Category: ExclusiveโNon-fiction
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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?w=747)
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Editor’s note: Llinos Evansโs essay traces the literary and linguistic significance of the One-Syllable Article through a detailed reading of Yuen Ren Chaoโs โLion-Eating Poet in the Stone Denโ. Moving beyond its reputation as a phonetic curiosity, it argues for…
![[ESSAY] “Beyond the Stone Den: One-Syllable Articles as Literary FormโAn Introduction” by Llinos Evans](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/poem.jpg?w=785)
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่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?w=1000)
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่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?w=1000)
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[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?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Cleo Li-Schwartzโs essay entwines personal pilgrimage and critical meditation, reading Berlin as a palimpsest of Jewish memory, Cold-War fracture, and inherited displacement. Moving through memorials, friendships, and borders, the narrator unsettles any stable present. The essay later turns…
![[ESSAY] โWalking with Leung Ping-kwan: Berlin, Memory, and the Intersticeโ by Cleo Li-Schwartz](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/leung-ping-kwan-cha.jpg?w=716)
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Editor’s note: It is our pleasure to present this piece by Jennifer Eagleton, one of our most valued voices at Cha. A long-term resident of Hong Kong since 1997, Jennifer has built a distinguished career as editor, writer, and scholar,…
![[REFLECTION] “Personal Transformation Docket: 31/12/25” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/hongkonger-t-shirt.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] โPreserving the Path of Enlightenment at Borobudur and Not Just the Stonesโ by Daniel Gauss Borobudur is an allegory of self awareness, growth and social engagement, rendered in volcanic stone. It was not built for veneration, but to be…
![[ESSAY] โPreserving the Path of Enlightenment at Borobudur and Not Just the Stonesโ by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/borobudur_cha.jpg?w=1024)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] โNot A Utopian Land: Rereading the Evenki Culture in Chi Zijianโs novel The Last Quarter of the Moon and Gu Taoโs documentary film The Last Moose of Aoluguyaโ by Yiwen…
![[ESSAY] โNot Your Utopian Land: Rereading the Evenki Culture in Chi Zijianโs novel ๐โ๐ ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐ก ๐๐ข๐๐๐ก๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ and Gu Taoโs documentary film ๐โ๐ ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐ก ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐ข๐๐ข๐ฆ๐โ by Yiwen Liu](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/not-a-utopian-land_yiwen-liu.png?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] โ1331 Runway: Hong Kong Youth Utopia or Real-Estate Planning Malfunction?โ by Daniel Gauss In July 2025, international media erupted with enthusiasm over a project in Hong Kong called 1331 Runway. Built on land once occupied by the former Kai…
![[ESSAY] โ1331 Runway: Hong Kong Youth Utopia or Real-Estate Planning Malfunction?โ by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/767206174.jpg?w=576)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ 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] “1000๐๐
๐ธ๐๐ผ๐๐ 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] โSixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodiaโs Monument to a Silenced Crimeโ by Daniel Gaussย
[ESSAY] โSixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodiaโs Monument to a Silenced Crimeโ 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] โSixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodiaโs Monument to a Silenced Crimeโ by Daniel Gaussย](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/cambodia_cha.jpg?w=1024)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] โRealism and Memory in Chinese Film: Cecรญlia Mello’s The Cinema of Jia Zhangkeโ by Tim Murphy Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Jia Zhangke Cecรญlia Mello. The Cinema…
![[ESSAY] โRealism and Memory in Chinese Film: Cecรญlia Mello’s ๐โ๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐๐ ๐โ๐๐๐๐๐โ 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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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In Chris Songโs essay, James Sheaโs Last Day of My Face (University of Iowa Press, 2025) is read in relation to Hong Kong as both a lived city and…
![[ESSAY] “๐ฟ๐๐ ๐ก ๐ท๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐๐ฆ ๐น๐๐๐, 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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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Ai-Ting Chung’s essay โToxic Humidifiers and Atmospheric Thinking in Air Murderโ examines Air Murder (2022), directed by Jo Yong-sun, as an ecocinema work grounded in real-life tragedy: South Koreaโs…
![[ESSAY] โToxic Humidifiers andย Atmospheric Thinking in ๐ด๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐โ by Ai-Ting Chung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/air-murder-korea.jpg?w=1024)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In โE.T. 3 is Lying in a Coffin Outside Wuhan”, Angus Stewart explores Xiaosha Zhangโs 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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[ESSAY] “Wong Bar Wine: A Cinematic Oasis in Hanoi” by Zalman S.ย Davis On a calm Monday evening, I found myself at 14B Hai Bร Trฦฐng in Hanoi, drawn to a cosy corner on Trร ng Tiแปn that radiated a warm, amber…
![[ESSAY] “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 Lรกszlรณ Krasznahorkai โfor his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.โ 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 issuesโclass,…
![[ESSAY] “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 Talibรฉ, an exhibition by Mauritanian…
![[EXCLUSIVE] โ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฬ: The Forgotten Faces of Globalisationโ 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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๐ RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS๐RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Editor’s note: Gauri Yadav’s review essay explores Sumana Royโs How I Became a Tree as an ecofeminist, genre-defying work that reimagines autobiography through plant life. Blending personal narrative,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] โSumana Royโs ๐ป๐๐ค ๐ผ ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐: Autobiography as Ecofeminist Manifestoโ 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 natureโs unhurried rhythms, weaving cicadas, childhood memories, and captive flamingos into a meditation on suspended instincts, looping time, and the quiet grace of slower…
![[EXCLUSIVE] โA Slower Mode of Timeโ 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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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] โAs If Present; As If Absent: Fang Fangโs Wuhanโ by Angus Stewart Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Fang Fang. Editor’s note: In this eloquent and incisive…
![[ESSAY] โAs If Present; As If Absent: Fang Fangโs Wuhanโ by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/fang-fang.jpg?w=976)
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Editor’s note: Lydia Wongโs evocative essay explores salt as both a material and metaphorical force in Hong Kongโs cultural, political, and sensual identity. From ancient salt fields to contemporary political repression, she traces how salt symbolises preservation, resistance, and longing.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] โSALTY WET ้นนๆฟโ 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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[ESSAY] โPseudo-Resistance and Ethical Beauty: A Critique of South Korean and Japanese Cinematic Aestheticsโ by Zheng Wang In the narrative context of East Asian visual media, both South Korean and Japanese films and television series excel at exposing the darker…
![[ESSAY] โPseudo-Resistance and Ethical Beauty: A Critique of South Korean and Japanese Cinematic Aestheticsโ by Zheng Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/8331752405576_.pic_.png?w=610)
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๐ RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS๐ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Masaki Kobayashi (director), Kwaidan, 1964. 175 min. Maโa profound Japanese concept that encapsulates the essence of stillness. The term refers to the empty spaces in between, a fleeting suspension…
![[EXCLUSIVE] โ๐พ๐ค๐๐๐๐๐: Horror and Folklore as an Art Formโ by Tushi Gogoi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/kwaidan.jpg?w=570)
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่ถ FIRST IMPRESSIONS ่ถ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] โSix Questions about the SixโSteven Schwankertโs The Six: The Untold Story of the Titanic’s Chinese Survivorsโ by Ryan Ho Kilpatrick Steven Schwankert, The Six: The Untold Story of the Titanic’s…
![[INTERVIEW] โSix Questions about the SixโSteven Schwankertโs ๐โ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ: ๐โ๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐’๐ ๐ถโ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ โ 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] โBefore J-Horror: The Paranormal in Ancient Japanese Writingโ by Tushi Gogoi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/a-traditional-japanese-emaki-scroll-scene-depicting-a-22hyakkiyagyo22-.png?w=1024)
Cha 