Category: ExclusiveβReflection
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In Hongwei Bao’s new essay, Pillion (2025), directed by Harry Lighton and adapted from Adam Mars-Jonesβs 2020 novella Box Hill, becomes a lens for exploring queer biker cinema, kink…
![[ESSAY] “Geared Up for Pillion” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/pillion-film-poster.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In Matt Turnerβs 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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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] βAesthetic Experiences: A Study of Anri Yasudaβs Beauty Mattersβ by Luca Griseri Anri Yasuda, Beauty Matters: Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890β1930, Columbia University Press, 2024. 304…
![[ESSAY] βAesthetic Experiences: A Study of Anri Yasudaβs π΅πππ’π‘π¦ πππ‘π‘πππ β 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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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] βFrom Star to Performer-Worker: Rethinking Anna May Wong Through Labourβ by Anna Nguyen Yiman Wang, To Be An Actress: Labor and Performance in Anna May Wongβs Cross-Media World, University of…
![[ESSAY] βFrom Star to Performer-Worker: Rethinking Anna May Wong Through Labourβ 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] βMaggie Cheung and the Refusal of Cinematic Immortalityβ 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] βMaggie Cheung and the Refusal of Cinematic Immortalityβ 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-Schwartzβs 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] βWalking with Leung Ping-kwan: Berlin, Memory, and the Intersticeβ by Cleo Li-Schwartz](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/leung-ping-kwan-cha.jpg?w=716)
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[FICTION] “The Eighteen Steps Home” by Sajita Nair Tat Tvam Asi. You are that. These words, inscribed in Malayalam and Hindi, held my attention as I first stood before the temple that had been forbidden to me for most of…
![[FICTION] “The Eighteen Steps Home” by Sajita Nair](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/essay-22the-eighteen-steps-home22-by-sajita-nair.png?w=1024)
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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] βPreserving the Path of Enlightenment at Borobudur and Not Just the Stonesβ 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] βPreserving the Path of Enlightenment at Borobudur and Not Just the Stonesβ by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/borobudur_cha.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] βNot A Utopian Land: Rereading the Evenki Culture in Chi Zijianβs novel The Last Quarter of the Moon and Gu Taoβs documentary film The Last Moose of Aoluguyaβ by Yiwen…
![[ESSAY] βNot Your Utopian Land: Rereading the Evenki Culture in Chi Zijianβs novel πβπ πΏππ π‘ ππ’πππ‘ππ ππ π‘βπ ππππ and Gu Taoβs documentary film πβπ πΏππ π‘ ππππ π ππ π΄πππ’ππ’π¦πβ 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] β1331 Runway: Hong Kong Youth Utopia or Real-Estate Planning Malfunction?β 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] β1331 Runway: Hong Kong Youth Utopia or Real-Estate Planning Malfunction?β by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/767206174.jpg?w=576)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ 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] “1000ππ
πΈππΌππ 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] βSixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodiaβs Monument to a Silenced Crimeβ by Daniel GaussΒ
[ESSAY] βSixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodiaβs Monument to a Silenced Crimeβ 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] βSixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodiaβs Monument to a Silenced Crimeβ by Daniel GaussΒ](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/cambodia_cha.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In Chris Songβs essay, James Sheaβs Last Day of My Face (University of Iowa Press, 2025) is read in relation to Hong Kong as both a lived city and…
![[ESSAY] “πΏππ π‘ π·ππ¦ ππ ππ¦ πΉπππ, 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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[ESSAY] βA Woman Named Summer: Rethinking Xu Hongfeiβs Early Sculpture at the Guangzhou Museum of Artβ by Daniel Gauss Xu Hongfei’s Summer, photos by Daniel Gauss Among the many works displayed in the Guangzhou Museum of Art, one marble sculpture…
![[ESSAY] βA Woman Named Summer: Rethinking Xu Hongfeiβs Early Sculpture at the Guangzhou Museum of Artβ by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/img_20251125_110600.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: In βE.T. 3 is Lying in a Coffin Outside Wuhan”, Angus Stewart explores Xiaosha Zhangβs 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.Β Davis On a calm Monday evening, I found myself at 14B Hai BΓ TrΖ°ng in Hanoi, drawn to a cosy corner on TrΓ ng Tiα»n 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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Editor’s note: We are honoured to present the personal reflection βCurriculum Vitae in Silenceβ 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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Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 was awarded to the Hungarian novelist LΓ‘szlΓ³ Krasznahorkai βfor his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.β 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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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] βThings Fall Apart: Kong Shangrenβs The Peach Blossom Fanβ by Jeff Tompkins Kong Shangren (author), Wai-yee Li (translator). The Peach Blossom Fan, Oxford University Press, 2024. 816 pgs. Wai-yee Li…
![[ESSAY] βThings Fall Apart: Kong Shangrenβs πβπ ππππβ π΅πππ π ππ πΉππβ by Jeff Tompkins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/the-peach-blossom-fan.png?w=1024)
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β Afterword: Living Between Languagesβ Three Poemsβ Anything but Human 倧ιε @ TrendLit Publishing Living between languages by Daryl Lim Wei Jie My poetry was brewed in the multilingual kitchen that is Singapore. The translational and the interlingualβthat is, existing…
![[FEATURE] “π΄ππ¦π‘βπππ ππ’π‘ π»π’πππ: Living between Languages” by Daryl Lim Wei Jie](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/anythingbuthuman-copy.jpg?w=838)
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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 TalibΓ©, an exhibition by Mauritanian…
![[EXCLUSIVE] βππππππΜ: The Forgotten Faces of Globalisationβ 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 “Noodle Insurrection or a Gathering of Radicals”, Jennifer Eagleton intertwines Chinese character radicals with politics, crafting a witty poem around Shaanxiβs biangbiang noodles. She blends linguistic play, cultural history, and insurrectionary imagery, demonstrating radicalsβ layered meanings. A…
![[EXCLUSIVE] βNoodle Insurrection or a Gathering of Radicalsβ by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/biang-biang.png?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] βItβs My House, and I Live Here: Weike Wangβs Rental Houseβ by Peixuan Xie Weike Wang, Rental House, Riverhead Books, 2024. 224 pgs. Reading Rental House is, for a Chinese…
![[ESSAY] βItβs My House, and I Live Here: Weike Wangβs π
πππ‘ππ π»ππ’π πβ by Peixuan Xie](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/rental-house.jpg?w=994)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] βRather Demolish Ten Temples Than Destroy One Marriage: Tiantian Zhengβs Violent Intimacyβ by Laurence Westwood Tiantian Zheng, Violent Intimacy: Family Harmony, State Stability, and Intimate Partner Violence in Post-Socialist China,…
![[ESSAY] βRather Demolish Ten Temples Than Destroy One Marriage: Tiantian Zhengβs πππππππ‘ πΌππ‘πππππ¦β 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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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] βThe Places We Would Rather Be: Yan Geβs Elsewhereβ 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] βThe Places We Would Rather Be: Yan Geβs πΈππ ππ€βπππβ by X. H. Collins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/elsewhere-yan-ge.jpg?w=994)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Tragedies of Inequality: Bong Joon-hoβs Parasite and Jordan Peeleβs 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-hoβs πππππ ππ‘π and Jordan PeeleβsΒ ππ ” by Jonathan Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/us.png?w=749)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Die With Your Pants Down: Patrick Tam’s Nomad” by Matt Turner Patrick Tam (director), Nomad (ηη«ιζ₯), 1982. 157 min. This review contains spoilers. I really didnβt see the final scene coming.…
![[ESSAY] “Die With Your Pants Down: Patrick Tam’s πππππ” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/nomad_japanese-poster.webp?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “A Recipe for Confusion: Henrietta Harrison’s The Perils of Interpreting” by Laurence Westwood ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ The Perils of Interpreting. Henrietta Harrison, The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of…
![[ESSAY] “A Recipe for Confusion: Henrietta Harrison’s πβπ ππππππ ππ πΌππ‘ππππππ‘πππ” 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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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] βWhat Does It Mean to Be a Feminist in China? Reviewing Feminisms with Chinese Characteristicsβ by X. H. Collins Ping Zhu and Hui Faye Xiao (editors), Feminisms with Chinese Characteristics, Syracuse…
![[ESSAY] βWhat Does It Mean to Be a Feminist in China? Reviewing πΉππππππ ππ Β π€ππ‘β πΆβππππ π πΆβπππππ‘ππππ π‘πππ β by X. H. Collins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/feminists_chinese-characteristics.png?w=1024)
Cha 