Category: Exclusive
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Gods, Ghosts, and the Lunar Year: Reading Joan Law and Barbara E. Ward’s Chinese Festivals” by Simon Patton Joan Mee Nar Law and Barbara E. Ward. Chinese Festivals: Hong Kong,…
![[REVIEW] “Gods, Ghosts, and the Lunar Year: Reading Joan Mee Nar Law and Barbara E. Ward’s πΆβππππ π πΉππ π‘ππ£πππ ” by Simon Patton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/41leivsiyil.jpg?w=500)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Bittersweet Fusion: Taste, Pain, and Fate in Kit Fan’s Goodbye Chinatown” by Angus Stewart Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Goodbye Chinatown. Kit Fan, Goodbye Chinatown, World Editions,…
![[ESSAY] “Bittersweet Fusion: Taste, Pain, and Fate in Kit Fan’s πΊπππππ¦π πΆβππππ‘ππ€π” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/goodbye-chinatown-kit-fan-cha.jpg?w=938)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Beth Adams approaches Do You Like Brahms?, a Korean TV drama set within a prestigious Seoul music school, through her enduring interest in Asian television that explores artistic vocation,…
![[ESSAY] “Music, Ambition, and Quiet Longing in π·π πππ’ πΏπππ π΅ππβππ ?” by Beth Adams](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/do-you-like-brahms_.jpg?w=426)
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[ESSAY] βDoes MOCA Bangkok Have a Soft Porn Problem?β by Daniel Gauss It is time for museums, especially those dedicated to contemporary art, finally to understand the objectification of women. It is also time to ask why one of Asiaβs…
![[ESSAY] “Does MOCA Bangkok Have a Soft Porn Problem?β by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/museum_of_contemporary_art_moca_bangkok_thailand_-_20161201-05.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “FOUR TWENTY PM: A.T. Apichart at the National Gallery of Thailand” by Daniel Gauss There is a famous painting by Caravaggio of St Jerome translating the Bible. He is old, gaunt, and frail, and he works with a skull…
![[ESSAY] “FOUR TWENTY PM: A.T. Apichart at the National Gallery of Thailand” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/https-__www.facebook.com_photo__fbid2572090546292510seta.633624243472493.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] βShaped by Hong Kong, Sharpened by Wudang: Gigi Changβs Translation Practiceβ by Debra Liu For those of us influenced by the legendary Jin Yong (Louis Cha) Legends of the Condor Heroes series, yet unable to read lengthy works in…
![[ESSAY] βShaped by Hong Kong, Sharpened by Wudang: Gigi Changβs Translation Practiceβ by Debra Liu](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/gigi-chang.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Aastha Upretyβs essay reads Jia Zhangke’s Still Life and Razan AlSalah’s A Stoneβs Throw as twin elegies of engineered upheaval, where dams and pipelines reorder earth and memory. Through…
![[ESSAY] βEnergies of Displacement: Transformation in Jia Zhangkeβs ππ‘πππ πΏπππ and Razan AlSalahβs π΄ ππ‘πππβπ πβπππ€βby Aastha Uprety](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/energies-of-displacement-transformation-in-jia-zhangkes-still-life-and-razan-alsalahs-a-stones-throw-by-aastha-uprety.png?w=935)
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Editor’s note: Anna Nguyen’s essay “A Dead Language” turns on an offhand slight, βNo one speaks Vietnamese,β and worries it into grief, form, and theory. Between a fatherβs aphasic silence and a motherβs nightly monologues, Vietnamese persists. English, institutional and…
![[ESSAY] βA Dead Languageβ by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/anna-nguyen.jpg?w=933)
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Editor’s note: PΓ‘l DΓ‘niel 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] βButterflies, Stones, and Bladesβ by PΓ‘l DΓ‘niel Levente](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/shot-by-cerqueira-hemgxmfpsaw-unsplash.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Jonathan Chan reads She Follows No Progression (Wendyβs Subway, 2024), edited by Juwon Jun and Rachel Valinsky, as a collective meditation on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, attending closely to…
![[ESSAY] βReading the Gap: Indeterminacy, Translation, and Legacy in πβπ πΉπππππ€π ππ πππππππ π πππβ by Jonathan Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/she-follows-no-progression-a-theresa-hak-kyung-cha-reader-edited-by-juwon-jun-and-rachel-valinsky.png?w=579)
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Editor’s note: In this reflective essay, Gutierrez Mangansakan II recounts acting on a film by Lav Diaz to examine how Mindanao shapes Diazβs cinema. Blending personal observation with critical analysis, he argues that the directorβs duration, restraint, and resistance to…
![[ESSAY] βIn Search of Mindanao in the films of Lav Diazβ by Gutierrez Mangansakan II](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/lav-diaz.webp?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In Gutierrez Mangansakan IIβs essay, growing trees in red-clay pots becomes a metaphor for exile, love, and impermanence. Through memories of family, cats, and lost homelands, he reflects on denied inheritance and chosen distance, arguing that care, memory,…
![[ESSAY] βReflection on Exile, Impermanence, and Red Clay Potsβ by Gutierrez Mangansakan II](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/aslan-and-buffy-in-the-dirty-kitchen.jpg?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles considers the films Big Fish and Little Fish in relation to his father and the Filipino seafood dish kinilaw, using cinema as a lens for…
![[ESSAY] βπ΅ππ πΉππ β, πΏππ‘π‘ππ πΉππ β, & The Fake Legend of Kinilawβ by Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/big-fish-little-fish.png?w=940)
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Editor’s note: Chaβs long-term contributor Matt Turner introduces 6AMING, his forthcoming poetry book from Antiphony, due in September. In this short essay, he discusses time-stamped automatic writing, no-music influence, not-poetry, underground journals, and resistance to spectacle, surveillance, and institutional validation.…
![[ESSAY] βNO U-TURNβ6π΄ππΌππΊ: Themes and Contextsβ by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/matt-turner-6aming-cha-asian.png?w=637)
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Read Matt Turner’s essay “NO U-TURNβ6AMING: Themes and Contexts” HERE. [EXCLUSIVE] “Eight Poems from 6AMING” by Matt Turner Photograph Β© Wang Yin 8:38-3:11 pressed against, side to sidethe shelterβhidden, aggrievedunder a constant temperaturelittle balls of bone and eyerunning around, pouring…
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Editor’s note: Chris Sullivan reflects on an unexploded wartime bomb in Hong Kong, observed from Amsterdam, using the incident to consider urban memory, historical residue, and the quiet persistence of past violence. [ESSAY] βDisarming a Ghostβ by Chris Sullivan Hong…
![[ESSAY] βDisarming a Ghostβ by Chris Sullivan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/disarming-a-ghost-still-square.jpg?w=1024)
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All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] ββI Want to Make Films for Teenagers Foreverβ: A Conversation on BURNβ by Β Nirris Nagendrarajah & Makoto Nagahisa Makoto Nagashia (director), BURN, 2025. 103 min. INTRODUCTION Nirris Nagendrarajah W-w-why do people do what…
![[SUNDANCE 2026] ββI Want to Make Films for Teenagers Foreverβ: A Conversation on π΅π’ππβ by Β Nirris Nagendrarajah & Makoto Nagahisa](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/burn.jpg?w=936)
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Editor’s note: Daniel Gauss treats Prambanan Temple as a ninth-century political technology, where ritual, architecture, and kingship converged to naturalise obedience by embedding rule within Shaivite cosmology. Built by the Sanjaya dynasty as a counter to Borobudur Temple, it functioned…
![[ESSAY] “Prambanan: A Temple in Java that Turned Faith into Obedience” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_20251111_094005.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Troy Cabida reflects on his debut poetry collection Neon Manila, exploring queer Filipino-immigrant embodiment, pop music, resistance, as glamour and violence coexist. Some poems from the collection can be found HERE. [ESSAY] βOn Neon Manila: A Balancing Act…
![[ESSAY] βOn ππππ ππππππ: A Balancing Act Between Sparkle and Substanceβ by Troy Cabida](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/img_6830.jpg?w=1024)
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Read Troy Cabida’s essay “On Neon Manila: A Balancing Act Between Sparkle and Substance” HERE. [EXCLUSIVE] βFour Poems from Neon Manilaβ by Troy Cabida Troy Cabida, Neon Manila, Nine Arches Press, 2025. 72 pgs. Black Turtleneck Sonnet With my first ever…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Four Poems from ππππ ππππππ” by Troy Cabida](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/81b4db7dtkl._sl1500_-1.jpg?w=984)
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Editor’s note: Julia Merican reads Lu Leiβs practice through meals, menus, embroidery, and exhibitions, attending to how intimacy operates as both method and politics. From private dinners with strangers to layered textile works, Lu uses food and language to negotiate…
![[ESSAY] βA Seat at the Table: Lu Lei and the Politics of Intimacyβ by Julia Merican](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/64901cc90ad6cbfa52190a71-biography_1325594-resize-1920-1234.webp?w=1024)
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Read Zheng Wang’s essay “A Gaze Across the River: On Translating Zhang Zhihao” HERE. Editor’s note: These translations, rendered by Zheng Wang, bring together a decade-spanning selection of Zhang Zhihaoβs poems that dwell on family, rural landscapes, ageing, grief, desire,…
![[TRANSLATION] “Ten Poems” by Zhang Zhihao, translated by Zheng Wang Β](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/zhange28098s-profile-photo.jpeg?w=591)
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Editor’s note: Zheng Wangβs essay reflects on his encounter with the poet Zhang Zhihao and the process of translating his poetry across languages and generations. It traces their meeting by the Yangtze River into a broader meditation on rootedness, memory,…
![[ESSAY] “A Gaze Across the River: On Translating Zhang Zhihao” by Zheng Wang Β](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/https-__www.poetryinternational.com_en_poets-poems_poets_poet_102-28920_zhang.jpg?w=336)
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Editor’s note: John E. Barrios examines Norberto Roldanβs Viva EspaΓ±a, Long Live America, staged from 25 November to 31 December 2022 in Museo Iloilo and Kri8 Art Space, as a meditation on colonial afterlives. He traces how Catholic relics, American…
![[ESSAY] βPostcolonial Ambivalence in Norberto Roldanβs πππ£π πΈπ πππΜπ, πΏπππ πΏππ£π π΄ππππππβ by John E. Barrios](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/norberto-roldan.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “Fieldnotes: Bund and Flood” by Aizuddin Anuar Translator’s note: This is a translation of my own work, originally written in Malay and titled βNota lapangan: ban dan banjirβ (2025), which was published in MediaSelangor in Malaysia. Through a series…
![[ESSAY] “Fieldnotes: Bund and Flood” by Aizuddin Anuar](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jelai-river_bund-aizuddin-anuar.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In his latest essay for Cha, Daniel Gauss examines Dafen, a former rural settlement located in Shenzhenβs Longgang District in southern China, within the Pearl River Delta near the Hong Kong border. The essay examines Dafenβs transformation from…
![[ESSAY] “Dafen Transformed: From Painting Factory to Pre-Fab Cool Zone” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_20260117_151141.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles’s essay traces a Filipino upbringing in conflict-marked Cotabato and its unlikely resonance with Derry Girls. Through memories of militarisation, prejudice, and youthful fear, it shows how humour bridges distant histories, revealing comedy as a…
![[ESSAY] βWhy Does a Guy from Cotabato Province Relate to π·ππππ¦ πΊππππ ?β by Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/derry-girls.jpg?w=1000)
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Editor’s note: Anna Nguyenβs essay critiques the literary marketplaceβs fixation on identity, arguing that it rewards legible, consumable narratives while punishing rigorous resistance. Drawing on Glissant, Jordan, and Davis, she challenges flattened intersectionality, positionality statements, and the colonial gaze masquerading…
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Filmic Silence and the Speaking Body in the Novel” by Thammika Songkaeo Click HERE to read all entrieson Stamford Hospital. Eva Trobisch (director), All Good, 2018. 93 min. In 2020,…
![[ESSAY] “Filmic Silence and the Speaking Body in the Novel” by Thammika Songkaeo](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/stamford-hospital-all-is-good.png?w=846)
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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)
Cha 