Category: 2024 Entries
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “On Behalf of Those Who Weren’t Able to Survive: Kyung-Sook Shin’s Violets” by Beth Adams Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Violets. Kyung-Sook Shin (author), Anton Hur (translator), Violets, The Feminist Press,…
![[REVIEW] “On Behalf of Those Who Weren’t Able to Survive: Kyung-Sook Shin’s 𝑉𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠” by Beth Adams](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/violets_anton-hur.jpg?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kit Fan, Diamond Hill, Diamond Books, 2021. 352 pgs. Kit Fan’s Diamond Hill, published in May 2021, centres on Hong Kong’s Diamond Hill squatter settlement, one of the last…
![[REVIEW] “Kit Fan’s 𝐷𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝐻𝑖𝑙𝑙: A Revelation of 1980s Hong Kong” by Lynn Yin Lam Chui](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/81lvo74xxsl._sl1500_.jpg?w=972)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Touring the Land of the Dead. Maki Kashimada (author), Haydn Trowell (translator), Touring the Land of the Dead (and Ninety-Nine Kisses), Europa Editions, 2021. 144…
![[REVIEW] “Enigmatic Prose: Maki Kashimada’s 𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑” by Jane McBride](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/touring-the-land-of-the-dead-and-ninety-nine-kiss-1.jpg?w=890)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Bae Myung-hoon (author), Stella Kim (translator), Launch Something!, Honford Star, 2023. 368 pgs. Telling us he was inspired by the “ridiculous heatwave in the summer of 2018”, Bae Myung-hoon…
![[REVIEW] “A Novel of Space-time: Bae Myung-hoon’s 𝐿𝑎𝑢𝑛𝑐ℎ 𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔!” by Lucy Hamilton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/launch-something.jpg?w=977)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ocean Vuong, Time Is a Mother, Penguin Random House, 2022. 112 pgs. Building a foundation on the aftershocks of his mother’s death, this collection of Ocean Vuong further explores,…
![[REVIEW] “I’ve Plagiarised My Life to Give You the Best of Me: Ocean Vuong’s 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐼𝑠 𝑎 𝑀𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/time-is-a-mother-1.jpg?w=932)
-
I blame my inability to speak Cantonese on waitresses in Chinese restaurants. My wife would say it’s all on me. To be fair, I should have kept it up. I should have practised more. You are getting better every day,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “On Learning to Speak Cantonese” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cantonese.png?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Liang Wern Fook (author), Christina Ng (translator), The Joy of a Left Hand, Balestier Press, 2023. 144 pgs. When my youngest child was about two years old, I noticed…
![[REVIEW] “Humans in All States of Emotion: Liang Wern Fook’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐽𝑜𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝐿𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝐻𝑎𝑛𝑑” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/the-joy-of-a-left-hand.jpg?w=880)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ricky Lee (author), Noelle Q. De Jesus (translator), For B (or How Love Devastates Four out of Every Five of Us), Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2023. 230 pgs.…
![[REVIEW] “Processing Love in Ricky Lee’s Novel 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝐵” by Frances An](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/for-b-or-how-love-devastates-four-out-of-every-five-of-us.png?w=987)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jun Ichikawa (director), Tony Takitani, 2004. 75 min. Tony Takitani is a film about loneliness and its unwavering cloudiness—the way it makes you want to lie down in a…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Human Loneliness: Jun Ichikawa’s 𝑇𝑜𝑛𝑦 𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑖” by Yimin Huang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/takitani.jpg?w=345)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Tania De Rozario, Dinner on Monster Island: Essays, HarperCollins, 2024. 192 pgs. Tania De Rozario’s Dinner on Monster Island is a lyrical and multi-faceted speech act. The fourteen essays…
![[REVIEW] “Despite Loss, Magic Persists: Tania De Rozario’s 𝐷𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐼𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑” by Lydia Kwa](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/dinner-on-monster-island.jpg?w=995)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILM Eddie Tay, Hong Kong as Creative Practice, Palgrave, 2022. 110 pgs. The Palgrave Macmillan series that Eddie Tay’s Hong Kong as Creative Practice is part of is a platform…
![[REVIEW] “One Senses a Quiet Revolution: Eddie Tay’s 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝐾𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒” by Marsha McDonald](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/hong-kong-as-creative-practice.webp?w=827)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILM Ken Provencher and Mike Dillon (editors), Exploiting East Asian Cinemas: Genre, Circulation, Reception, Bloomsbury, 2018. 234 pgs. In the early 2000s, unless you lived in a city in the…
![[REVIEW] “Extreme Asia—A Review of 𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐸𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝐶𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑠: 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑟𝑒, 𝐶𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛” by Mario Rustan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/exploiting-east-asian-cinemas-genre-circulation.jpg?w=568)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Satyajit Ray (director), Branches of the Tree, 1990. 130 min. Made and released in 1990, Satyajit Ray’s Branches of the Tree arrives as an artefact of a bygone sensibility,…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “An Artifact of a Bygone Sensibility: Satyajit Ray’s 𝐵𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒” by Toshi Tomori](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/mv5bndfmztg0mdetytrhzc00mjvilthlywytmdm2mta1ownkzjuxxkeyxkfqcgdeqxvynjm3mdiwnjc40._v1_.jpg?w=1024)
-
Also read Akin Jeje’s tribute to Reid Mitchell. I wrote two sonnets for Reid Mitchell (1955-2023); one a couple of years before he died and one, at Reid’s own instigation, some fifteen years ago. Reid had told me a story…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Two Sonnets for Reid Mitchell” by Andrew Barker](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/reid-michell-impression.jpeg?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Meena Kandasamy, When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife, Atlantic Books, 2018. 272 pgs. Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You, Or Portrait…
![[REVIEW] “Personal Yet Communal Narrative of Meena Kandasamy’s 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝐻𝑖𝑡 𝑌𝑜𝑢: 𝑂𝑟, 𝐴 𝑃𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑖𝑓𝑒” by Bervinder Kaur](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/when-i-hit-you.png?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Chloë F. Starr, Red-light Novels of the late Qing, Brill Publishing, 2007. 293 pgs. This book should be recognised as a significant academic achievement. It is the result of…
![[REVIEW] “A Niche Book on a Niche Subject: Chloë F. Starr’s 𝑅𝑒𝑑-𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑄𝑖𝑛𝑔” by Paul Bevan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/red-light.png?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Hayao Miyazaki (director), The Boy and the Heron, 2023. 125 min. This review contains spoilers. For me, what’s perhaps most interesting about The Boy and the Heron is that…
![[REVIEW] “Defying Explanation: Hayao Miyazaki’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑛” by e rathke](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2f7d7a1e-94d3-48eb-be56-12bcb518f235.sized-1000x1000-1.jpeg?w=1000)
-
Chris Song’s Note: Chan Hay-ching’s 陳曦靜 short story “Boda’s Borders” 寶達的邊境 was originally written in Chinese and was first published in Hong Kong Literature Bimonthly 城市文藝, No. 105 (April 2020). It was later included in her collection Rocky, a Stray Dog…
![[TRANSLATION] “Boda’s Borders” by Chan Hay-ching, translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/chan-hay-ching-and-chris-song.png?w=934)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Tanizaki Jun’ichirō (author), Anthony H. Chambers & Paul McCarthy (translators), Longing and Other Stories, Columbia University Press, 2022. 145 pgs. Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s Longing and Other Stories, translated by Anthony…
![[REVIEW] “Clash of Ideas: Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑂𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠” BY JAMES KIN-PONG AU](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/longing-and-other-stories_cha.png?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Paul Lynch, Prophet Song, Oneworld Books, 2023. 320 pgs. Although I was reading about a fictitious Ireland, as I began Prophet Song, Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning novel, I felt…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “To Flee or Not to Flee: Paul Lynch’s 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑡 𝑆𝑜𝑛𝑔” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/prophet-song.jpg?w=978)
-
Also read Andrew Barker’s tribute to Reid Mitchell. Photo of Reid Mitchell © Martin Alexander Describing a great and complex man as Reid Hardeman Mitchell (1955-2023) is not easy—he was a poet and a professor, bon vivant and raconteur, historian…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Tribute to Reid Mitchell” by Akin Jeje](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/reid-mitchell-cha-an-asian-literary-journal-2.jpg?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin, Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy, Hachette Books, 2023. 336 pgs.…
![[REVIEW] “The Story Isn’t Over Yet: Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin’s 𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑠” by James M Zimmerman](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/shibani-mahtani-and-timothy-mclaughlin.png?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Tragedies of Inequality: Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Jordan Peele’s Us” by Jonathan Chan Bong Joon-Ho (director), Parasite, 2019. 132 min.Jordan Peele (director), Us, 2019, 116 min. The sociologist Teo You Yenn…
![[ESSAY] “Tragedies of Inequality: Bong Joon-ho’s 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒 and Jordan Peele’s 𝑈𝑠” by Jonathan Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/us.png?w=749)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Celine Song (director), Past Lives, 2023. 106 min. Life is a sea, a kaleidoscopic cornucopia of experiences with a myriad of people. We start in shallow waters of first…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Beauty of the Unsaid: Celine Song’s 𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠” by Elliot Ng](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/https-__cdn.sanity.io_images_xq1bjtf4_production_e1bdf7c917e4a436ec391336e8a05dcba478d275-3840x2063_custom-8d06a6607db24746e6e697791cd638654a1f0dda-s1100-c50.jpg?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Nick Cheuk (director), Time Still Turns the Pages 年少日記, 2023. 95 min. This review contains major spoilers. With five nominations in the 60th Golden Horse Awards, Nick Cheuk’s tightly…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Poignant Appeal: Nick Cheuk’s 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑇𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑠” by Flora Mak](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/time-still-turns-the-pages.jpg?w=980)
-
Helen Wang: When reading and translating, I’ve often wondered about Chinese narrative. I knew from reading with my own children how important storytelling is for credibility and engagement, even at a very young age. How do English and Chinese narrative…
![[FEATURE] “The Power of Chinese Narrative: An Interview with Sabina Knight” by Helen Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/sabina-knight-2-copy.jpeg?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Satyajit Ray (director), Kanchenjungha, 1962. 102 min. Satyajit Ray hardly needs an introduction—either in the field of arts and culture or cinema itself. He singlehandedly spearheaded the New Wave of…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Mighty Peak: Satyajit Ray’s 𝐾𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑢𝑛𝑔ℎ𝑎” by Haimanti Dutta Ray](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-w1280.webp?w=1024)
Cha 