Category: 2026 Entries
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “A Librarian’s Take on Zheng Liu’s Cultural Mavericks: The Business and Politics of Independent Bookselling in China” by Raymond Pun Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Cultural Mavericks. Zheng Liu, Cultural…
![[REVIEW] “A Librarian’s Take on Zheng Liu’s 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎” by Raymond Pun](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cultural-mavericks-the-business-and-politics-of-independent-bookselling-in-china.jpg?w=971)
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[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Jack Ng’s 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔: Elegy for a Vanishing East Tsim Sha Tsui” by Jonathan Han
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Jack Ng’s Night King: Elegy for a Vanishing East Tsim Sha Tsui” by Jonathan Han Jack Ng (director). Night King, 2026. 132 min. Growing up, East Tsim Sha Tsui…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Jack Ng’s 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔: Elegy for a Vanishing East Tsim Sha Tsui” by Jonathan Han](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/3333.webp?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Moshin Hamid’s Moth Smoke: What Binds and What Breaks Us” by Abhinav Tulachan Moshin Hamid, Moth Smoke, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. 256 pgs. I was, much to my own…
![[REVIEW] “Moshin Hamid’s 𝑀𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑆𝑚𝑜𝑘𝑒: What Binds and What Breaks Us” by Abhinav Tulachan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/moth-smoke-moshin-hamid.jpg?w=977)
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[REVIEW] “Collecting the Dead, Preserving the Lives: On Vinu P and Niyas Kareem’s The Corpse Collector” by Kabir Deb Vinu P and Niyas Kareem (authors), Ministhy S. (translator). The Corpse Collector: A True Story. Juggernaut Books, 2023. 237 pgs. Death,…
![[REVIEW] “Collecting the Dead, Preserving the Lives: On Vinu P and Niyas Kareem’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑝𝑠𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟” by Kabir Deb](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/the-corpse-collector-a-true-story-niyas-kareem-author-vinu-p-author-ministhy-s.-translator.jpg?w=686)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “A Messy Magnum Opus: Mai Jia’s The Colonel and the Eunuch” by Kevin McGeary Mai Jia (author), Dylan Levi King (translator). The Colonel and the Eunuch, Apollo, 2024. 400 pgs.…
![[REVIEW] “A Messy Magnum Opus: Mai Jia’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑢𝑛𝑢𝑐ℎ” by Kevin McGeary](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/mai-jia-author-dylan-levi-king-translator.-the-colonel-and-the-eunuch.jpg?w=977)
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Editor’s note: Through a sequence of transient homes across Singapore and Malaysia, Sia Ling Ee’s essay “To All the Homes I’d Known Before” traces a childhood shaped by precarity, familial strain, and longing for stability. Contrasted with her husband’s rooted…
![[ESSAY] “To All the Homes I’d Known Before” by Sia Ling Ee](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pic-1-amk-rental-flat.jpeg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Hope and Despair in Post War Japan: Akira Kurosawa’s One Wonderful Sunday” by Jeremiah Dutch Akira Kurosawa (director). One Wonderful Sunday, 1947. 108 min. It cannot be said often…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Hope and Despair in Post War Japan: Akira Kurosawa’s 𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑦” by Jeremiah Dutch](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/https-mubi.comenbefilmsone-wonderful-sunday.jpeg?w=299)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Qinxian Bonnie Ran’s essay examines Amitav Ghosh’s incorporation of Cantonese into English in River of Smoke. She argues that the novel’s multilingual Fanqui City creates a space where economic…
![[ESSAY] “Canton and Cantonese in Amitav Ghosh’s 𝑅𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑚𝑜𝑘𝑒” by Qinxian Bonnie Ran](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/river-of-smoke_cha.jpg?w=990)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Fragmentation and Repair in Leslie Shimotakahara’s The Breakwater” by Jonathan Han Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon The Breakwater. Leslie Shimotakahara, The Breakwater, Cormorant Books, 2026. 350 pgs. Since committing his…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Fragmentation and Repair in Leslie Shimotakahara’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟” by Jonathan Han](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/the-breakwater.jpg?w=900)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Bearing Witness in Gigi L. Leung’s Everyday Movement” by Rebekah Chan Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Everyday Movement. Gigi L. Leung (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Everyday Movement, Riverhead Books. 2026.…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Bearing Witness in Gigi L. Leung’s 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑀𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡” by Rebekah Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/everyday-movement-by-gigi-l.-leung-translated-by-jennifer-feeley-.jpg?w=993)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Sleep, Baby, Oh Don’t You Sleep: Thailand’s Northeast in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendour and Thunska Pansittivorakul’s Isan Odyssey” by Peixuan Xie ❀ Apichatpong Weerasethakul (director), Cemetery of Splendour, 2015.…
![[ESSAY] “Sleep, Baby, Oh Don’t You Sleep: Thailand’s Northeast in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s 𝐶𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑢𝑟 and Thunska Pansittivorakul’s 𝐼𝑠𝑎𝑛 𝑂𝑑𝑦𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑦” by Peixuan Xie](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/apichatpong-weerasethakuls-cemetery-of-splendour-and-thunska-pansittivorakuls-isan-odyssey.png?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Leslie Shimotakahara reflects on how a childhood encounter with an institutionalised great-uncle, silenced by internment-era injustice, became her latest novel The Breakwater. She recounts research, family reticence, editorial reshaping, and the imaginative recovery of erased places, presenting writing…
![[ESSAY] “From Scrapbooking to Novel Writing: Giving Voice to an Unsettling Family Secret in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟” by Leslie Shimotakahara](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/leslieshimotakahara_photo.jpg?w=1024)
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Read Leslie Shimotakahara’s essay on the writing of The Breakwater HERE. [EXCERPT] “From The Breakwater” by Leslie Shimotakahara Leslie Shimotakahara, The Breakwater, Cormorant Books, 2026. 350 pgs. I wasn’t a week past my seventeenth birthday. Freshly kicked out of the…
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “We Are What We Read: Reading Zheng Liu’s Cultural Mavericks” by X. H. Collins Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Cultural Mavericks. Zheng Liu, Cultural Mavericks: The Business and Politics of…
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[ESSAY] “Lost and Found in Languages” by Qinxian Bonnie Ran Photo by Peicen Yan The Failure of Poetry Ma, I read a poem today: —the walls have been mortared with grief, dark enoughTo make blindness as a gift—we don’t have…
![[ESSAY] “Lost and Found in Languages” by Qinxian Bonnie Ran](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/yan7.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Poetry as Archive: Creativity, Political Commitment, and the Everyday in Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s If I Do Not Reply” by Hannah Steurer Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on If I Do Not Reply.…
![[ESSAY] “Poetry as Archive: Creativity, Political Commitment, and the Everyday in Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s 𝐼𝑓 𝐼 𝐷𝑜 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑦” by Hannah Steurer](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/if-i-do-not-reply_tammy-ho.jpg?w=907)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Ghostly Formations and Queer Futures: On Queer Southeast Asia” by Charlotte Marie Chadwick Shawna Tang and Hendri Yulius Wijaya (editors). Queer Southeast Asia, Routledge. 2022. 296 pgs. Queer Southeast Asia,…
![[ESSAY] “Ghostly Formations and Queer Futures: On 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑎” by Charlotte Marie Chadwick](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/queer-southeast-asia-edited-by-shawna-tang-hendri-yulius-wijaya-copyright-2023.jpg?w=1000)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Between Golf and Karaoke: Locating Filipino Identity in Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana” By Ciro Quiapos Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Filipiñana. Rafael Manuel (director), Filipiñana, 2020. 24 min. Before Rafael Manuel’s directorial…
![[REVIEW] “Between Golf and Karaoke: Locating Filipino Identity in Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana” By Ciro Quiapos](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/filipinana-trailer-diretto-da-rafael-manuel-filippine-regno-unito-2020.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Jason S Polley opens his review essay by recounting his fond and fervent championing of Kit Fan’s first novel, Diamond Hill (2021), whose Cantonese-inflected language enabled rare intergenerational and…
![[ESSAY] “𝑍𝑜𝑖 𝐺𝑖𝑛 Canton: Reading Kit Fan’s 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑏𝑦𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛” by Jason S Polley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/goodbye-chinatown-kit-fan-cha.jpg?w=938)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Mordant Wit and Material Imagination in Huang Fan’s flower ash” by Nicholas Y. H. Wong Huang Fan (author), Josh Stenberg (translator). flower ash, Flying Island Books, 2025. 120 pgs. I…
![[REVIEW] “Mordant Wit and Material Imagination in Huang Fan’s 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑠ℎ” by Nicholas Y. H. Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/huang-fan-author-josh-stenberg-translator.-flower-ash-flying-island-books.jpg?w=600)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “What One ‘Nobody’ Did: On Mr Nobody Against Putin” by Jennifer Eagleton David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin (directors), Mr Nobody Against Putin, 2025. 90 min. Mr Nobody Against Putin…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “What One ‘Nobody’ Did: On 𝑀𝑟 𝑁𝑜𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝐴𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑃𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑛” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/mr-nobody-against-putin.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Between Moonlight and Market Prices: Reading Yam Gong” by Jonathan Han Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Moving a Stone. Yam Gong (author), James Shea and Dorothy Tse (translators), Moving a…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Between Moonlight and Market Prices: Reading Yam Gong” by Jonathan Han](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/moving-a-stone.webp?w=900)
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[ESSAY] “In Another Life, I Might Not Be A Better Self” by Lei Wang Miss Universe by John Doe If not for COVID, I would have moved back to China after my MFA, rather than remaining in Iowa. Instead of…
![[ESSAY] “In Another Life, I Might Not Be A Better Self” by Lei Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/lei-wang-for-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.jpeg?w=275)
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[ESSAY] “Hong Kong: Once in a Million Years” by Simon Patton Owen Chow 鄒家成 and his tatoo Between 2019 and 2021, Hong Kong was repeatedly in the international spotlight. A decisive clash between civilisations was the main reason for such…
![[ESSAY] “Hong Kong: Once in a Million Years” by Simon Patton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/718kdzhcgql._ac_uf10001000_ql80_.jpg?w=895)
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[ESSAY] “Shelves, Stories, and Silence: Reading Zheng Liu’s 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠” by Laurence Westwood
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Shelves, Stories, and Silence: Reading Zheng Liu’s Cultural Mavericks” by Laurence Westwood Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Cultural Mavericks. Zheng Liu, Cultural Mavericks: The Business and Politics of Independent Bookselling in…
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Editor’s note: Elaine Tsai’s essay traces Taiwan’s layered history before turning to Ghost Month, whose rituals of burning joss paper and offering food shape her childhood summers. These practices lead into reflections on ancestor worship, her father’s death, and beliefs…
![[ESSAY] “Ghost Month and the Afterlife” by Elaine Tsai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/the-religious-painting-unprovoked-dead-ghosts.png?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Julien Pieron’s essay examines Sophie Houdart’s Ce territoire qui, comme une pulsation… (Éditions des mondes à faire, 2026), an ethnographic study of post-Fukushima life in Tōwa that portrays a world where catastrophe persists as an unclosed present. Through…
![[ESSAY] “Life in the Persistence of Fukushima: Sophie Houdart’s 𝐶𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑞𝑢𝑖, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑒 𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛…” by Julien Pieron](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/maf_houdart_scan_01-resp2880.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s Note: “Digital Distances: Social Media, Intergenerational Conflict, and Female Visibility in Contemporary China” is the third in a series of three essays, together entitled “Glimpsing the Other Shore: Distance, Difference, and the Feminist Gaze in Contemporary Chinese Women’s Writing”,…
![[ESSAY] “Digital Distances: Social Media, Intergenerational Conflict, & Female Visibility in Contemporary China” by Caterina Petroselli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/distances3.jpg?w=593)
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Editor’s Note: “The Body as a Site: Class, Migration, & Geographic Distance in Contemporary Chinese Women’s Fiction” is the second in a series of three essays, together entitled “Glimpsing the Other Shore: Distance, Difference, and the Feminist Gaze in Contemporary…
![[ESSAY] “The Body as a Site: Class, Migration, & Geographic Distance in Contemporary Chinese Women’s Fiction” by Caterina Petroselli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/distances2-1.jpg?w=596)
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Editor’s Note: “Distance & Difference: Feminist Frameworks in Zhang Li’s An Anthology of Short Stories by Chinese Women” is the first in a series of three essays, together entitled “Glimpsing the Other Shore: Distance, Difference, and the Feminist Gaze in…
![[ESSAY] “Distance & Difference: Feminist Frameworks in Zhang Li’s 𝐴𝑛 𝐴𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛” by Caterina Petroselli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/distances1.jpg?w=597)
Cha 