Category: 2025 Books
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βWhen News Breaks: Carol Linβs Memoir of Love and Warβ by Susan Blumberg-Kason Carol Lin, When News Breaks, Third Rail Press, 2025. 284 pgs. Carol Lin came of age in…
![[REVIEW] βπβππ πππ€π π΅πππππ : Carol Linβs Memoir of Love and Warβ by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/when.png?w=1024)
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Kokuho: Lee Sang-ilβs Mesmerizing Portrait of Kabuki Mastery” by Jennifer Eagleton Lee Sang-il (director), Kokuho, 2025. 174 min. What makes Lee Sang-ilβs Kokuho special are the tight closeups of onnagata…
![[REVIEW] “πΎπππ’βπ: Lee Sang-ilβs Mesmerizing Portrait of Kabuki Mastery” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/httpsgkids.comfilmskokuho.png?w=1024)
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βConsequences of Cosmopolitan Dreams in Nawapol Thamrongrattanaritβs Human Resource” by Lorence Lozano Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (director), Human Resource, 2025. Three years after his last film, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit returns with a new…
![[REVIEW] βConsequences of Cosmopolitan Dreams in Nawapol Thamrongrattanaritβs π»π’πππ π
ππ ππ’πππ” by Lorence Lozano](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/nawapol-thamrongrattanarit-director-human-resource.png?w=1024)
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βWhoβs Afraid of Not Conjoined Bodies?: Hon Lai Chuβs Mending Bodiesβ by Tin Yuet Tam Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies,…
![[REVIEW] βWhoβs Afraid of Not Conjoined Bodies?: Hon Lai Chuβs πππππππ π΅πππππ β by Tin Yuet Tam](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)
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “From Silence to Sound: Kaori Laiβs 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 Laiβs 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)
-
πΒ RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπΒ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS James Albon (author and illustrator), Love Languages, Top Shelf Productions, 2025. 176 pgs. The book begins with six pages of vibrant illustrations depicting people of diverse cultural backgrounds at…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βLife Outside the Bubble in James Albonβs πΏππ£π πΏππππ’ππππ β by Vanessa Winghei Yeung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/lovelangs_jalbon-2.jpg?w=1024)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Uno Chiyo (author), Rebecca Copeland (translator), The Story of a Single Woman, Pushkin Press, 2025. 106 pgs. Everything in Uno Chiyoβs The Story of a Single Woman, translated from…
![[REVIEW]Β βThe Trembling of Memory: Self and Society in Uno Chiyoβs πβπ ππ‘πππ¦ ππ π ππππππ πππππβ by Wani Nazir](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/uno-chiyo-author-rebecca-copeland-translator-the-story-of-a-single-woman-pushkin-press-1.jpg?w=977)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Kiriti Sengupta. Kiriti Sengupta, Selected Poems, Transcendent Zero Press, 2025. 228 pgs. It has been more than a decade since the medical practitioner turned poet,…
![[REVIEW] “The Stillness Between Fire and Water: On Kiriti Senguptaβs ππππππ‘ππ πππππ ” by Abhik Ganguly](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/selected-poems-final-1-scaled-e1754154149300.webp?w=1024)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mallika Bhaumik, When Time is a Magic Jar, Red River Press, 2025. 108 pgs. When Time is a Magic Jar by Mallika Bhaumik is like finding an old, dusty…
![[REVIEW] βWhen the Jar Spills Time: Reading Mallika Bhaumikβs πβππ ππππ ππ π πππππ π½ππβ by Wani Nazir](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/when-time-is-a-magic-jar.jpg?w=1024)
-
πΒ RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπΒ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mending Bodies. β Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies, Two Lines Press, 2025. 240 pgs.β Michael Shanks (director), Together, 2025. 102 min.…
![[REVIEW] “The Fantasy of Wholeness through Body Horror in Hon Lai-chuβs πππππππ π΅πππππ and Michael Shanksβs πππππ‘βππβ by Charlie Ng](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/the-fantasy-of-wholeness-through-body-horror-in-hon-lai-chus-mending-bodies-and-michael-shankss-together.png?w=1024)
-
Editor’s note: In this interview, poet and critic Tiffany Troy speaks with translator Chenxin Jiang about her recent rendering of for now I am sitting here growing transparent (Zephyr Press, 2025) by Hong Kong poet, filmmaker, and scholar Yau Ching.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “On Translating Hong Kong Identity, Resilience, & Longing” by Tiffany Troy and Chenxin Jiang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/71e5yoi5wl._sl1500_-1.jpg?w=1023)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on So That You Know. Mani Rao, So That You Know, HarperCollins India, 2025. 312 pgs. Referring to notes I made on Mani Raoβs newest poetry…
![[REVIEW] βA Prism of Time: The Shifting Passions of Mani Raoβs Poetry in ππ πβππ‘ πππ’ πΎπππ€β by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/mani-rao-so-that-you-know-cha.jpg?w=1024)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mahmoud Alshaer & Mohammed Al-Zaqzooq (editors), Letters from Gaza: A Collection by the People; Unveiling Their Stories and Emotions from the Year That Has Been, Penguin Random House SEA,…
![[REVIEW] βA War, Many Cries, and a Long, Unkind Sleep: πΏππ‘π‘πππ ππππ πΊππ§πβ by Kabir Deb](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/letters-from-gaza-a-collection-by-the-people-unveiling-their-stories-and-emotions-from-the-year-that-has-been-1.jpg?w=906)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Hiro Arikawa (author), Allison Markin Powell (translator). The Passengers on the Hankyu Line, Penguin Random House, 2025. 256 pgs. It seems fitting that I began reading The Passengers on…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βThe Train Ride of Life: Hiro Arikawaβs πβπ πππ π ππππππ ππ π‘βπ π»ππππ¦π’ πΏπππβ by Koay Xinyi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/81pcgpwou4l._sl1500_.jpg?w=956)
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βLav Diazβs Magellan: From Counter-Time to Counter-Historyβ by Ramzzi FariΓ±as ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Magellan. Lav Diaz (director), Magellan, 2025. 165 min. If the art of history is to be…
![[REVIEW] βLav Diazβs ππππππππ: From Counter-Time to Counter-Historyβ by Ramzzi FariΓ±as](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/images.jpeg?w=294)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on So That You Know. Mani Rao, So That You Know, HarperCollins India, 2025. 312 pgs. “Isnβt it better to write poems about topics? On the…
-
β Afterword: Living Between Languagesβ Three Poemsβ Anything but Human 倧ιε @ TrendLit Publishing Living between languages by Daryl Lim Wei Jie My poetry was brewed in the multilingual kitchen that is Singapore. The translational and the interlingualβthat is, existing…
![[FEATURE] “π΄ππ¦π‘βπππ ππ’π‘ π»π’πππ: Living between Languages” by Daryl Lim Wei Jie](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/anythingbuthuman-copy.jpg?w=838)
-
β Afterword: Living Between Languagesβ Three Poemsβ Anything but Human 倧ιε @ TrendLit Publishing Expressionof Contentment by Daryl Lim Wei Jie I am extraordinarily really verycomfortable even my toes have gone forpsychoanalysis and my nose hairs havetheir favourite brand of…
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπRETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Arun Budhathoki, And I Blamed Canadian Winter Again: Poems East & West, Nirala Publications, 2025. 98pgs. Nepali poet Arun Budhathoki, who has been living in Canada, has recently…
![[REVIEW] βDiaspora and Duality: The Emotional Cartography of Arun Budhathoki’s π΄ππ πΌ π΅πππππ πΆπππππππ ππππ‘ππ π΄ππππβ by Subash Singh Parajuli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/arun-budhathoki-and-i-blamed-canadian-winter-again-poems-east-west-nirala-publications-2025.-98pgs.-.jpg?w=923)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Saad Omar Khan, Drinking the Ocean, Buckrider Books, 2025. 250 pgs. βWe die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βA Love that Doesnβt Bind: Saad Omar Khanβs π·πππππππ π‘βπ πππππβ by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/saad-omar-khan-drinking-the-ocean.jpg?w=971)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ 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 workβa knotted thing. It unspools the lines drawn across gender,…
![[REVIEW] βKnotted Threads: Memory, Language, and Violence in Winifred Dongyi Wangβs π·ππ π πππ‘πππ ππ π‘βπ ππππβ by Heather Y. Kim](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/https-accentaccent.comforthcoming-dissection-of-the-moon.png?w=1024)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ Cha on Vigil.Β Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Vigil: The Struggle for Hong Kong, Brixton Ink, 2025. 176 pgs. Jeffrey Wasserstromβs Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink was…
![[REVIEW] βHong Kong Remembered and Rewritten: Jeffrey Wasserstromβs πππππβ by Wayne Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/vigil.jpg?w=977)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ee Ling Quah, Fire Dragon Feminism: Asian Migrant Womenβs Tales of Migration, Coloniality and Racial Capitalism, Bloomsbury, 2025. 216 pgs. βAn exchange of glances, light nods and eye contacts…
![[REVIEW] βDecorative Roles and Dehumanising Gazes: Reflections on Ee Ling Quahβs πΉπππ π·πππππ πΉππππππ πβ 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)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ 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] βA Bubble of the Sea Holds the Cosmos and Its Caricature: Alvin Pangβs π΄ππ πβππ‘ ππ πΏπππ‘ ππ π‘βπ πππβ 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)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kyung-Ran JoΒ (author),Β Chi-Young KimΒ (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 π΅πππ€πππ β” 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)
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Worst Kind of Dystopia: Hon Lai Chu’s Mending Bodies” by Luca Griseri ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaonΒ Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies, Two Lines…
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βThammika Songkaeo’s Stamford Hospital: Love and Loneliness in a Capitalist Cityβ by Fathima M Click HERE to read Thammika Songkaeo’s “Twist of Fate” Thammika Songkaeo, Stamford Hospital, Penguin Random House…
![[REVIEW] βThammika Songkaeo’s ππ‘ππππππ π»ππ πππ‘ππ: Love and Loneliness in a Capitalist Cityβ by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/thammika-songkaeo.jpg?w=977)
-
θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] βThe Partyβs Interests Come First: Joseph Torigianβs The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi JinpingβΒ by Susan Blumberg-Kason Joseph Torigian, The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi…
![[REVIEW] βThe Partyβs Interests Come First: Joseph Torigianβs πβπ πΏπππ ππ ππ πβππππ₯π’π, πΉππ‘βππ ππ ππ π½ππππππβΒ by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/xi-jinping.png?w=1024)
-
π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ 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] βWhen Time Flies With Us, We Live Many Lives: Jeet Thayilβs πβπ πΈππ ππ€βππππππ β by Kabir Deb](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/jeet-thayils-the-elsewhereans-1.jpg?w=1002)
-
πΒ RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπΒ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kamila Kuc, Laima Leyton, Dara Waldron,Β Ecka Mordecai, and Jeremy Fernando (contributors), If loss were a currency: on Kamila KucΒ΄s I Was There. Delere Press, 2025. 114 pgs. According to…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βWhereof One Cannot Speak, Thereof One Cannot Stay SilentβOn πΌπ πππ π π€πππ π ππ’ππππππ¦: ππ πΎπππππ πΎπ’π’π πΌ πππ πβπππ” by Anders KΓΈlle](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/kamila-kuc-laima-leyton-dara-waldron-ecka-mordecai-jeremy-fernando.jpg?w=971)
Cha 