Category: Exclusive—Non-fiction
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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 [ESSAY] “Rather Demolish Ten Temples Than Destroy One Marriage: Tiantian Zheng’s Violent Intimacy” by Laurence Westwood Tiantian Zheng, Violent Intimacy: Family Harmony, State Stability, and Intimate Partner Violence in Post-Socialist China,…
![[ESSAY] “Rather Demolish Ten Temples Than Destroy One Marriage: Tiantian Zheng’s 𝑉𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑐𝑦” by Laurence Westwood](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/violent-intimacy-family-harmony-state-stability-and-intimate-partner-violence-in-post-socialist-china.jpg?w=1000)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “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,…
![[ESSAY] “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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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Places We Would Rather Be: Yan Ge’s Elsewhere” by X. H. Collins Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Yan Ge. Yan Ge, Elsewhere: Stories, Scribner, 2023. 304 pgs. I became interested…
![[ESSAY] “The Places We Would Rather Be: Yan Ge’s 𝐸𝑙𝑠𝑒𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒” by X. H. Collins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/elsewhere-yan-ge.jpg?w=994)
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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 [ESSAY] “Kung Fu Is a Store of Infinite Fun: Reading Jin Yong in Translation, Part I” by Jeff Tompkins Read “Reading Jin Yong in Translation, Part II” HERE. Jin Yong, aka…
![[ESSAY] “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)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Tragedies of Inequality: Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Jordan Peele’s Us” by Jonathan Chan Bong Joon-Ho (director), Parasite, 2019. 132 min.Jordan Peele (director), Us, 2019, 116 min. The sociologist Teo You Yenn…
![[ESSAY] “Tragedies of Inequality: Bong Joon-ho’s 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒 and Jordan Peele’s 𝑈𝑠” by Jonathan Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/us.png?w=749)
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TH: James Batcho writes about Bangkok, his introduction to Asia. Normally when I come to Bangkok I stay in Sukhumvit. I’ve been doing that since my Busan days, starting around 2009, I guess. This time I’m in the Khaosan Road…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Khaosan 1996-2019” by James Batcho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/khaosan1-blackwhite.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “On the Lighter Side: Nektaria Anastasiadou’s A Recipe for Daphne” by Beth Adams Nektaria Anastasiadou, A Recipe for Daphne, Hoopoe Fiction, 2021. 326 pgs. “A monstrous confusion of civilization and…
![[ESSAY] “On the Lighter Side: Nektaria Anastasiadou’s 𝐴 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐷𝑎𝑝ℎ𝑛𝑒” by Beth Adams](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2021-02-12-dsc_0074-copy.jpg?w=1024)
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TH: In this essay, Matt Turner meditates on a couple of recent concerts he attended at Dream House and Task, both in New York. In late July this year, I attended a performance at Dream House in lower Manhattan; I…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Space for ‘Music'” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/dh2023_1.jpg?w=1024)
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TH: Aileen Blaney explores the gentrification of the Himalayan village in the new work-from-anywhere post-pandemic dispensation. In this piece, the coffee shop is used as a device for depicting the arrival of a cosmopolitan elite in rural India. “They’re ruining the Himalayas with their coffee shops and…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Basque Cheesecake in the Indian Himalayas” by Aileen Blaney](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/dharamshala-for-digital-nomads.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Die With Your Pants Down: Patrick Tam’s Nomad” by Matt Turner Patrick Tam (director), Nomad (烈火青春), 1982. 157 min. This review contains spoilers. I really didn’t see the final scene coming.…
![[ESSAY] “Die With Your Pants Down: Patrick Tam’s 𝑁𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑑” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/nomad_japanese-poster.webp?w=1024)
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TH: Suo Er read part of this essay at the “Nature on Edge” panel at the Iowa City Public Library on Friday 8 September 2023, as part of the Iowa Writing Program Fall 2023. I’m not joking when I say…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Do You Have a Sea Chart in Your Mind?” by Suo Er, Translated by Suo Er and Grace Najmulski](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/suo-er.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “A Recipe for Confusion: Henrietta Harrison’s The Perils of Interpreting” by Laurence Westwood Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on The Perils of Interpreting. Henrietta Harrison, The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of…
![[ESSAY] “A Recipe for Confusion: Henrietta Harrison’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔” by Laurence Westwood](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/the-perils-of-interpreting-the-extraordinary-lives-of-two-translators-between-qing-china-and-the-british-empire-1.png?w=1023)
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[Diary of the Absurd Life in 1997: All Entries] TH: Diary of the Absurd Life in 1997, in 28 sections, was written originally in Chinese by Mary Wong and serialised in Ming Pao 明報 in 1997. The pieces, translated into English by…
![[Diary of the Absurd Life in 1997] “Half A Lifelong Romance” by Mary Wong, Translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/like.png?w=873)
Cha 