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TH: In this correspondence, Joshua Ip (from Singapore) asks Felix Chow (from Hong Kong) what Kongish (also known as Konglish) is, and Felix asks Joshua what Singlish is. This piece is an excerpt from State of Play: Poets of East &…
![[FEATURE] On Kongish and Singlish: A Conversation—Joshua Ip and Felix Chow](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/felix-chow-and-joshua-ip-cha.png?w=785)
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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 Bright Fear. Mary Jean Chan, Bright Fear, Faber & Faber, 2023. 72 pgs. Mary Jean Chan was born and raised in Hong Kong. They now…
![[REVIEW] “The Thing Itself, Not the Myth: Mary Jean Chan’s 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐹𝑒𝑎𝑟” by Lydia Kwa](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/bright-fear-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.png?w=1024)
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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 Where Else. Jennifer Wong, Jason Eng Hun Lee, and Tim Tim Cheng (editors), Where Else: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology, Verve Poetry Press, 2023.…
![[REVIEW] “Not Just a Fusion of Leftover Cultures: A Review of 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝐸𝑙𝑠𝑒” by Aerith Au](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/where-else_an-international-anthology-of-hong-kong-writing.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “An (Im)possible Document: A Review of Karen Cheung’s The Impossible City” by Luca Griseri Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on The Impossible City. Karen Cheung, The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir, Penguin…
![[REVIEW] “An (Im)possible Document: A Review of Karen Cheung’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦” by Luca Griseri](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/the-impossible-city_karen-cheung-1.jpg?w=1024)
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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 The Seven Moons. Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Penguin India, 2022. Nearly the first impression you get in The Seven Moon of Maali…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Wait Till You See it With Ghosts: Shehan Karunatilaka’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑎𝑎𝑙𝑖 𝐴𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑖𝑑𝑎” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/the-seven-moons-of-maali-almeida_shehan-karunatilaka.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Petrus Liu, Queer Marxism in Two Chinas, Duke University Press, 2015. 256 pgs. Recent scholarship on the flows of desire and subject formation in China has seemingly operated with…
![[REVIEW] “A Work of Social Theory: Petrus Liu’s 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑟 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑚 𝑖𝑛 𝑇𝑤𝑜 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑠” by Thiago Braga](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/queer-marxism-in-two-chinas-copy.jpg?w=600)
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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. “There is no escape from the horror…
![[REVIEW] “A Song of Despair, of Burning Rage: Louisa Lim’s 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦” by James Thompson](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/indelible-city-louisa-lim-1.jpg?w=1024)
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Click HERE to read Frances An’s Review of Eternal Summer of Homeland. Writing—like learning a new language, like moving across continents—is an adventure fraught with vulnerability. I began to write my first fiction collection, Eternal Summer of My Homeland, shortly…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “On Writing, Language, and the Longing for Home” BY Agnes Chew](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/agnes-chew-1.jpg?w=1024)
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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 Nightmare Japan. ❀ Jinhee Choi and Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano (editors), Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema, Hong Kong University Press, 2009. 284 pgs.❀ Jay…
![[REVIEW] “The Golden Age of Asian Horror Film: An Examination of 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒 and 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝐽𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑛” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/horror.png?w=1024)
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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 How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart. Florentyna Leow, How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart, The Emma Press, 2023. 152 pgs. One of my most striking encounters with loneliness…
![[REVIEW] “Loneliness is Universal: Florentyna Leow’s 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝐾𝑦𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑠 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡” by Keziah Cho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/how-kyoto-breaks-your-heart-1.jpg?w=1024)
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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 Bloom. Xi Chuan (author), Lucas Klein (translator), Bloom & Other Poems, New Directions. 2022. 204 pgs. Back in 1973, Harold Bloom imagined a literary landscape…
![[REVIEW] “A Genuine Fake? Xi Chuan’s 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑚 & 𝑂𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑃𝑜𝑒𝑚𝑠” by David Harrison Horton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/bloom-other-poems_lucas-klein_xi-chuan-1.png?w=972)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Tang Wai-ki (director), Karen Chan Ka-yan and Sing Ip (translators and actors), Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, We Draman, San Po Kong, 2023. One thing about Hong Kong is…
![[REVIEW] “𝐿𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝐿𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝐿𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝐿𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝐿𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 Translated into Hongkongers’ Language: The Pain of Being Muted and a Slight Hope of Expressing Feeling” by Dawna Fung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/tang-wai-ki-director-lemons-lemons-lemons-lemons-lemons-1.jpeg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Lucy Hamilton, The Widening of Tolo Highway: A Hong Kong Story of Paranoia and Protest, Penguin Random House SEA, 2022. 236 pgs. When, one-third into a novel, you still…
![[REVIEW] “Hong Kong as Method: Lucy Hamilton’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑜𝑙𝑜 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑤𝑎𝑦” by Michael Tsang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/the-widening-of-the-tolo-highway-1.jpg?w=426)
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Preface: À la recherche du temps perdu by Leo Ou-Fan Lee Translated from the Chineseby Heidi Huang A memoir, as the word itself implies, is a personal walk down one’s memory lane “in search of the lost time” against oblivion.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] Preface to 𝑀𝑦 𝑇𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑡ℎ 𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑦: 𝐴 𝑀𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑒𝑜 𝑂𝑢-𝐹𝑎𝑛 𝐿𝑒𝑒](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/leo-ou-fan-lee_cha.jpg?w=1024)
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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 The Impossible City. Karen Cheung, The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir, Penguin Random House, 2022. 352 pgs. Karen Cheung’s memoir, The Impossible City, opens by…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mu Xin (author), Toming Jun Liu (translator), An Empty Room: Stories, New Directions, 2011. 192 pgs. Translated into English by Toming Jun Liu, An Empty Room by Mu Xin…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Like the Meanderings of a River: Mu Xin’s 𝐴𝑛 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑦 𝑅𝑜𝑜𝑚” by Yimin Huang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/an-empty-room-mu-xin-1.png?w=1024)
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“4AM, Fort Lee”, photo by Matt Turner In the Fall of 2022, there was a gas leak in the building I lived in in Brooklyn. ConEd Power came by to take a look, and by the time they left we…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “City Without Death: Poems” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/fort-lee_matt-turner_cha.png?w=1024)
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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 The Impossible City. Karen Cheung, The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir, Penguin Random House, 2022. 352 pgs. When I was younger, my friends would…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Gary Bettinson, The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai: Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance, 2014. 176 pgs. In the summer of 1994, I left a cinema in Tsim…
![[REVIEW] “Getting to the Heart of Wong Kar-wai: Gary Bettinson’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝐶𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑊𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝐾𝑎𝑟-𝑤𝑎𝑖” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/29477id_021_0005_29477id_215.webp?w=800)
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Translated from the Chinese original, also available below, by the author. Drawing by the author. The English translation is edited with help from David Morgan. “Watching the sea, all my worries vanish! I really love the sea.” He says this…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Sailor on the Ferry” by Jasmine Tong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/jasmine-tong_cha-1.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Tang Shu-wing (director), Bhagavad Gita, West Kowloon Cultural District, 2023. One of the most thought-provoking stage performances of the summer of 2023 is Tang Shu-wing’s Bhagavad Gita. Shown in…
![[REVIEW]“Detachment in the Cycle of Kali Yuga: A Review of Tang Shu-wing’s 𝐵ℎ𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑑 𝐺𝑖𝑡𝑎” by Emma Zhang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/bhagavad-gita-1.jpg?w=1024)
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Click HERE to read an essay by Agnes Chew and an excerpt from Eternal Summer of Homeland. 📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Agnes Chew, Eternal Summer of My Homeland, Epigram Books, 2023. 184 pgs.…
![[REVIEW] “Stragglers in Singapore: Agnes Chew’s 𝐸𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑦 𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑” by Frances An](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/eternal-summer-of-my-homeland.png?w=1024)
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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 Making Space.Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Where Else. ❀ Nicolette Wong (editor), Making Space: A Collection of Writing and Art, Cart Noodles Press, 2023. 163 pgs.❀…
![[REVIEW] “I Will Always Return: Reading 𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 and 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝐸𝑙𝑠𝑒” by Vaughan Rapatahana](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/where-else-making-space.png?w=1024)
Cha 