Category: Exclusive—Poetry
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Editor’s note: In this essay, Chris Song reflects on debates in Hong Kong’s Sinophone literary field since the 2019 Biennial Awards, where tensions between everyday poetics and politically engaged writing surfaced. He shows how prizes, criticism, and institutions shape poetic…
![[ESSAY] “Poetics Debates and the Shadow of Power in Hong Kong’s Sinophone Literary Field” by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/poetics-debates-and-the-shadow-of-power-in-hong-kongs-sinophone-literary-field.png?w=786)
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Editor’s note: Anna Nguyen’s essay “A Dead Language” turns on an offhand slight, “No one speaks Vietnamese,” and worries it into grief, form, and theory. Between a father’s aphasic silence and a mother’s nightly monologues, Vietnamese persists. English, institutional and…
![[ESSAY] “A Dead Language” by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/anna-nguyen.jpg?w=933)
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Editor’s note: Pál Dániel Levente, a guest of honour at the 2026 Brahmaputra Literature Festival, proposes a poetics of butterflies, stones, and blades. The five poems move within that range. India, New Delhi, Agra, and the Ganges become sites of…
![[ESSAY] “Butterflies, Stones, and Blades” by Pál Dániel Levente](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/shot-by-cerqueira-hemgxmfpsaw-unsplash.jpg?w=1024)
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Read Matt Turner’s essay “NO U-TURN—6AMING: Themes and Contexts” HERE. [EXCLUSIVE] “Eight Poems from 6AMING” by Matt Turner Photograph © Wang Yin 8:38-3:11 pressed against, side to sidethe shelter—hidden, aggrievedunder a constant temperaturelittle balls of bone and eyerunning around, pouring…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Eight Poems from 6𝐴𝑀𝐼𝑁𝐺” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/matt-turner-6aming-cha-asian.png?w=637)
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Read Troy Cabida’s essay “On Neon Manila: A Balancing Act Between Sparkle and Substance” HERE. [EXCLUSIVE] “Four Poems from Neon Manila” by Troy Cabida Troy Cabida, Neon Manila, Nine Arches Press, 2025. 72 pgs. Black Turtleneck Sonnet With my first ever…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Four Poems from 𝑁𝑒𝑜𝑛 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑙𝑎” by Troy Cabida](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/81b4db7dtkl._sl1500_-1.jpg?w=984)
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Editor’s note: We are honoured to present the personal reflection “Curriculum Vitae in Silence” and the poem of the same title by Liu Hongbin, a Chinese British poet of Tiananmen exile. He was shaped by a childhood torn between pastoral…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Curriculum Vitae in Silence” by Liu Hongbin](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/marble-feature.webp?w=1024)
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◉ Afterword: Living Between Languages◉ Three Poems◉ Anything but Human 大重啟 @ TrendLit Publishing Expressionof Contentment by Daryl Lim Wei Jie I am extraordinarily really verycomfortable even my toes have gone forpsychoanalysis and my nose hairs havetheir favourite brand of…
![[FEATURE] “𝐴𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛: Three Poems” by Daryl Lim Wei Jie](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/anythingbuthuman-copy.jpg?w=838)
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Jacqueline Leung’s note: “果實微溫,” pronounced “gwo sud mei wun,” translates literally from Cantonese as “warm fruit” and phonetically echoes “grocery run.” When Stuart Lau Wai-shing attended the Iowa International Writing Program in 2017, a bus would arrive each Tuesday morning, ferrying…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Warm Fruit” by Stuart Lau, translated by Jacqueline Leung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/stuart-lau_jacqueline-leung_cha.png?w=1024)
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Russell Leong on these poems: Like apparitions or long-lost friends, these three unpublished poems—written more than twenty years ago in New London, Connecticut; Cuse, France; and Hong Kong, China—have returned to me through the efforts of editor Tammy Lai-Ming Ho.…
![[EXCLUSIVE] Three Poems by Russell Leong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/three-poems-by-russell-leong.png?w=1024)
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Poet’s note: I consider this poem an ode to beginnings—a constant reminder that, before the hurt sets in, before any damage is done, the first page of any story holds infinite promise. There is always a reason for characters to…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Beginnings are Generous” by Marco Yan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/frost-flowers-thumb.jpeg?w=1024)
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No more the acrobats, singers and dancers,Prostitutes and pimps, criminals and chancers. …………..A green veil is drawn over all. …………..Rain drips down in an empty hall. The sound of hammers shovels and picks,Drowned out by the river of traffic,Flowing east…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Great World: Poem and Introduction” by Paul Bevan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/shanghai-2012-architecture-pingwang-jie.jpg?w=1024)
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Zheng Wang: Trips Stories of a Businessman Who Writes Poetry on Work Trips is a sequence of narrative poems in a pseudo-chronological order, a kind of spiritual diary. Its predominant theme is the imaginary persona of this Singapore-based businessman who…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Stories of a Businessman Who Writes Poetry on Work Trips” by Zheng Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/copy-of-untitled-design-7.png?w=730)
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Lin Huiyin, 1904-1955 (Unknown author/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain) Mike Fu’s Note: I find myself drawn to Chinese writers situated at the interstices of history, culture, and language, and whose literary works demonstrate a hybrid subjectivity, whether overt or implicit. Lin Huiyin…
![[EXCLUSIVE] Two New Translations of Lin Huiyin by Mike Fu](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/mike-fu-translations.png?w=1024)
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Also read Akin Jeje’s tribute to Reid Mitchell. I wrote two sonnets for Reid Mitchell (1955-2023); one a couple of years before he died and one, at Reid’s own instigation, some fifteen years ago. Reid had told me a story…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Two Sonnets for Reid Mitchell” by Andrew Barker](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/reid-michell-impression.jpeg?w=1024)
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