Category: Exclusive—Non-fiction
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [ESSAY] “Ghost Month and the Afterlife” by Elaine Tsai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/the-religious-painting-unprovoked-dead-ghosts.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)
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [EXCERPT] “From 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟” by Leslie Shimotakahara](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/the-breakwater.jpg?w=900)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [EXCLUSIVE] “You Are Not of Human Kind: A Freudian Comparison of Liaozhai and Nosferatu” by Angus Stewart Robert Eggers (director), Nosferatu, 2024. 132 min. Over Christmas, I finally lifted my copy…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “You Are Not of Human Kind: A Freudian Comparison of 𝐿𝑖𝑎𝑜𝑧ℎ𝑎𝑖 and 𝑁𝑜𝑠𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nosferatu.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ❀ Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. 148 pgs.❀ Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. 129 pgs.❀ Julie Otsuka,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Julie Otsuka: The Ideal of Justice and the Reality of History” by Jiahe Chen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/julie-otsuka_cha.png?w=1024)
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [ESSAY] “A History of Peel Street Poetry” by Akin Jeje](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/images.png?w=225)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “On Memory” by Jonathan Chan Permutations (detail), 1976. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (South Korean, 1951–1982). Black and white, 16 mm film on video, silent; 10 min. Collection of the University…
![[ESSAY] “On Memory” by Jonathan Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/permutations-detail-1976.-theresa-hak-kyung-cha-south-korean-1951e280931982.jpg?w=904)
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On my way to the prison, I heard a teaser on the radio about bananas. Something to the effect that bananas were in trouble. I didn’t hear the actual story, but I’ve been thinking of bananas ever since. For several…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Memories of Bananas” by Daniel Hudon](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/bananas2.jpg?w=837)
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TIFF 2024 ▞ Introduction▞ 8. Band of Outsiders: On Neo Sora’s Happyend▞ 7. The Soul of an Artist: On Hong Sang-soo’s By The Stream▞ 6. The Two Maidens: On Trương Minh Quý’s Viet and Nam▞ 5. The Master and Her…
![[TIFF 2024] “Introduction: TIFF 2024” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/tiff.png?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Read an excerpt from Lydia Kwa’s A Dream Wants Waking HERE. Lydia Kwa, A Dream Wants Waking, Buckrider Books, 2023. 226 pgs. In my latest novel A Dream Wants Waking (Buckrider Books, 2023), excerpted here, there is a…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Alternative Intelligence: On Brains, Being and the Nonhuman” by Lydia Kwa](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/a-dream-wants-waking-lydia-kwa.jpg?w=1000)
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [EXCLUSIVE] “Ashen and Split: A Correspondence with Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng” by Alex Tan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/qnh_history-draft.png?w=1024)
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
![Protected: [EXCLUSIVE] “Love or Enemy? South Korea’s Churches at a Crossroads” by Woojin Son](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/love-or-enemy-south-koreas-churches-at-a-crossroads-2.png?w=1024)
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“What would you think about moving here?” We were on a bus heading to Hong Kong International Airport on Lantau Island. It was dark outside. We were going to catch an early-morning flight back home to Seattle. The motion of…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “The Chinese Girl” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/screenshot-2024-07-03-at-06.31.04.png?w=1024)
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It is difficult, at best, to take a leisurely walk in Hong Kong. The streets are congested with cars and trucks and buses, and the sidewalks are jam-packed with people. It is said that Hong Kong is a study in…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “He Wrote On” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cha-an-asian-literary-journal.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [EXCLUSIVE] “Hot Popping Momma!: Reading Jin Yong in Translation, Part II” by Jeff Tompkins Read “Reading Jin Yong in Translation, Part I” HERE.Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on John Minford. Jin Yong,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Hot Popping Momma!: Reading Jin Yong in Translation, Part II” by Jeff Tompkins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240315172927214401contentphoto4.jpg?w=1000)
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My wife’s family keep asking me if I “like Chinese things”. We recently went back to Hong Kong to visit them. We have been back to Hong Kong many times and although they know me quite well by now, they…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Do You Like Chinese Things?” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cha-an-asian-literary-journal-1.jpg?w=1024)
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I found a small glass bottle lying in the street in Hong Kong. The bottle had no label, no embossing, no top. There was no indication of what it had originally been used for. It was just a small,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “The Small Glass Bottle of Feathers” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/feathers.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [EXCLUSIVE] “Alien Bless You: A Review of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem” by Angus Stewart Derek Tsang, Andrew Stanton, Minkie Spiro, and Jeremy Podeswa (directors), 3 Body Problem, 2024. We all die.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Alien Bless You: A Review of Netflix’s 3 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/3-body-problem.webp?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Matt Turner recently read Anthony Tao’s new poetry collection, We Met in Beijing, and went to a reading of his in New York. He wrote a short “consideration” about it all…
![[ESSAY] “Anthony Tao at Sunset Bar” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/anthony-tao_cha-an-asian-literary-journal-1.png?w=1024)
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Chinese Abacus 1814 One day, while wandering in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon, I bought an antique abacus. Known as one of the most densely populated areas on earth, Mong Kok is a busy shopping area with many open…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “The Abacus” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/20190329070933623.jpg?w=600)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Read “Reading Jin Yong in Translation, Part II” HERE. Jin Yong, aka Louis Cha Leung-yung (1924–2018). ▚ Jin Yong (author), Shelly Bryant, Gigi Chang, and Anna Holmwood (translators) Legends of the…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Kung Fu Is a Store of Infinite Fun: Reading Jin Yong in Translation, Part I” by Jeff Tompkins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/legends-of-the-condor-heroes--2.png?w=1024)
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Via. Faai-jee. That’s how to say, chopsticks, in Cantonese. That’s what my wife taught me. When we were first married, she taught me many Cantonese words for everyday things. One day, just kidding around, I called them choppers. As in,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Don’t Call em’ Choppers” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/screenshot-2024-02-28-at-14.47.09.png?w=1024)
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I’d nervously sweated through the last 23 hours, certain I’d be escorted to a ventilation-less detention room to wait for a flight back to the US. And now I faced a Border Control officer who looked through my passport without…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “In Beijing: 12.26-1.10” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image0-2.jpeg?w=1024)
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“China is already a great power, and whether the next three decades will be a cold or a hot war, nothing can stop her now. By the year 2001 she will be a powerful industrial socialist State.”—Han Suyin, China in…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Han versus Kahn: 1970” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/han-suyin-and-herman-kahn.png?w=1024)
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I blame my inability to speak Cantonese on waitresses in Chinese restaurants. My wife would say it’s all on me. To be fair, I should have kept it up. I should have practised more. You are getting better every day,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “On Learning to Speak Cantonese” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cantonese.png?w=1024)
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Also read Andrew Barker’s tribute to Reid Mitchell. Photo of Reid Mitchell © Martin Alexander Describing a great and complex man as Reid Hardeman Mitchell (1955-2023) is not easy—he was a poet and a professor, bon vivant and raconteur, historian…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Tribute to Reid Mitchell” by Akin Jeje](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/reid-mitchell-cha-an-asian-literary-journal-2.jpg?w=1024)
Cha 