Category: Exclusive—Fiction
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[FICTION] “To Happy Valley” by Alexandre Sadeghi Alexandre Sadeghi on “To Happy Valley”: We’re all just bits and pieces. The idea of being from a place obsesses me. It is an open-ended question for so many of those in between,…
![[FICTION] “To Happy Valley” by Alexandre Sadeghi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/FICTION-22To-Happy-Valley22-by-Alexandre-Sadeghi.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/2026/10/Tammy-Lai-Ming-Ho-and-Reid-Mitchell-for-Cha-2026.png)
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[EXCERPT] “Speak Subtitles, Hear Dub” by Kathy Ngoc Nguyen Editor’s introduction: “Speak Subtitles, Hear Dub” is an excerpt from Kathy Ngoc Nguyen’s Nonfluent Bodies, Switchable Tongues, a collection of interconnected stories exploring language, family, and cultural dislocation. The excerpt offers a fictional…
![[EXCERPT] “Speak Subtitles, Hear Dub” by Kathy Ngoc Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Speak-Subtitles-Hear-Dub-by-Kathy-Ngoc-Nguyen.png)
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[FICTION] “The Monkey King’s Dilemma” 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 West’s…
![[FICTION] “The Monkey King’s Dilemma” 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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[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] “Blue Eyed Pigs” by Jonathan Han](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Jonathan-Han-Blue-Eyed-Pigs.png)
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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] “𝐴𝑛 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦: January” by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/anna-nguyen-an-asian-study-cha.png)
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[FICTION] “Take Me to Hong Kong” by Kim Christine Editor’s note: This flash story is inspired by Charles Aznavour’s “Emmenez-Moi”. 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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[FICTION] “A Jar of Tears” by Anh Thu Tran Anh Thu Tran on her story: “A Jar of Tears” is a work of fiction inspired by the heartbreaking realities and poignant stories of my paternal grandmother, who lived in Sa…
![[FICTION] “A Jar of Tears” by Anh Thu Tran](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/anh-thu-tran-cha.png)
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[FICTION] “Matricide on the Morning Bus” by Maureen Tai Maureen Tai on her story: There is always a kernel of truth in everything I write. In “Matricide on the Morning Bus”, there are many kernels, mostly drawn from having lived…
![[FICTION] “Matricide on the Morning Bus” by Maureen Tai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/maureen-tai-cha.png)
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[FICTION] “Consumption” by Sam Powney Photograph © Oliver Farry It was only when her gym closed down that Apple sensed things may have gone too far. She arrived one day to find, in typical Hong Kong fashion, that her gym…
![[FICTION] “Consumption” by Sam Powney](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/sam-powney.png)
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[FICTION] “Encroachment” by Hazel Shu Chen Hazel Shu Chen on her story: “Encroachment” is my very first attempt at fiction writing in an adopted language, English. The story is about a female expatriate’s life in Hong Kong, her choices, and…
![[FICTION] “Encroachment” by Hazel Shu Chen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/hazel-shu-chen-cha.png)
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[FICTION] “Detergence” by Jonathan Han Photograph © Oliver Farry The pantry was getting dirty. A wisp of tissue had fallen on the linoleum floor. Coffee grounds speckled the steel of the machine. A damp cloth, used earlier to wipe the…
![[FICTION] “Detergence” by Jonathan Han](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/detergence-by-jonathan-han.png)
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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…
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[FICTION] “Three Travelling Portraits: India” by Matt Reeck Also read “No Moral at Its End”, Matt Reeck’s essayon “Three Travelling Portraits: India” Preeti (Delhi) I FLEW INTO INDIA on December ninth. I was going to stay at the Fulbright House…
![[FICTION] “Three Travelling Portraits: India” by Matt Reeck](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/screenshot-2026-07-10-at-18.33.52.png)
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[FICTION] “The Room After the Typhoon” by Christian Wilken Christian Wilken on “The Room After the Typhoon”: “The Room After the Typhoon” began with a memory from my year as an exchange student in Okinawa, from 2013 to 2014: the…
![[FICTION] “The Room After the Typhoon” by Christian Wilken](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/christian-wilken.png)
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[FICTION] “Cool Jazz at the Dragonfly Club” by Jeremiah Dutch Also read “Liner Notes”, Jeremiah Dutch’s essay on “Cool Jazz at the Dragonfly Club”. Late on a Thursday afternoon, at the Yokohama office, Jiro Adachi tapped his feet as softly…
![[FICTION] “Cool Jazz at the Dragonfly Club” by Jeremiah Dutch](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cool-jazz-jeremiah-dutch.png)
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All things Leslie Shimotakahara in Cha. [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 house. All hell had broken…
![[EXCERPT] “From 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟” by Leslie Shimotakahara](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/the-breakwater.jpg)
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[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 Má 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)
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[FICTION] “The Eighteen Steps Home” by Sajita Nair Tat Tvam Asi. You are that. These words, inscribed in Malayalam and Hindi, held my attention as I first stood before the temple that had been forbidden to me for most of…
![[FICTION] “The Eighteen Steps Home” by Sajita Nair](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/essay-22the-eighteen-steps-home22-by-sajita-nair.png)
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [TRANSLATION] “Riot” by Liu Yichang, Translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/liu-yichang-and-chris-song-1.png)
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Ma Ka Fai’s note: These are selected excerpts from my novel Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong III (雙天至尊), forthcoming this year. The story’s protagonist, Hon Tien-Yan, is a passionate martial arts enthusiast and an ardent admirer of Bruce Lee.…
![[TRANSLATION] “Master Ip and the Dragonling” by Ma Ka fai, translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ma-ka-fai-e9a6ace5aeb6e8bc9d.png)
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“Article 5.3: Under no circumstances shall any citizen go to the capital.” This is one of the most serious of all our laws. Anyone who grew up in my village of Orfetel, only a few days’ travel from the ruins…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “In Farghestan” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/farghestan6-1.png)
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Artwork by Raimonda I suppose you’ve seen obituaries shared on WeChat. People post them thoughtlessly, almost as if it’s routine. It feels strange, doesn’t it, that a life concludes in such a trivial manner? I used to find it unsettling,…
![[EXCLUSIVE—FICTION] “A Social Post” by Edward Allen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/a-social-post-by-edward-allen_illustration-by-raimonda-1.jpg)
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Chris Song’s note: Roses in the Floating World 浮世薔薇 is the debut novel of Luwei Rose Luqiu 閭丘露薇, bearing an autobiographical touch as it recounts the lives of three generations of women—Miss Zhao, Ruolin, and Xiaoyu. The narrative follows these…
![[TRANSLATION] “𝑅𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 [An Excerpt]” by Luwei Rose Luqiu, translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/luwei-rose-luqiu-and-chris-song_cha-an-asian-literary-journal.png)
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Chris Song’s note: Haixin 海辛 (1930–2011) was one of Hong Kong’s most prolific realist fiction writers. His deep curiosity about various professions and the lives of ordinary people in Hong Kong, combined with his broad taste in literature, allowed him…
![[TRANSLATION] “Spirits of Cicadas” by Haixin, translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/haixin-e6b5b7e8be9b_chris-song.png)
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Chris Song’s note: Lü Lun’s “Piano Day” tells the story of May, a Garbo-like beauty who uses her piano sessions to extract tributes from men, ensnaring both T and P in a web of emotional temptation and entanglement. Like Lü Lun’s…
![[TRANSLATION] “Piano Day” by Lü Lun, translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/lu-lun-e4beb6e580ab_cha-an-asian-literary-journal.png)
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Andrea Lingenfelter’s Note: In “The Legend of a Funambulist”, Lawrence Kwok-ling Pun 潘國靈 takes us on a journey with the tightrope-walker Mantra from his origins in the former Soviet Union, through Cold War Europe, and on to sojourns in New York,…
![[TRANSLATION] “The Legend of a Funambulist” by Lawrence Kwok-ling Pun, Translated by Andrea Lingenfelter](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/lawrence-kwok-ling-pun-e6bd98e59c8be99d88-1.jpg)
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Chris Song’s note: In “A Night Flight”, the passengers endure days of eerie silence and mounting despair, with many succumbing to death and some choosing to leap into the night. The story draws a haunting parallel to the Flight MH370…
![[TRANSLATION] “A Night Flight” by Liu Waitong, translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/liu-waitong_cha.png)
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[TRANSLATION] “The Singing of the Bluebird” by Yuan Jinmei, translated by Kevin McGeary About the story: A Chinese man who grew up in poverty on a riverboat studies hard and becomes wealthy. After moving abroad, he marries a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Western…
![[TRANSLATION] “The Singing of the Bluebird” by Yuan Jinmei, translated by Kevin McGeary](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/yuan-jinmei_kevin-mcgeary.png)
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Paul Bevan’s Introduction: This story comes from a series entitled Ways and Pathways. Each story in the series follows an individual, a man or woman, as they walk from point A to point B, and sometimes back again, and focuses…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Walk Around the Square” by Paul Bevan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/partial-eclipse.png)