Category: Exclusive—Non-fiction
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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)
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[ESSAY] “Sixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodia’s Monument to a Silenced Crime” by Daniel Gauss In 2009, Cambodia experienced a rare moment of national pride when Duch, the Khmer Rouge official who oversaw the notorious S-21 prison, was finally brought to…
![[ESSAY] “Sixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodia’s Monument to a Silenced Crime” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/cambodia_cha.jpg?w=1024)
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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)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In Chris Song’s essay, James Shea’s Last Day of My Face (University of Iowa Press, 2025) is read in relation to Hong Kong as both a lived city and…
![[ESSAY] “𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑦 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑒, Past Light of a City: Reading James Shea and Hong Kong” by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/https-uipress.uiowa_.edubookslast-day-my-face.jpg?w=970)
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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)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In “E.T. 3 is Lying in a Coffin Outside Wuhan”, Angus Stewart explores Xiaosha Zhang’s 2018 mockumentary My Son Went to an Alien Planet (E.T. Made in China), situating…
![[ESSAY] “E.T. 3 is Lying in a Coffin Outside Wuhan” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/https-mubi.comenbefilmse-t-made-in-china.webp?w=1024)
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On a calm Monday evening, I found myself at 14B Hai Bà Trưng in Hanoi, drawn to a cosy corner on Tràng Tiền that radiated a warm, amber glow. Wong Bar Wine does not shout for attention; it quietly invites…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Wong Bar Wine: A Cinematic Oasis in Hanoi” by Zalman S. Davis](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/img_20241222_010158-e1761994105173.jpg?w=1024)
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Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 was awarded to the Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” Coverage in outlets such…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Whose Words Win the Nobel? On Translators and the Question of Literary Recognition” by Kabir Deb](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/copy-of-copy-of-taken-as-strictly-true-neuroscience-and-sinology-in-laszlo-krasznahorkais-f09d90b7f09d9192f09d91a0f09d91a1f09d919ff09d91a2f09d9190f09d91a1f09d9196f09d919cf09d919b-f09d918.png?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In “When Everything Becomes a ‘Gender Issue’ in Asia”, Zheng Wang argues that across Asia, public debate often compresses diverse injustices into the single language of gender. While this framework can demand justice, it also displaces other issues—class,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “When Everything Becomes a ‘Gender Issue’ in Asia” by Zheng Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/markus-winkler-y6uhsowdivs-unsplash.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Emma Zhang reflects on her shifting identity as a language teacher in an age when machine translation threatens the role of English as a bridge to the world. Seeking cultural understanding, she visits Talibé, an exhibition by Mauritanian…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑒́: The Forgotten Faces of Globalisation” by Emma Zhang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/e07c3432-3e50-439d-b428-1c00cf25c682.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In “Twist of Fate: When Writers Are Better Recognised for Their Images”, Thammika Songkaeo, author of Stamford Hospital (Penguin Random House SEA, 2025; reviewed in Cha), offers a thoughtful reflection on how contemporary publicity privileges appearance, exoticism, and…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Twist of Fate: When Writers are Better Recognised for their Images” by Thammika Songkaeo](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/banner-size.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Editor’s note: Gauri Yadav’s review essay explores Sumana Roy’s How I Became a Tree as an ecofeminist, genre-defying work that reimagines autobiography through plant life. Blending personal narrative,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Sumana Roy’s 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝐼 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑎 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒: Autobiography as Ecofeminist Manifesto” by Gauri Yadav](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/sumana-roy-how-i-became-a-tree-.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In his reflection “A Slower Mode of Time”, Chris Sullivan contrasts urban haste with nature’s unhurried rhythms, weaving cicadas, childhood memories, and captive flamingos into a meditation on suspended instincts, looping time, and the quiet grace of slower…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Slower Mode of Time” by Chris Sullivan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/a-slower-mode-of-time-chris-sullivan.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Cuiyu Lin’s “Broken English, Sweet Oranges” is a lyrical meditation on language, fragility, and repair, weaving Chinese porcelain mending with personal scars to reveal brokenness as both burden and beauty, and imperfection as a vessel for truth. The…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Broken English, Sweet Oranges” by Cuiyu Lin](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/karolina-grabowska.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “As If Present; As If Absent: Fang Fang’s Wuhan” by Angus Stewart Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Fang Fang. Editor’s note: In this eloquent and incisive…
![[ESSAY] “As If Present; As If Absent: Fang Fang’s Wuhan” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/fang-fang.jpg?w=976)
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Editor’s note: Lydia Wong’s evocative essay explores salt as both a material and metaphorical force in Hong Kong’s cultural, political, and sensual identity. From ancient salt fields to contemporary political repression, she traces how salt symbolises preservation, resistance, and longing.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “SALTY WET 鹹濕” by Lydia Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/salted-fish_peng-chau_december-2019_oliver-farry.jpg?w=1024)
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In the narrative context of East Asian visual media, both South Korean and Japanese films and television series excel at exposing the darker facets of human nature and the entrenched realities of class stratification. Yet they diverge along two markedly…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Pseudo-Resistance and Ethical Beauty: A Critique of South Korean and Japanese Cinematic Aesthetics” by Zheng Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/8331752405576_.pic_.png?w=610)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Masaki Kobayashi (director), Kwaidan, 1964. 175 min. Ma—a profound Japanese concept that encapsulates the essence of stillness. The term refers to the empty spaces in between, a fleeting suspension…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “𝐾𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑛: Horror and Folklore as an Art Form” by Tushi Gogoi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/kwaidan.jpg?w=570)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Steven Schwankert, The Six: The Untold Story of the Titanic’s Chinese Survivors. Simon & Schuster, 2025. 240 pgs. When the transatlantic ocean liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Six Questions about the Six—Steven Schwankert’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑖𝑥: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐’𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑠” by Ryan Ho Kilpatrick](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/steven-schwankert-the-six-the-untold-story-of-the-titanics-chinese-survivors-1.jpg?w=988)
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Japanese cinema has long been a vanguard of distinctive stylistic choices, particularly in the realm of horror. J-horror eschews gratuitous special effects in favour of an atmospheric approach that meticulously cultivates suspense, delivering an experience that is profoundly unsettling. Ringu…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Before J-Horror: The Paranormal in Ancient Japanese Writing” by Tushi Gogoi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/a-traditional-japanese-emaki-scroll-scene-depicting-a-22hyakkiyagyo22-.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS For Gab Angeles, who lent me the book. Natsume Sōseki (author), Meredith McKinney (translator), Kokoro, Penguin Classics, 2010. 256 pgs. Kokoro is the final novel written by Natsume Sōseki.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “The Virtue of Melancholy: Reading Natsume Sōseki’s 𝐾𝑜𝑘𝑜𝑟𝑜” by Ramzzi Fariñas](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/kokoro.png?w=1024)
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Kishore Kumar I was just five when I first “saw” Kishore Kumar—his presence flickering to life on the tiny black-and-white television set my grandfather had brought back from one of his work trips to the then-USSR. There he was—handsome, dashing,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Kishore Kumar: A Journey of Adoration and Rediscovery” by Namrata](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kishore-kumar-cha.jpg?w=1024)
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There is a scene in the television show Friends where the six main characters—the titular friends—discuss “Chinese food.” Chandler jokingly remarks, “Yes, but in China, they just call it food.” It was a humorous moment, and it made perfect sense.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “The Beginning of My Education in The Finer Points of Chinese Cuisine” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/fremont-film-still.png?w=1024)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ▚ Shao Yihui (director), Her Story 好东西, 2024. 123 min. ▚ Ling Jia (director), YOLO 热辣滚烫, 2024. 130 min. Decades after Chairman Mao declared that “women hold up half…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦, 𝑌𝑂𝐿𝑂, and the Alternative Family in Chinese Cinema” by Edward Allen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/the-alternative-family-in-chinese-cinema.png?w=1024)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ▚ Lin Zhao, Flowing Creek 流溪 (originally published in Mandarin Chinese), Shanghai Sanlian Publishing Company, 2020, 192 pgs.▚ Lin Zhao, Tidal Chart 潮夕圖 (originally published in Mandarin Chinese with a variety…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Rewriting the Southeast Chinese Frontier with Tenderness: Lin Zhao’s 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑘 and 𝑇𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑙 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑡” by Winifred Dongyi Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/lin-zhao.jpeg?w=600)
Cha 