Category: Exclusive—Reflection
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Sa Re Ga Māyā: The Speculative Life of Breath in Anaar Desai-Stephens’s Voicing Aspiration” by Tyran Grillo Anaar Desai-Stephens. Voicing Aspiration: Bollywood Songs and Dreamwork in Contemporary India. Wesleyan University…
![[ESSAY] “Sa Re Ga Māyā: The Speculative Life of Breath in Anaar Desai-Stephens’s 𝑉𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐴𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛” by Tyran Grillo](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Voicing-Aspiration.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Hong Kong, Literature, Culture, History” by Jean-Claude Trutt, translated by Cyril Camus I must admit, however, that I never particularly liked the city. Editor’s note: An earlier version of this…
![[ESSAY] “Hong Kong, Literature, Culture, History” by Jean-Claude Trutt, translated by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Jentayu-hong-kong.png)
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[LITERARY ESSAY] “Navigating Endless Seas: Hong Kong” by Matt Reeck DREAMING THAT, while still alive, they’d been translated to the Islands of the Blest where time had happily stopped, as on an antique clock. The city is this island. 1…
![[LITERARY ESSAY] “Navigating Endless Seas: Hong Kong” by Matt Reeck](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Matt-Reeck-Hong-Kong-1.jpg)
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[ESSAY] “On the Edge, Revisited” by Margaret Hillenbrand Click HERE to read an excerptfrom On the Edge. Margaret Hillenbrand. On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China, Columbia University Press, 2023. 408 pgs. My book, On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in…
![[ESSAY] “𝑂𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑑𝑔𝑒, Revisited” by Margaret Hillenbrand](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Margaret-Hillenbrand.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Yuanfen of Emmy the Great: On Emma-Lee Moss’s My Cantopop Nights” by Mario Rustan Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon My Cantopop Nights. Emma-Lee Moss. My Cantopop Nights:…
![[REVIEW] “𝑌𝑢𝑎𝑛𝑓𝑒𝑛 of Emmy the Great: On Emma-Lee Moss’s 𝑀𝑦 𝐶𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑝 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠” by Mario Rustan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/emma-lee-moss.-my-cantopop-nights-a-memoir-in-songs.png)
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[ESSAY] “Off the Map” by Miên Túc It was an August day in 2006. Almost ten years old, I took some paper, pencils, and crayons to do what I had always loved to do in my free time: sitting by…
![[ESSAY] “Off the Map” by Miên Túc](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/diana-prundeanu-MWJzKCvbhcU-unsplash.jpg)
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[ESSAY] “Spongeboy” by Kin Pan The author with his grandmother outside Sydney Town Hall in the Olympic year, 2000. Her Cantonese isn’t the melodic speech of a Hong Kong film. In my first Mandarin class, the teacher asks why each…
![[ESSAY] “Spongeboy” by Kin Pan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Spongeboy-by-Kin-Pan-CHA.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Last Cry: Light, Love and Everyday Evil in We’re Nothing at All” by Tin Yuet Tam Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on We’re Nothing at All. Herman Yau (director). We’re Nothing at…
![[ESSAY] “Last Cry: Light, Love and Everyday Evil in 𝑊𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑁𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 𝐴𝑙𝑙” by Tin Yuet Tam](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/images-2.jpeg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Politics of Smallness and the Power of Cute in Hui Faye Xiao’s Youth Economy, Crisis, and Reinvention in Twenty-First Century China” by Géraldine Fiss Hui Faye Xiao. Youth Economy,…
![[ESSAY] “The Politics of Smallness and the Power of Cute in Hui Faye Xiao’s 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝐸𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑦, 𝐶𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑇𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑦-𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑦 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎” by Géraldine Fiss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/China-Dream.png)
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[ESSAY] “Intimacy and Distance: Reflections on Learning to Be Bicultural in Malaysia, 1966 to 1969” by Daniel Regan Fitting In I’m no smuggler. And yet I smuggled. It wasn’t much, just some cloth and foodstuffs tucked beneath clothing and in…
![[ESSAY] “Intimacy and Distance: Reflections on Learning to be Bicultural in Malaysia, 1966 to 1969” by Daniel Regan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_0632.jpeg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Metaphor of Trees: Stephanie Ellen Sy’s The Magnificent Banyan Tree and the Green Tong Lau” by Rebekah Chan Stephanie Ellen Sy (writer), Ishita Jain (illustrator). The Magnificent Banyan Tree…
![[ESSAY] “The Metaphor of Trees: Stephanie Ellen Sy’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑎𝑛 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝐿𝑎𝑢” by Rebekah Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Seed-Plant-Tree-3.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Authority to Continue in Kiwi Chow’s Deadline” by Qinlei Wang Kiwi Chow (director). Deadline, 2025. 117 min. By the time a teacher proposes suspending the final examinations at Enshan…
![[ESSAY] “The Authority to Continue in Kiwi Chow’s 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒” by Qinlei Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Kiwi-Chow-copy.jpg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Dead Are Still Addressing Us: On Jeremy Fernando’s translating love“ by Tyran Grillo Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon translating love. Jeremy Fernando (author), with paintings by Sara…
![[ESSAY] “The Dead Are Still Addressing Us: On Jeremy Fernando’s 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒” by Tyran Grillo](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Translating-Love-Jeremy-Fernando.png)
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[ESSAY] “On the Banks of Bereavement: The Cultural Confluence of Vietnamese Grief, Memory, and Familial Hydro-history” by Tommy Vinh Bui Author espying seabirds on the Channel Islands Most people don’t look at a glass of water and feel the waterline…
![[ESSAY] “On the Banks of Bereavement: The Cultural Confluence of Vietnamese Grief, Memory, and Familial Hydro-history” by Tommy Vinh Bui](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/uS-VZYJYkY92ZDI-oW8DY4yJYuEp4XFduuXojMrlxag.jpg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Tokyo Drift: Mobility of Excess, Geopolitical Imaginaries, and Japan-US Relations in the 2000s” by John Adrianfer Atienza Justin Lin (director). The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, 2006. 104 min.…
![[ESSAY] “𝑇𝑜𝑘𝑦𝑜 𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑡: Mobility of Excess, Geopolitical Imaginaries, and Japan-US Relations in the 2000s” by John Adrianfer Atienza](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Justin-Lin-director.-The-Fast-and-the-Furious-Tokyo-Drift-2006.jpeg)
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[ESSAY] “How Do You Care for Your Horses After a Break-up?” by Ilaria Maria Sala To Usman Saeed In the streets of Lahore, even on days when they are clogged with traffic, you can sometimes see young men leading a…
![[ESSAY] “How Do You Care for Your Horses After a Break-up?” by Ilaria Maria Sala](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/IMG_0554.jpeg)
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[ESSAY] “Dubbing Disfluencies: Grief, Translation, and the Vietnamese-American Tongue” by Kathy Ngoc Nguyen Editor’s introduction: In “Dubbing Disfluencies, Grief, Translation, and the Vietnamese-American Tongue”, Kathy Ngoc Nguyen writes about grief, caregiving, memory, and the difficulties of moving between English and…
![[ESSAY] “Dubbing Disfluencies: Grief, Translation, and the Vietnamese-American Tongue” by Kathy Ngoc Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/abstract-orange-brushstroke-white-paper.jpg)
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[ESSAY] “From Kuala Terengganu to Jakarta: The Job I Turned Down” by Daniel Regan My Peace Corps service cost me a job. I am aware that this sounds improbable, given the prevailing narrative, which holds that a record of Peace…
![[ESSAY] “From Kuala Terengganu to Jakarta: The Job I Turned Down” by Daniel Regan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/1979-annual-report-copy.jpg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Impossibility of Coming Home: Love, Memory and Political Trauma in Yan Geling’s Criminal Lu Yanshi” by Karen Ma Geling Yan (author), Lawrence A. Walker (translator). Criminal Lu Yanshi, New Song Media…
![[ESSAY] “The Impossibility of Coming Home: Love, Memory and Political Trauma in Yan Geling’s Criminal Lu Yanshi” by Karen Ma](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Criminal-Lu-Yanshi.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s If I Do Not Reply Is Poetry, Gentle Irony and Defiance” by Cyril Camus Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on If I Do Not Reply. Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, If…
![[ESSAY] “Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s 𝐼𝑓 𝐼 𝐷𝑜 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑦 Is Poetry, Gentle Irony and Defiance” by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/tammy-lai-ming-ho-2026-1.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Violence of Being Understood: Rio Shimamoto’s First Love” by Tyran Grillo Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon First Love. Rio Shimamoto (author), Louise Heal Kawai (translator). First Love. Honford…
![[ESSAY] “The Violence of Being Understood: Rio Shimamoto’s 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒” by Tyran Grillo](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Rio-Shimamoto-First-Love.png)
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[ESSAY] “Vietnam, 1982: Xuân Quỳnh Translating the War on Palestine” by Nguyễn Bình Xuân Quỳnh In the summer of 1982, a war was raging between political entities whose names Vietnamese people across the continent struggled to pronounce. The state of Ít-xra-en,…
![[ESSAY] “Vietnam, 1982: Xuân Quỳnh Translating the War on Palestine” by Nguyen Binh](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/images-2.jpeg)
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[ESSAY] “Richie Nath: Queer Art, Exile and the Burmese Diaspora” by Charlotte Marie Chadwick Richie Nath Editor’s note: Selected images from Richie Nath’s Paris exhibition, “An Oyster Without a Pearl” (Thursday 7 May 2026 to Wednesday 17 June 2026), can…
![[ESSAY] “Richie Nath: Queer Art, Exile and the Burmese Diaspora” by Charlotte Marie Chadwick](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/richie-nath-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Reading María Teresa Ogliastri’s From the Diary of Madame Mao: Poetry, Politics and Memories of the Cultural Revolution” by Ming Wan All entries in Cha on Madame Mao. María Teresa…
![[ESSAY] “Reading María Teresa Ogliastri’s 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑜: Poetry, Politics and Memories of the Cultural Revolution” by Ming Wan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/from-the-diary-of-madame-mao.jpg)
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[ESSAY] “Between Singapore and Yogyakarta: A City to Visit, A City to Live In” by Dhinie A Ryhilda I don’t remember exactly which MRT station I got off at that day in Singapore. I only remember deciding to stop somewhere…
![[ESSAY] “Between Singapore and Yogyakarta: A City to Visit, A City to Live In” by Dhinie A Ryhilda](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/yogyakarta-market.jpg)
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[ESSAY] “Hong Kong: A Lover’s Meditation” by Jeff Beyl Photo © Jeff Beyl Hong Kong Works To paraphrase travel writer Jan Morris, Hong Kong works. Someone asked me, many years ago, after my first trip to Hong Kong, “What’s it like…
![[ESSAY] “Hong Kong: A Lover’s Meditation” by Jeff Beyl](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/jeff-beyl-dai-pai-dong.jpeg.png)
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[ESSAY] “The Apocalypse Before Dinner: What Japanese Robots Taught Italian Children” by Gabriele Micozzi For Italian children of my generation, Japanese animation did not arrive as a coherent archive. I am on the left, with my younger brother Fabrizio, both…
![[ESSAY] “The Apocalypse Before Dinner: What Japanese Robots Taught Italian Children” by Gabriele Micozzi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/atlas-ufo-robot.png)
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[ESSAY] “Dead Cat Bounce: The Graphic Novel Boom in Singapore That Wasn’t” by Felix Cheong I became a graphic novelist by accident. Or perhaps by the necessity of reinvention. Whichever is the more charitable view, it was probably as good a…
![[ESSAY] “Dead Cat Bounce: The Graphic Novel Boom in Singapore That Wasn’t” by Felix Cheong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/oddballs-screwballs-and-other-eccentrics-and-in-the-year-of-the-virus-1.png)
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[ESSAY] “Between Two Names” by Wayne Mok “Wayne could be a Vietnamese name too.” I clutched my copy of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer and waited while he chatted with the couple ahead. It was my first time attending a book…
![[ESSAY] “Between Two Names” by Wayne Mok](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/wayne-mok-cha.jpg)
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[ESSAY] “One Poet, Two Translators: Preserving the Essence of Voice” by Yvette Neisser All entries in Cha on Madame Mao. María Teresa Ogliastri (author), Yvette Neisser and Patricia Bejarano Fisher (translators). From the Diary of Madame Mao. Carnegie Mellon University…
![[ESSAY] “One Poet, Two Translators: Preserving the Essence of Voice” by Yvette Neisser](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/yvette-neisser-and-patricia-bejarano-fisher.png)