Category: Jennifer Anne Eagleton
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Off-Kilter Worlds and Authoritarian Futures in Ysabelle Cheung’s Patchwork Dolls” by Jennifer Eagleton Ysabelle Cheung, Patchwork Dolls, Blair, 2026. 200 pgs. Ysabelle Cheungβs stories are clearly connected to contemporary society,…
![[REVIEW] “Off-Kilter Worlds and Authoritarian Futures in Ysabelle Cheung’s πππ‘πβπ€πππ π·ππππ ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/patchwork-dolls.webp?w=1024)
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θΆ FIθΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Gigi L. Leungβs Everyday Movement and the Human Texture of Protest” by Jennifer Eagleton Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Everyday Movement. Gigi L. Leung (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Everyday Movement,…
![[REVIEW] “Gigi L. Leungβs πΈπ£πππ¦πππ¦ πππ£πππππ‘ and the Human Texture of Protest” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/everyday-movement-by-gigi-l.-leung-translated-by-jennifer-feeley-.jpg?w=993)
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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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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “James Sheaβs Last Day of My Face and the Practice of Not Knowing” by Jennifer Eagleton ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Last Day of My Face. James Shea, The Last Day of…
![[REVIEW] “James Sheaβs πΏππ π‘ π·ππ¦ ππ ππ¦ πΉπππ and the Practice of Not Knowing” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/https-uipress.uiowa_.edubookslast-day-my-face.jpg?w=970)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Kokuho: Lee Sang-ilβs Mesmerizing Portrait of Kabuki Mastery” by Jennifer Eagleton Lee Sang-il (director), Kokuho, 2025. 174 min. What makes Lee Sang-ilβs Kokuho special are the tight closeups of onnagata…
![[REVIEW] “πΎπππ’βπ: Lee Sang-ilβs Mesmerizing Portrait of Kabuki Mastery” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/httpsgkids.comfilmskokuho.png?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on So That You Know. Mani Rao, So That You Know, HarperCollins India, 2025. 312 pgs. Referring to notes I made on Mani Raoβs newest poetry…
![[REVIEW] βA Prism of Time: The Shifting Passions of Mani Raoβs Poetry in ππ πβππ‘ πππ’ πΎπππ€β by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/mani-rao-so-that-you-know-cha.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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πRETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπRETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ming-sho Ho, Challenging Beijingβs Mandate of Heaven: Taiwanβs Sunflower Movement and Hong Kongβs Umbrella Movement, Temple University Press, 2018. 270 pgs. Ming-sho Hoβs Challenging Beijingβs Mandate of Heaven compares…
![[REVIEW] βRadicals, Realists, and RevolutionsβA Tale of Two Movements: Ming-sho Hoβs πΆβπππππππππ π΅ππππππβπ ππππππ‘π ππ π»πππ£ππβ by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/this-is-just-the-begining.jpg?w=720)
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πRETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπRETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ming-sho Ho, Be Water: Collective Improvisation in Hong Kongβs Anti-Extradition Protests, Temple University Press, 2025. 258 pgs. The Hong Kong protests of 2019, which erupted in opposition to the…
![[REVIEW] “Improvising Revolution: Hong Kongβs Protests Through the Lens of Ming-sho Ho” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/the-flowers-of-democracy-are-everywhere.jpg?w=1024)
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πRETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπRETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mending Bodies. Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies, Two Lines Press, 2025. 240 pgs. For those who haven’t read the original Chinese…
![[REVIEW] “Walking in Unison?: On Hon Lai Chu’s πππππππ π΅πππππ ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/hon-lai-chu-author-jacqueline-leung-translator-mending-bodies-two-lines-press-2025.-240-pgs.jpg?w=938)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπRETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Uketsu (author), Jim Rion (translator), Strange Pictures, HarperVia, 2025. 240 pgs. In the Prologue, we are told: βAll right, everyone, now Iβm going to show you a picture.β…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βThe Reader as Detective: Uketsuβs ππ‘πππππ ππππ‘π’πππ β by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/uketsu-author-jim-rion-translator-strange-pictures-harpervia-2025.png?w=974)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Han Kang (author), e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (translators), We do Not Part, Hogarth, 2025. 272 pgs. Kyungha struggles to sleep or eat, suffers from persistent…
![[REVIEW] βThe Persistance of Memory: Han Kangβs ππ π·π πππ‘ ππππ‘β by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/https-www.penguinrandomhouse.combooks718535we-do-not-part-by-han-kang-translated-by-e-yaewon-and-paige-aniyah-morris.png?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Mina’s Matchbox. YΕko Ogawa (author), Stephen B. Snyder (translator), Minaβs Matchbox, Pantheon Books, 2024. 288 pages. In YΕko Ogawaβs previous novel, The Memory Police, set…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βMemory-keeping: YΕko Ogawaβs ππππβπ πππ‘πβπππ₯β by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/819ycgclrml._sl1500_.jpg?w=940)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Han Kang (author), Deborah Smith (translator), The White Book, Portobello Books, 2016. 128 pgs. As Han Kong wrote out her list of white things at the beginning of the…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Meditation on Whiteness: Han Kang’s πβπ πβππ‘π π΅πππ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/the-white-book-first-published-may-25-2016.jpg?w=977)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Half Sound, Half Philosophy. Jing Wang, Half Sound, Half Philosophy: Aesthetics, Politics of China’s Sound Art, Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. 232 pgs. Half Sound, Half Philosophy:…
![[REVIEW] “The World of Sound as Art in China: Jing Wang’s π»πππ πππ’ππ, π»πππ πβππππ ππβ𦔠by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/half-sound-half-philosophy.png?w=938)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Pawo Choyning Dorji (director), The Monk and the Gun, 2023. 107 min. The Kingdom of Bhutan, 2006. Bhutan enters the modern world, becoming the last country in the world…
![[REVIEW] “Democracy Should Be Thought of as a Verb: Pawo Choyning Dorji’s πβπ ππππ πππ π‘βπ πΊπ’π” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pawo-choyning-dorji-.jpg?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Bluebeard’s First Wife. Ha Seong-nan (author), Janet Hong (translator), Bluebeardβs First Wife, Open Letter Books, 2020. 230 pgs. The following words resonate throughout the eleven…
![[REVIEW] βOutside Cones of Light was Total Darkness: Ha Seong-nanβs π΅ππ’ππππππβπ πΉπππ π‘ ππππβ by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ha-seong-nanauthor-janet-hong-translator-bluebeards-first-wife.jpg?w=971)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Tongueless. Lau Yee-Wa (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Tongueless, The Feminist Press, 2024. 280 pgs. Wai, the tragic figure at the heart of this…
![[REVIEW] “A Rather Allegorical Novel: Lau Yee-Wa’s πππππ’ππππ π ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/tongueless_cha.jpg?w=938)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Perfect Days. Wim Wenders (director),Β Perfect Days, 2023. 123 min. Perfect Days (2023) is a drama directed by Wim Wenders, from a script written…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “An Excellent Example of Slow Cinema: Wim Wenders’s πππππππ‘ π·ππ¦π ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/perfect-days-copy.webp?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Slightly Off-kilter Worlds: Yun Ko-eun’s Table for One” by Jennifer Eagleton ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Table for One. Yun Ko-eun (author), Lizzie Buehler (translator),Β Table for One: Stories, Columbia University…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Slightly Off-kilter Worlds: Yun Ko-eun’s πππππ πππ πππ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/yun-ko-eun_table-for-one.png?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ocean Vuong, Time Is a Mother, Penguin Random House, 2022. 112 pgs. Building a foundation on the aftershocks of his motherβs death, this collection of Ocean Vuong further explores,…
![[REVIEW] βIβve Plagiarised My Life to Give You the Best of Me: Ocean Vuongβs ππππ πΌπ π πππ‘βππ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/time-is-a-mother-1.jpg?w=932)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Paul Lynch, Prophet Song, Oneworld Books, 2023. 320 pgs. Although I was reading about a fictitious Ireland, as I began Prophet Song, Paul Lynchβs Booker Prize-winning novel, I felt…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “To Flee or Not to Flee: Paul Lynch’s ππππβππ‘ ππππ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/prophet-song.jpg?w=978)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Dung Kai-cheung (author), Bonnie S. McDougall and Anders Hansson (translators), A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On, Columbia University Press, 2022. 218 pgs. First published in…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βAesthetics of Obsolescence: Dung Kai-cheungβs π΄ πΆππ‘ππππ ππ ππ’πβ ππ‘π’ππ ππ π·πππππ π΄ππ ππππ ππ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a-catalog-of-such-stuff-as-dreams-are-made-on_cha-banner.png?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS R.F. Kuang, Yellowface, William Morrow, 2023. 336 pgs. The title of the novel and its bright yellow cover suggests that the subject matter might having something to do with…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Can An Author Write About Anything? Reading R.F. Kuang’s ππππππ€ππππ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/yellowface_wide-a73252995366ad95b7c30c94329e78559d919765-s1400-c100.jpg?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on The Seven Moons. Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Penguin India, 2022. Nearly the first impression you get in The Seven Moon of Maali…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Wait Till You See it With Ghosts: Shehan Karunatilaka’s πβπ πππ£ππ πππππ ππ πππππ π΄ππππππ” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/the-seven-moons-of-maali-almeida_shehan-karunatilaka.png?w=1024)
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πΒ RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπΒ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Identity, Home and Writing Elsewhere. Jennifer Wong, Identity, Home and Writing Elsewhere in Contemporary Chinese Diaspora Poetry, Bloomsbury, 2023. Jennifer…
![[REVIEW] βA Historical Document: Jennifer Wongβs πΌππππ‘ππ‘π¦, π»πππ πππ ππππ‘πππ πΈππ ππ€βπππ ππ πΆπππ‘ππππππππ¦ πΆβππππ π π·πππ ππππ ππππ‘ππ¦β by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/jennifer-wong-cha-identity-home-and-writing-elsewhere.png?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY Every Sunday morning, I listen to a radio programme that plays new music. And on this day, a date when something terrible happened 34 years ago, I thought of songs about forgetting and remembering, of…
![[JUST ANOTHER DAY] Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/just-another-day_cha.png?w=1024)
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{Written by Jennifer Anne Eagleton, this review is part of Issue 46 of Cha.} {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} ClickΒ HERE to readΒ all entries inΒ ChaΒ onΒ Aftershock. Holmes Chan (editor), Aftershock: Essays from Hong Kong, Small Tune Press, 2020. 93 pgs. Aftershocks are small…
![[REVIEW] “Hong Kong’s Unstable Fault Lines: A Review of π΄ππ‘πππ βπππ” by Jennifer Anne Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/aftershock_edited-by-holmes-chan.png?w=1024)
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{Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Carlos Rojas (special issue editor), Method as Method, V16: N2 of Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature. Duke University Press, 2019. Method here is used as a βprismβ to tease out our underlying assumptions…
![[REVIEW] “Beyond Tired Old Boundaries: A Review of Method as Method” by Jennifer Anne Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/prism_method-as-method.png?w=1024)
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π RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONSπ RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Not Written Words. Xi Xi (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Not Written Words, Zephyr Press and MCCM Creations, 2016. 152 pgs. Charles Bernstein in his essay in…
![[REVIEW] “Seeing Sounds and Tasting Words: Xi Xi’s πππ‘ ππππ‘π‘ππ πππππ ” by Jennifer Anne Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/not-written-words-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.png?w=1024)
Cha 