Category: 2025 Entries
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Order in the City: Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’sIf I Do Not Reply” by Luca Griseri Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on If I Do Not Reply. Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, If I Do Not…
![[REVIEW] “Order in the City: Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s 𝐼𝑓 𝐼 𝐷𝑜 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑦” by Luca Griseri](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/if-i-do-not-reply_tammy-ho-1.jpg?w=907)
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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 Milk Tea Alliance. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle against Autocracy and Beijing, Columbia Global Reports, 2025. 104 pgs. The…
![[REVIEW] “Boba, Grass Jelly, Light Ice, Democracy: On Jeffrey Wasserstrom’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑘 𝑇𝑒𝑎 𝐴𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒” by Nick Zeller](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/the-milk-tea-alliance-inside-asias-struggle-against-autocracy-and-beijing.jpg?w=1000)
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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 Milk Tea Alliance. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle against Autocracy and Beijing, Columbia Global Reports, 2025. 104 pgs. Jeffrey…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Weike Wang, Joan Is Okay, Penguin Random House, 2022. 224 pgs. Joan is Okay, the sophomore novel by Weike Wang, opens with the line: “When I think about…
![[REVIEW] “The Telos of Toil: Reading Weike Wang’s 𝐽𝑜𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑂𝑘𝑎𝑦 Through Labour and Identity” by Tiffany Troy](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/weike-wang-joan-is-okay.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Gilda Cordero-Fernando, The Last Full Moon: Lessons on My Life, University of the Philippines Press and GCF Books, 2005. 250 pgs. “I don’t want to be boring ever.”—Chappell…
![[REVIEW] “Grandmothered! A Filipina Gen Z’s Critique of Gilda Cordero-Fernando’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛” by Janelle Tanguin](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/gilda-cordero-fernando-the-last-full-moon-lessons-of-my-life.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Shunji Iwai (director), Undo, 1994. 47 min. The film Undo (1994) by Shunji Iwai is modest in length at just 47 minutes. Yet the narrative never feels rushed,…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Beyond Earshot: Transcribing Meaning in Shunji Iwai’s 𝑈𝑛𝑑𝑜” by Miran Tsay](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/shunji-iwai.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Anand Patwardhan, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The World is Family), 2023. 96 min. “யாதும் ஊரே! யாவரும் கேளிர்!” (“Every place is our homeland, everyone is our kin”)—these words from the Tamil…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Between Memory and History: Anand Patwardhan’s 𝑉𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑑ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑣𝑎 𝐾𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑎𝑘𝑎𝑚” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/anand-patwardhan-vasudhaiva-kutumbakam-the-world-is-family-.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 In the Mood for Love. Wong Kar-wai (director), In the Mood for Love, 2000. 98 min. Some films are simply like that—from the moment you…
![[REVIEW] “𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒 at 25: Wong Kar-wai’s Cinematic Language of Longing” by G.A. Gowtham](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/in-the-mood-for-love-wong-kar-wai-2020-4k-red-ds-os-195-_blur.webp?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Uketsu (author), Jim Rion (translator), Strange Pictures, HarperVia, 2025. 240 pgs. In the Prologue, we are told: “All right, everyone, now I’m going to show you a picture.”…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Reader as Detective: Uketsu’s 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑃𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/uketsu-author-jim-rion-translator-strange-pictures-harpervia-2025.png?w=974)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Alex John Catanese, Buddha in the Marketplace: The Commodification of Buddhist Objects in Tibet, University of Virginia Press, 2019. 334 pgs. The phenomenon of religious commodification across diverse…
![[REVIEW] “Commodifying the Sacred: Alex John Catanese’s 𝐵𝑢𝑑𝑑ℎ𝑎 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒” by Palden Gyal](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/buddha-copy.jpg?w=1024)
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Chris Song and Simona Gallo Dwelling in Tongues◉ Part I—”Hong Kong & Poetry”◉ Part II—”A Translingual Self: The Art of Self-Translation” Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series of interview entitled “Dwelling in Tongues: A Conversation on…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Hong Kong & Poetry” by Simona Gallo and Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/simona-gallo-and-chris-song.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Sundar Sarukkai, The Social Life of Democracy, Seagull Books, 2022, 184 pgs. When I reflect on democracy in India today, I see a concept confined largely to the…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Democracy as Social Practice: Sundar Sarukkai’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/sundar-sarukkais-the-social-life-of-democracy.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mandira Chakraborty, Firefly Games, Sambhavna Prakashan, 2025. 217 pgs. The world we inhabit today is a curious interplay between misinformation and an overwhelming excess of information—one click or…
![[REVIEW] “Mandira Chakraborty’s 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑦 𝐺𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠: Stories of Light and Shadow” by Sayan Aich](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/mandira-chakraborty-firefly-games.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Nobuhiro Doi (director), Hanamizuki, 2010. 128 min. Water plays a significant role in the work of many filmmakers. One might, for instance, recall the rainwater and silvery puddles…
![[REVIEW] “The Measure of Love in Nobuhiro Doi’s 𝐻𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑧𝑢𝑘𝑖” by Anders Kølle](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/hanamizuki-e3838fe3838ae3839fe382bae382ad.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Anru Lee, Haunted Modernities: Gender, Memory and Placemaking in Post-industrial Taiwan, University of Hawai’i Press, 2023. 246 pgs. Anru Lee first learned of the 25 Maiden Ladies’ Tomb…
![[REVIEW] “From Spirits to Statues: Commemorating Women Workers in Anru Lee’s 𝐻𝑎𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠” by Elsa Mathews](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/haunted-modernities-gender-memory-and-placemaking-in-postindustrial-taiwan.jpg?w=994)
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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 Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies, Two Lines Press, 2025. 240 pgs. For those who haven’t read the original Chinese…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Magical Realism or Political Prophecy? Hon Lai Chu’s 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 Reexamined” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](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)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Han Kang (author), e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (translators), We do Not Part, Hogarth, 2025. 272 pgs. Kyungha struggles to sleep or eat, suffers from persistent…
![[REVIEW] “The Persistance of Memory: Han Kang’s 𝑊𝑒 𝐷𝑜 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/https-www.penguinrandomhouse.combooks718535we-do-not-part-by-han-kang-translated-by-e-yaewon-and-paige-aniyah-morris.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Robin Visser, Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan, Columbia University Press, 2023. 352 pgs. In recent years, the escalating global urgency surrounding ecological crises has prompted renewed…
![[REVIEW] “Relational Ecologies and the Displacement of Borders: Reading Visser’s Sinophone Environmental Imaginary” by Sonalika Chaturvedi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/questioning-borders-ecoliteratures-of-china-and-taiwan-columbia-university-press.jpg?w=1000)
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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 Pillion & Box Hill. Adam Mars-Jones, Box Hill, Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020. 128 pgs. At only 120 pages, British novelist Adam Mars-Jones’s 2020 novella Box…
![[REVIEW] “Adam Mars-Jones’s 𝐵𝑜𝑥 𝐻𝑖𝑙𝑙: A Bold Celebration of Queer Love and Desire” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/box-hill.jpg?w=779)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Nicholas de Villiers, Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang, The University of Minnesota Press, 2022. 216 pgs. As one of the most celebrated Chinese-language…
![[REVIEW] “Feeling Queer—Nicholas de Villiers’s 𝐶𝑟𝑢𝑖𝑠𝑦, 𝑆𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑦, 𝑀𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑦: 𝑆𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑖𝑙𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑠𝑎𝑖 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑔-𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑔” by Haley Agcaoili B.](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang.jpg?w=971)
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Jacqueline Leung’s note: “果實微溫,” pronounced “gwo sud mei wun,” translates literally from Cantonese as “warm fruit” and phonetically echoes “grocery run.” When Stuart Lau Wai-shing attended the Iowa International Writing Program in 2017, a bus would arrive each Tuesday morning, ferrying…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Warm Fruit” by Stuart Lau, translated by Jacqueline Leung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/stuart-lau_jacqueline-leung_cha.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mike Sakas (director), City of Shells: Our Forgotten Oyster Reefs, 2025. 66 min. As Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds us, we cannot restore our relationships with nature without also engaging…
![[REVIEW] “Re-story-ation of the Hong Kong Oyster: 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑠” by Tim Pit Hok Yau](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/mike-sakas-director-city-of-shells-2025.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Téa Sernelj, The Confucian Revival in Taiwan: Xu Fuguan and His Theory of Chinese Aesthetics, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021. 280 pgs. In The Confucian Revival in Taiwan: Xu…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Broad and Balanced: Téa Sernelj’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑇𝑎𝑖𝑤𝑎𝑛” by Hantian Zhang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/tea-sernelj-the-confucian-revival-in-taiwan-xu-fuguan-and-his-theory-of-chinese-aesthetics-cambridge-scholars-publishing.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Narrative Reclamation: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s The Mountains Sing” by Zalman S. Davis Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, The Mountains Sing, Algonquin Books, 2021. 368 pgs. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s The…
![[REVIEW] “Narrative Reclamation: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑔” by Zalman S. Davis](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/the-mountains-sing-hardcover-e28093-march-17-2020-by-nguyen-phan-que-mai.jpg?w=996)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Philip Yung (director), Papa, 2024. 131 min. Prologue: Watching Hong Kong films overseas is a transposing experience. When I leave a cinema in Toronto after watching a…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “𝑃𝑎𝑝𝑎: Time to Forgive” by Tin Yuet Tam](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/philip-yung-director-papa-2024.-131-min-1.jpg?w=923)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Shinya Tsukamoto 塚本晋也, Tetsuo: The Iron Man 鉄男, 1989. 67 min. I leave the factory. Pass through a haze of cigarette smoke. Walk to the car. Slide…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Viewing 𝑇𝑒𝑡𝑠𝑢𝑜: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑟𝑜𝑛 𝑀𝑎𝑛 in an Old Pajama Factory in a Small Town America” by Kristen Cantor](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/shinya-tsukamoto-tetsuo-the-iron-man-e98984e794b7.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 Ezra Pound’s Chinese Friends. Zhaoming Qian (editor), Ezra Pound’s Chinese Friends: Stories in Letters, Oxford University Press. 2008. 272 pgs. Ezra Pound never…
![[REVIEW] “”Eastern Liaisons: 𝐸𝑧𝑟𝑎 𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑’𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝐹𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠” by Andrew Fan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ezra-pound.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Steven Schwankert, The Six: The Untold Story of the Titanic’s Chinese Survivors. Simon & Schuster, 2025. 240 pgs. When the transatlantic ocean liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Six Questions about the Six—Steven Schwankert’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑖𝑥: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐’𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑠” by Ryan Ho Kilpatrick](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/steven-schwankert-the-six-the-untold-story-of-the-titanics-chinese-survivors-1.jpg?w=988)
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◉ On Becoming a Hong Kongese Writer◉ Sunset at Lion Rock: An Excerpt Matthew Wong Foreman, Sunset at Lion Rock, Proverse Press, 2024. 288 pgs. {Read Jason S Polley’s review.} In my Hong Kong, the Hong Kong of our hearts, we greet each…
![[FEATURE] “𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘: An Excerpt” by Matthew Wong Foreman](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/matthew-wong-foreman-sunset-at-lion-rock-1.webp?w=663)
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◉ On Becoming a Hong Kongese Writer◉ Sunset at Lion Rock: An Excerpt Matthew Wong Foreman, Sunset at Lion Rock, Proverse Press, 2024. 288 pgs. {Read Jason S Polley’s review.} For over 2,000 years, apocalyptic visions of doom—of the End Times, of destruction,…
Cha 