Category: 2026 Entries
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[ESSAY] “From Kuala Terengganu to Jakarta: The Job I Turned Down” by Daniel Regan My Peace Corps service cost me a job. I am aware that this sounds improbable, given the prevailing narrative, which holds that a record of Peace…
![[ESSAY] “From Kuala Terengganu to Jakarta: The Job I Turned Down” by Daniel Regan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/1979-annual-report-copy.jpg)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Unsold Peonies: Rediscovering the Voice of Courtesan, Nun, and Poet Yu Xuanji in Lucas Kleinโs Translation” by Jennifer Eagleton Yu Xuanji (author), Lucas Klein (translator). Hiding in Caverns Formed from…
![[REVIEW] “Unsold Peonies: Rediscovering the Voice of Courtesan, Nun, and Poet Yu Xuanji in Lucas Kleinโs Translation” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Lucas-Klein-1.png)
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[FICTION] โThe Monkey Kingโs Dilemmaโ by T. A. Morton T. A. Morton’s introduction: The Monkey King is a known troublemaker. He has always pushed boundaries, from his time stealing peaches of immortality to wrecking the Queen Mother of the Westโs…
![[FICTION] โThe Monkey Kingโs Dilemmaโ by T. A. Morton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/The-Monkey-Kings-Dilemma-by-T.-A.-Morton.png)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Impossibility of Coming Home: Love, Memory and Political Trauma in Yan Gelingโs Criminal Lu Yanshi” by Karen Ma Geling Yan (author), Lawrence A. Walker (translator). Criminal Lu Yanshi, New Song Media…
![[ESSAY] “The Impossibility of Coming Home: Love, Memory and Political Trauma in Yan Gelingโsย Criminal Lu Yanshi” by Karen Ma](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Criminal-Lu-Yanshi.png)
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[FICTION] “Their Voices, Varied and Many” by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Reid Mitchell Do you know where I can buy them in Hong Kong? Tammy Lai-Ming Ho‘s introduction to “Their Voices, Varied and Many”: Reid Mitchell came to Hong Kong…
![[FICTION] “Their Voices, Varied and Many” by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Reid Mitchell](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Their-Voices_Tammy-Lai-Ming-Ho.png)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] โGigi L. Leungโs Everyday Movement: Momentum within Momentsโ by Tin Yuet Tam Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Everyday Movement. Gigi L. Leung (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Everyday Movement, Riverhead Books. 2026.…
![[ESSAY] โGigi L. Leungโs ๐ธ๐ฃ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐ก: Momentum within Momentsโ by Tin Yuet Tam](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/everyday-movement-by-gigi-l.-leung-translated-by-jennifer-feeley-.jpg)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] โMy Name Is Not Eileen: Geck Geck Priscilla Angโs Ah Girlโ by Ken Lam Geck Geck Priscilla Ang (director). Ah Girl, 2026. 99 min. Childhood here is not scaled-down…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] โMy Name Is Not Eileen: Ang Geck Geck Priscillaโs ๐ดโ ๐บ๐๐๐โ by Ken Lam](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Ah-Girl_Website3.jpg)
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[FICTION] “Blue Eyed Pigs” by Jonathan Han Jonathan Han on “Blue Eyed Pigs”: Twenty years ago, Hong Kong was the busiest port in the world, the greatest trade centre by measures that extended beyond the abstract and the fiscal. Older…
![[FICTION] โBlue Eyed Pigsโ by Jonathan Han](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Jonathan-Han-Blue-Eyed-Pigs.png)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s If I Do Not Reply Is Poetry, Gentle Irony and Defiance” by Cyril Camus Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on If I Do Not Reply. Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, If…
![[ESSAY] “Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s ๐ผ๐ ๐ผ ๐ท๐ ๐๐๐ก ๐
๐๐๐๐ฆ Is Poetry, Gentle Irony and Defiance” by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/tammy-lai-ming-ho-2026-1.png)
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[ESSAY] โThe Punch and the Punchline: How Two Wongs from Hong Kong Made Me Rightโ by Felix Cheong Singapore is very multicultural in that way. Two Wongs have made me right, at least in my imagination. I am referring to Tony…
![[ESSAY]ย โThe Punch and the Punchline: How Two Wongs from Hong Kong Made Me Rightโ by Felix Cheong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Two-Wongs.png)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] โTenderness Persists Amidst Looming Displacement in When Heaven Inched Towards Earthโ by Lorence Lozano Vinh Marco Tumang (director). When Heaven Inched Towards Earth, 2026. 20 min. Cinepanalo has gone theme-free this year,…
![[REVIEW] โTenderness Persists Amidst Looming Displacement inย ๐โ๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐โ๐๐ ๐๐๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐กโโ by Lorence Lozano](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-28-at-07.38.22.png)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] โThe Violence of Being Understood: Rio Shimamotoโs First Loveโ by Tyran Grillo Rio Shimamoto (author), Louise Heal Kawai (translator). First Love. Honford Star, 2024. 280 pgs. In Narratage (2005), Rio Shimamoto follows a young…
![[ESSAY] โThe Violence of Being Understood: Rio Shimamotoโsย ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ก ๐ฟ๐๐ฃ๐โ by Tyran Grillo](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Rio-Shimamoto-First-Love.png)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Green Trojan Horses: Trees, Power, and the Chinese State in Cheng Li’s Contested Environmentalisms” by Jennifer Eagleton Cheng Li. Contested Environmentalisms: Trees and the Making of Modern China. Stanford University…
![[REVIEW] “Green Trojan Horses: Trees, Power, and the Chinese State in Cheng Li’s ๐ถ๐๐๐ก๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/contested.png)
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[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] โSlow Down and Sip the Tea: The Delightfully Surreal World of Katsuhito Ishiiโs The Taste of Teaโ by Nicola Ulaan Wan Katsuhito Ishii (director). The Taste of Tea (Cha no Aiji), 2004. 143 min. When Katsuhito Ishiiโsย The Taste…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] โSlow Down and Sip the Tea: The Delightfully Surreal World of Katsuhito Ishiiโs ๐โ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐โ by Nicola Ulaan Wan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/the-taste-of-tea-2.jpg)
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[FICTION] “An Asian Study: January” by Anna Nguyen Anna Nguyen on “An Asian Study: January”: My forthcoming chapbook, Cruel Sentimentalism, begins with a scene from my memory of watching The Assassin, the last film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. This particular title is…
![[FICTION] “๐ด๐ ๐ด๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐๐ฆ: January” by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/anna-nguyen-an-asian-study-cha.png)
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[ESSAY] “Vietnam, 1982: Xuรขn Quแปณnh Translating the War on Palestine” by Nguyแป n Bรฌnh Xuรขn Quแปณnh In the summer of 1982, a war was raging between political entities whose names Vietnamese people across the continent struggled to pronounce. The state of รt-xra-en,…
![[ESSAY] “Vietnam, 1982: Xuรขn Quแปณnh Translating the War on Palestine” by Nguyen Binh](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/images-2.jpeg)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] โWhere God Seems Absent: Suffering and Survival in Blessyโs The Goat Lifeโ by Pradip Mondal Blessy (director). The Goat Life (Aadujeevitham), 2024. 170 min. To live is to suffer, to survive is…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] โWhere God Seems Absent: Suffering and Survival in Blessyโsย ๐โ๐ ๐บ๐๐๐ก ๐ฟ๐๐๐โ by Pradip Mondal](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/blessy-director.-the-goat-life-aadujeevitham.png)
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We are delighted to invite submissions of writing and graphic art forย Songs of the Wild Geese, a new ongoing section ofย Cha: An Asian Literary Journalย devoted to work emerging from the intersections of Hong Kong and Canada. The section takes its…
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[ESSAY] “Richie Nath: Queer Art, Exile and the Burmese Diaspora” by Charlotte Marie Chadwick Richie Nath Editor’s note: Selected images from Richie Nath’s Paris exhibition, โAn Oyster Without a Pearlโ (Thursday 7 May 2026 to Wednesday 17 June 2026), can…
![[ESSAY] “Richie Nath: Queer Art, Exile and the Burmese Diaspora” by Charlotte Marie Chadwick](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/richie-nath-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.png)
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[ESSAY] “Just an Ordinary Photograph: Images of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore and Sumatra” by Nathan Chong Once you know what to look for, and where to look, pieces begin to fall into place. What do you see in this…
![[ESSAY] “Just an Ordinary Photograph: Images of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore and Sumatra” by Nathan Chong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nathan-chong-cha-1.jpg)
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[FICTION] โTake Me to Hong Kongโ by Kim Christine Editor’s note: This flash story is inspired by Charles Aznavourโs โEmmenez-Moiโ. We suggest listening to the song while reading the piece. A YouTube link is provided at the end of the…
![[FICTION] “Take Me to Hong Kong” by Kim Christine](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/take-me-to-hong-kong-by-kim-christine-cha.png)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Queering the Continent: The Many Lives of Queer Asia” by Farid Hamka J. Daniel Luther and Jennifer Ung Loh (editors), ‘Queer’ Asia: Decolonising and Reimagining Sexuality and Gender, Zed Books, 2019.…
![[REVIEW] “Queering the Continent: The Many Lives of Queer Asia” by Farid Hamka](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/queer-asia-decolonising-and-reimagining-sexuality-and-gender.png)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Reading Marรญa Teresa Ogliastri’s From the Diary of Madame Mao: Poetry, Politics and Memories of the Cultural Revolution” by Ming Wan All entries in Cha on Madame Mao. Marรญa Teresa…
![[ESSAY] “Reading Marรญa Teresa Ogliastri’s ๐น๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐: Poetry, Politics and Memories of the Cultural Revolution” by Ming Wan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/from-the-diary-of-madame-mao.jpg)
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[ESSAY] “Between Singapore and Yogyakarta: A City to Visit, A City to Live In” by Dhinie A Ryhilda I donโt remember exactly which MRT station I got off at that day in Singapore. I only remember deciding to stop somewhere…
![[ESSAY] “Between Singapore and Yogyakarta: A City to Visit, A City to Live In” by Dhinie A Ryhilda](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/yogyakarta-market.jpg)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Joanne Leowโs Exhumations: The Body as Counter-Archive in Singapore” by Aleithia Low Joanne Leow. Exhumations: Inside the Body of a Petrostate. Alchemy by Knopf Canada, 2026. 216 pgs. โWhen is a…
![[REVIEW] “Joanne Leowโs ๐ธ๐ฅโ๐ข๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ : The Body as Counter-Archive in Singapore” by Aleithia Low](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/joanne-leow.-exhumations-inside-the-body-of-a-petrostate.png)
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[ESSAY] “Hong Kong: A Lover’s Meditation” by Jeff Beyl Photo ยฉ Jeff Beyl Hong Kong Works To paraphrase travel writer Jan Morris, Hong Kong works. Someone asked me, many years ago, after my first trip to Hong Kong, โWhatโs it like…
![[ESSAY] “Hong Kong: A Lover’s Meditation” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/jeff-beyl-dai-pai-dong.jpeg.png)
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[CONVERSATION] โChallenging the Patriarchy with Poetry and Proseโ by Sadie Kaye and Shikha S. Lamba The Weight of Silence by Zuhra Nadem Sadie Kaye’s introduction: Some interviews begin with a rรฉsumรฉ. This one began with a single sentence that clicked…
![[CONVERSATION] โChallenging the Patriarchy with Poetry and Proseโ by Sadie Kaye and Shikha S. Lamba](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/shikha-s.-lamba.jpg)
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[CONVERSATION] “Mapping Loss in a Crowded City” by Sadie Kaye and Holly Sykes Holly Sykes at home in Hong Kong Sadie Kaye’s introduction: What happens when a self-proclaimed โshy, bookish personโ swaps the muddy, rolling hills of northwest England for…
![[CONVERSATION] “Mapping Loss in a Crowded City” by Sadie Kaye and Holly Sykes](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/conversation-sadie-kaye-and-holly-sykes-mapping-loss-in-a-crowded-city.jpg)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] โHong Kong, Cantopop and the Memory of Home: Emma-Lee Mossโs My Cantopop Nightsโ by Susan Blumberg-Kason Emma-Lee Moss. My Cantopop Nights: A Memoir in Songs. Jonathan Cape, 2026. 352 pgs. The…
![[REVIEW] “Hong Kong, Cantopop and the Memory of Home: Emma-Lee Mossโsย ๐๐ฆ ๐ถ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐โ๐ก๐ ” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/emma-lee-moss.-my-cantopop-nights-a-memoir-in-songs.png)
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[ESSAY] “The Apocalypse Before Dinner: What Japanese Robots Taught Italian Children” by Gabriele Micozzi For Italian children of my generation, Japanese animation did not arrive as a coherent archive. I am on the left, with my younger brother Fabrizio, both…
![[ESSAY] “The Apocalypse Before Dinner: What Japanese Robots Taught Italian Children” by Gabriele Micozzi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/atlas-ufo-robot.png)