Category: 2026 Entries
-
Please click LEEDS to view selected pieces,updated regularly. We are very pleased to announce that we have formed a collaboration with the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing to republish selected reviews of translated titles from their platform. These reviews…
-
Editor’s note: Chaโs long-term contributor Matt Turner introduces 6AMING, his forthcoming poetry book from Antiphony, due in September. In this short essay, he discusses time-stamped automatic writing, no-music influence, not-poetry, underground journals, and resistance to spectacle, surveillance, and institutional validation.…
![[ESSAY] โNO U-TURNโ6๐ด๐๐ผ๐๐บ: Themes and Contextsโ by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/matt-turner-6aming-cha-asian.png)
-
Read Matt Turner’s essay “NO U-TURNโ6AMING: Themes and Contexts” HERE. [EXCLUSIVE] “Eight Poems from 6AMING” by Matt Turner Photograph ยฉ Wang Yin 8:38-3:11 pressed against, side to sidethe shelterโhidden, aggrievedunder a constant temperaturelittle balls of bone and eyerunning around, pouring…
-
All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] โโI Want to Make Films for Teenagers Foreverโ: A Conversation on BURNโ by ย Nirris Nagendrarajah & Makoto Nagahisa Makoto Nagashia (director), BURN, 2025. 103 min. INTRODUCTION Nirris Nagendrarajah W-w-why do people do what…
![[SUNDANCE 2026] โโI Want to Make Films for Teenagers Foreverโ: A Conversation on ๐ต๐ข๐๐โ by ย Nirris Nagendrarajah & Makoto Nagahisa](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/burn.jpg)
-
Editor’s note: Daniel Gauss treats Prambanan Temple as a ninth-century political technology, where ritual, architecture, and kingship converged to naturalise obedience by embedding rule within Shaivite cosmology. Built by the Sanjaya dynasty as a counter to Borobudur Temple, it functioned…
![[ESSAY] “Prambanan: A Temple in Java that Turned Faith into Obedience” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_20251111_094005.jpg)
-
Editor’s note: Troy Cabida reflects on his debut poetry collection Neon Manila, exploring queer Filipino-immigrant embodiment, pop music, resistance, as glamour and violence coexist. Some poems from the collection can be found HERE. [ESSAY] โOn Neon Manila: A Balancing Act…
![[ESSAY] โOn ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐: A Balancing Act Between Sparkle and Substanceโ by Troy Cabida](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/img_6830.jpg)
-
Read Troy Cabida’s essay “On Neon Manila: A Balancing Act Between Sparkle and Substance” HERE. [EXCLUSIVE] โFour Poems from Neon Manilaโ by Troy Cabida Troy Cabida, Neon Manila, Nine Arches Press, 2025. 72 pgs. Black Turtleneck Sonnet With my first ever…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Four Poems from ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐” by Troy Cabida](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/81b4db7dtkl._sl1500_-1.jpg)
-
Editor’s note: Chris Song offers a rigorous meditation on the Fleurs des lettres Issue 118 cover controversy, where a grieving teenagerโs image appeared without consent. Reading the intervention of Hong Kong Readersโ Bookstore, the magazineโs board of directors, and the…
![[ESSAY] “A Face, a Cover, a Failure: ๐น๐๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐๐ Issue 118 Cover Controversy” by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/copy-of-copy-of-copy-of-copy-of-copy-of-a-fragment-of-history-a-life-bound-in-dependence-with-the-river-as-kin.png)
-
Editor’s note: Julia Merican reads Lu Leiโs practice through meals, menus, embroidery, and exhibitions, attending to how intimacy operates as both method and politics. From private dinners with strangers to layered textile works, Lu uses food and language to negotiate…
![[ESSAY] โA Seat at the Table: Lu Lei and the Politics of Intimacyโ by Julia Merican](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/64901cc90ad6cbfa52190a71-biography_1325594-resize-1920-1234.webp)
-
[FICTION] “Sweating Labour, Angry Tears” by Kathy Nguyen In 2021, when the American economy slowly reopened after the world barely survived the dystopian ruinations caused by the pandemic, I chauffeured Mรก to one of her appointments in Fayetteville. Forty-six years…
![[FICTION] “Sweating Labour, Angry Tears” by Kathy Ngoc Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/abstract-orange-brushstroke-white-paper.jpg)
-
Read Zheng Wang’s essay “A Gaze Across the River: On Translating Zhang Zhihao” HERE. Editor’s note: These translations, rendered by Zheng Wang, bring together a decade-spanning selection of Zhang Zhihaoโs poems that dwell on family, rural landscapes, ageing, grief, desire,…
![[TRANSLATION] “Ten Poems” by Zhang Zhihao, translated by Zheng Wang ย](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/zhange28098s-profile-photo.jpeg)
-
Editor’s note: Zheng Wangโs essay reflects on his encounter with the poet Zhang Zhihao and the process of translating his poetry across languages and generations. It traces their meeting by the Yangtze River into a broader meditation on rootedness, memory,…
![[ESSAY] “A Gaze Across the River: On Translating Zhang Zhihao” by Zheng Wang ย](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/https-__www.poetryinternational.com_en_poets-poems_poets_poet_102-28920_zhang.jpg)
-
Editor’s note: Photographer Daniel Garrett examines debate over a Hong Kong protest photograph used on the cover of After the Fall: Being American in the World Weโve Made, written (2021) by Ben Rhodes, a senior adviser and speechwriter in the…
![[ESSAY] “After the Fall, Before the Image: On Reading a Hong Kong Protest as Book Cover” by Daniel Garrett](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/screenshot-2026-01-21-at-12.44.41.png)
-
Editor’s note: John E. Barrios examines Norberto Roldanโs Viva Espaรฑa, Long Live America, staged from 25 November to 31 December 2022 in Museo Iloilo and Kri8 Art Space, as a meditation on colonial afterlives. He traces how Catholic relics, American…
![[ESSAY] โPostcolonial Ambivalence in Norberto Roldanโs ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ธ๐ ๐๐๐ฬ๐, ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐โ by John E. Barrios](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/norberto-roldan.jpg)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] โThe GPA of Youth: On Boredom, Brilliance and the Cost of Conformity in Chetan Bhagatโs Five Point Someoneโ by Abhinav Tulachan Chetan Bhagat, Five Point Someone, Rupa Publications India, 2004.…
![[REVIEW] โThe GPA of Youth: On Boredom, Brilliance and the Cost of Conformity in Chetan Bhagatโs ๐น๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐โ by Abhinav Tulachan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/five-point-someone-chetan-bhagat.png)
-
[ESSAY] “Fieldnotes: Bund and Flood” by Aizuddin Anuar Translator’s note: This is a translation of my own work, originally written in Malay and titled โNota lapangan: ban dan banjirโ (2025), which was published in MediaSelangor in Malaysia. Through a series…
![[ESSAY] “Fieldnotes: Bund and Flood” by Aizuddin Anuar](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jelai-river_bund-aizuddin-anuar.jpg)
-
Editor’s note: In his latest essay for Cha, Daniel Gauss examines Dafen, a former rural settlement located in Shenzhenโs Longgang District in southern China, within the Pearl River Delta near the Hong Kong border. The essay examines Dafenโs transformation from…
![[ESSAY] “Dafen Transformed: From Painting Factory to Pre-Fab Cool Zone” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_20260117_151141.jpg)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles’s essay traces a Filipino upbringing in conflict-marked Cotabato and its unlikely resonance with Derry Girls. Through memories of militarisation, prejudice, and youthful fear, it shows…
![[ESSAY] โWhy Does a Guy from Cotabato Province Relate to ๐ท๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐บ๐๐๐๐ ?โ by Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/derry-girls.jpg)
-
Editor’s note: Anna Nguyenโs essay critiques the literary marketplaceโs fixation on identity, arguing that it rewards legible, consumable narratives while punishing rigorous resistance. Drawing on Glissant, Jordan, and Davis, she challenges flattened intersectionality, positionality statements, and the colonial gaze masquerading…
![[ESSAY] “I Write An Attempt Away From Identity Reductionism” by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/anna-nguyen.jpg)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Off-Kilter Worlds and Authoritarian Futures in Ysabelle Cheung’s Patchwork Dolls” by Jennifer Eagleton Ysabelle Cheung, Patchwork Dolls, Blair, 2026. 200 pgs. Ysabelle Cheungโs stories are clearly connected to contemporary society,…
![[REVIEW] “Off-Kilter Worlds and Authoritarian Futures in Ysabelle Cheung’s ๐๐๐ก๐โ๐ค๐๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐ ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/patchwork-dolls.webp)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Filmic Silence and the Speaking Body in the Novel” by Thammika Songkaeo Click HERE to read all entrieson Stamford Hospital. Eva Trobisch (director), All Good, 2018. 93 min. In 2020,…
![[ESSAY] “Filmic Silence and the Speaking Body in the Novel” by Thammika Songkaeo](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/stamford-hospital-all-is-good.png)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Circumnavigation Without Glory: Lav Diazโs Magellan and the Violence of Discovery” by Oliver Farry Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Magellan. Lav Diaz (director), Magellan, 2025. 165 min. Lav Diazโs Magellan…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Circumnavigation Without Glory: Lav Diazโs ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ and the Violence of Discovery” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/review-22history-as-painting-lav-diazs-magellan22-by-alicia-izharuddin.png)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “What is an Orange? Reading Gillian Szeโs An Orange, A Syllable” by Robert Black Gillian Sze, An Orange, A Syllable, ECW Press, 2025. 88 pgs. What Is an origin? A…
![[ESSAY] “What is an Orange? Reading Gillian Szeโs ๐ด๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐๐” by Robert Black](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/https-ecwpress.comproductsorange-a-syllable.webp)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In Hongwei Bao’s new essay, Pillion (2025), directed by Harry Lighton and adapted from Adam Mars-Jonesโs 2020 novella Box Hill, becomes a lens for exploring queer biker cinema, kink…
![[ESSAY] “Geared Up for Pillion” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/pillion-film-poster.jpg)
-
Editor’s note: In Matt Turnerโs essay, he recounts organising and leading a Tuesday-evening reading group in November 2025 at Accent Sisters, a Union Square gallery with a Chinese and feminist focus. The group, composed largely of Chinese participants and socially…
![[ESSAY] “Debord at Union Square” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/the-society-of-the-spectacle.png)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] โAesthetic Experiences: A Study of Anri Yasudaโs Beauty Mattersโ by Luca Griseri Anri Yasuda, Beauty Matters: Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890โ1930, Columbia University Press, 2024. 304…
![[ESSAY] โAesthetic Experiences: A Study of Anri Yasudaโs ๐ต๐๐๐ข๐ก๐ฆ ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐๐ โ by Luca Griseri](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/https-__m.media-amazon.com_images_i_819sezp2oml._sl1500_.jpg.jpg)
-
่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] โFrom Star to Performer-Worker: Rethinking Anna May Wong Through Labourโ by Anna Nguyen Yiman Wang, To Be An Actress: Labor and Performance in Anna May Wongโs Cross-Media World, University of…
![[ESSAY] โFrom Star to Performer-Worker: Rethinking Anna May Wong Through Labourโ by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/yiman-wang-to-be-an-actress-labor-and-performance-in-anna-may-wongs-cross-media-world-university-of-california-press.jpg)
-
[ESSAY] โMaggie Cheung and the Refusal of Cinematic Immortalityโ by Anna Nguyen I have many confessions. I am exhausted by the discourse surrounding Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000). I am exhausted by fandoms that fixate on aesthetic…
![[ESSAY] โMaggie Cheung and the Refusal of Cinematic Immortalityโ by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/irma-vep-1996-maggie-cheung.jpg)
-
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [REVIEW] “Debts No Ledger Can Settle: Memory and Obligation in Diana Hongchaโs If You Donโt Go”](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/https-www.dianahongcha.com_.jpg)
-
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [INCIDENTAL] โThe Ties That Bind Us: Listening to Catherine Cho onย ๐โ๐ ๐ท๐๐ฃ๐๐ก๐๐ย and Hong Kongโ by Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/7101dHH2ZvL._AC_UF8941000_QL80_.jpg)