Category: Cha Review of Books and Films
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “You Are My Friend: On Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness” by Nirris Nagendrarajah Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness, Penguin, 2025. 416 pgs. For Ocean Vuong, the critically acclaimed…
![[REVIEW] “You Are My Friend: On Ocean Vuong’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐺𝑙𝑎𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ocean-vuong-the-emperor-of-gladness.jpg?w=992)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Between Adaptation and Escapism: Navigating Entrapment in Ling Ma’s Severance” by Hilda Wong Ling Ma, Severance, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. 304 pgs. In an era defined by burnout and quiet…
![[REVIEW] “Between Adaptation and Escapism: Navigating Entrapment in Ling Ma’s Severance” by Hilda Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ling-ma-severance2.jpg?w=970)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [Essay] “1000XRESIST and Immunity in the Chinese Diaspora” by Nick Admussen Sunset Visitor (developer), 1000xResist, Fellow Traveller Games. 2024. 1000xRESIST is a 2024 narrative video game created by the Canadian studio…
![[ESSAY] “1000𝑋𝑅𝐸𝑆𝐼𝑆𝑇 and Immunity in the Chinese Diaspora” by Nick Admussen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/https-www.fellowtraveller.games1000xresist.jpg?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Anchors of Memory: Unhomely and Resilience in Jia Zhangke’s Still Life” by Hilda Wong Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Jia Zhangke Jia Zhangke (director). Still Life, 2006.…
![[REVIEW] “Anchors of Memory: Unhomely and Resilience in Jia Zhangke’s 𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒” by Hilda Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/jia-zhangkes-still-life.jpg?w=714)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Realism and Memory in Chinese Film: Cecília Mello’s The Cinema of Jia Zhangke” by Tim Murphy Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Jia Zhangke Cecília Mello. The Cinema…
![[ESSAY] “Realism and Memory in Chinese Film: Cecília Mello’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝐽𝑖𝑎 𝑍ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑘𝑒” by Tim Murphy](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/cecilia-mello.-the-cinema-of-jia-zhangke-realism-and-memory-in-chinese-film-bloomsbury-academic.jpg?w=1000)
-
[REVIEW] “Twinkle Khanna’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑎𝑘𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑖 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑎𝑑: Making Dignity a Habit” by Abhinav Tulachan
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Twinkle Khanna’s The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad: Making Dignity a Habit” by Abhinav Tulachan Twinkle Khanna, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, Juggernaut Books, 2016. 233 pgs. It is remarkable how…
![[REVIEW] “Twinkle Khanna’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑎𝑘𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑖 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑎𝑑: Making Dignity a Habit” by Abhinav Tulachan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/the-legend-of-lakshmi-prasad.webp?w=1016)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Personal ‘I’ and Conflicted Identities: Paritosh Sen’s A Tree in My Village” by Dustin Pickering Paritosh Sen, A Tree in My Village, CLASSIX, 2025. 79 pgs. Many contemporary texts…
![[REVIEW] “The Personal ‘I’ and Conflicted Identities: Paritosh Sen’s 𝐴 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑦 𝑉𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑒” by Dustin Pickering](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/paritosh-sen.jpg?w=765)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “James Shea’s Last Day of My Face and the Practice of Not Knowing” by Jennifer Eagleton Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Last Day of My Face. James Shea, The Last Day of…
![[REVIEW] “James Shea’s 𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑦 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑒 and the Practice of Not Knowing” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/https-uipress.uiowa_.edubookslast-day-my-face.jpg?w=970)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Female Researcher and Patriarchal Figures in Hon Lai Chu’s Mending Bodies” by Grace En-Yi Ting Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending…
![[ESSAY] “The Female Researcher and Patriarchal Figures in Hon Lai Chu’s 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠” by Grace En-Yi Ting](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)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Mariko Nagai’s Imaginary Death: The Genre-Bending Architecture of Wartime Testimony” by James Au Kin-Pong Mariko Nagai, Imaginary Death, Punctum Books, 2025. 297 pgs. It is difficult to determine the genre to…
![[REVIEW] “Mariko Nagai’s 𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ: The Genre-Bending Architecture of Wartime Testimony” by James Au Kin-Pong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/imaginary-death-mariko-nagai.png?w=600)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “When News Breaks: Carol Lin’s Memoir of Love and War” by Susan Blumberg-Kason Carol Lin, When News Breaks, Third Rail Press, 2025. 284 pgs. Carol Lin came of age in…
![[REVIEW] “𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑠: Carol Lin’s Memoir of Love and War” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/when.png?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “STEP OUT Studios’ The Next Movement Blasts Out Futuristic Sounds From the Dancers’ Feet” by by Dawna Fung Wong Chun-ho (director), Zoe Chan & Cal Tang (artistic directors & choreographers), hirsk…
![[REVIEW] “STEP OUT Studios’ 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑀𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 Blasts Out Futuristic Sounds From the Dancers’ Feet” by by Dawna Fung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/the-next-movement2.jpg?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Kokuho: Lee Sang-il’s Mesmerizing Portrait of Kabuki Mastery” by Jennifer Eagleton Lee Sang-il (director), Kokuho, 2025. 174 min. What makes Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho special are the tight closeups of onnagata…
![[REVIEW] “𝐾𝑜𝑘𝑢ℎ𝑜: Lee Sang-il’s Mesmerizing Portrait of Kabuki Mastery” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/httpsgkids.comfilmskokuho.png?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Endearing Sisterhood in Yoko Ogawa’s Mina’s Matchbox” by Fathima M Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mina’s Matchbox. Yōko Ogawa (author), Stephen B. Snyder (translator), Mina’s Matchbox, Pantheon Books, 2024. 288…
![[REVIEW] “The Endearing Sisterhood in Yoko Ogawa’s 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑎’𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑏𝑜𝑥” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/819ycgclrml._sl1500_.jpg?w=940)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Consequences of Cosmopolitan Dreams in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s Human Resource” by Lorence Lozano Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (director), Human Resource, 2025. Three years after his last film, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit returns with a new…
![[REVIEW] “Consequences of Cosmopolitan Dreams in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒” by Lorence Lozano](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/nawapol-thamrongrattanarit-director-human-resource.png?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Ai-Ting Chung’s essay “Toxic Humidifiers and Atmospheric Thinking in Air Murder” examines Air Murder (2022), directed by Jo Yong-sun, as an ecocinema work grounded in real-life tragedy: South Korea’s…
![[ESSAY] “Toxic Humidifiers and Atmospheric Thinking in 𝐴𝑖𝑟 𝑀𝑢𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟” by Ai-Ting Chung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/air-murder-korea.jpg?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Impossible (Between) Girls: Lilly Hu’s One Girl Infinite” by Hongwei Bao Lilly Hu (director), One Girl Infinite 不可能女孩, 2025. 102 min. The Chinese title of Lilly Hu’s (also known in…
![[REVIEW] “Impossible (Between) Girls: Lilly Hu’s 𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝐼𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/one-girl-infinite-e4b88de58fafe883bde5a5b3e5ada9-2025.jpeg?w=1024)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Who’s Afraid of Not Conjoined Bodies?: Hon Lai Chu’s Mending Bodies” by Tin Yuet Tam Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies,…
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Hisham Matar, The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between, Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2016, 256 pgs. You walk into a memoir anticipating something deeply personal. You expect to encounter…
![[REVIEW] “A Memory of Absence: Hisham Matar’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛” by Varsha Nair](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/hisham-matar-the-return-fathers-sons-and-the-land-in-between-2.jpg?w=660)
-
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “From Silence to Sound: Kaori Lai’s 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 Lai’s 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)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jerrold Tarog (director), Quezon, 2025. 135 min. “Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are…
![[REVIEW] “Tarog’s 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑧𝑜𝑛: A Definition of Machiavellian Politics” by Gene Michael M. Atanacio](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/jerrold-tarog-director-quezon-2.png?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Chris Martinez (director), Kontrabida Academy, 2025. 107 min. Teleserye (drama), whether on television or in motion pictures, has long been a mainstay of afternoon and evening entertainment in…
![[REVIEW] “Chris Martinez’s 𝐾𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑑𝑎 𝐴𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑦 and the Anatomy of a Filipino Teleserye” by Bryan Elijah Trajano](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/chris-martinez-director-kontrabida-academy-2025.-107-min.jpg?w=1000)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Pillion & Box Hill. Editor’s note: We are delighted to present Hongwei Bao’s essayistic film review, which blends cultural history, theory, and critique through the…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Riding Together: 𝑃𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 and the Radical History of Queer Cinema” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/pillion-film-review-2025-cha-an-asian-literary-journal-hongwei-bao.png?w=1024)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 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 Chiyo’s The Story of a Single Woman, translated from…
![[REVIEW] “The Trembling of Memory: Self and Society in Uno Chiyo’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛” 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)
-
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Larissa Lai, The Lost Century: A Novel, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022. 374 pgs. Published in 2022 and penned by one of the most influential Chinese Canadian writers, Larissa Lai,…
![[REVIEW] “Alternative Local and Translocal Hong Kong Histories in Larissa Lai’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑦” by Yiwen Liu](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/larissa-lai-the-lost-century.png?w=1024)
Cha 