Category: Matt Turner
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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: 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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“Article 5.3: Under no circumstances shall any citizen go to the capital.” This is one of the most serious of all our laws. Anyone who grew up in my village of Orfetel, only a few daysβ travel from the ruins…
![[EXCLUSIVE] βIn Farghestanβ by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/farghestan6-1.png?w=972)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Matt Turner recently read Anthony Tao’s new poetry collection, We Met in Beijing, and went to a reading of his in New York. He wrote a short “consideration” about it all…
![[ESSAY] “Anthony Tao at Sunset Bar” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/anthony-tao_cha-an-asian-literary-journal-1.png?w=1024)
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Iβd nervously sweated through the last 23 hours, certain Iβd be escorted to a ventilation-less detention room to wait for a flight back to the US. And now I faced a Border Control officer who looked through my passport without…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “In Beijing: 12.26-1.10” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image0-2.jpeg?w=1024)
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TH: In this essay, Matt Turner meditates on a couple of recent concerts he attended at Dream House and Task, both in New York. In late July this year, I attended a performance at Dream House in lower Manhattan; I…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Space for ‘Music'” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/dh2023_1.jpg?w=1024)
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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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“4AM, Fort Lee”, photo by Matt Turner In the Fall of 2022, there was a gas leak in the building I lived in in Brooklyn. ConEd Power came by to take a look, and by the time they left we…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “City Without Death: Poems” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/fort-lee_matt-turner_cha.png?w=1024)
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θΆ FIRST IMPRESSIONS θΆ REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βBeijing Bubbles: Andrew Fieldβs Rocking Chinaβ by Matt Turner Andrew Field, Rocking China: Rock Music Scenes in Beijing, Shanghai & Beyond, Earnshaw Books, 2023. 212 pgs. You can listen…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] βBeijing Bubbles: Andrew Fieldβs π
ππππππ πΆβπππβ by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/rocking-china-copy.jpg?w=1024)
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TH: With great pleasure we are presenting Matt Turner’s preface to his translation of Lu Xun’s Weeds ιθ, published by Seaweed Salad Editions in 2019. The book also includes an introduction by Nick Admussen and woodblock print artwork by Monika…
![[FEATURE] Lu Xun’s πππππ : Preface](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/screenshot-2023-02-06-at-22.02.47.png?w=1024)
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After Death by Lu Xun, translated from the Chinese into English by Matt Turner I dreamt I was dead on the road. Where I was, how I arrived there, how I died, I understood none of it. In short, by…
![[FEATURE] Lu Xun’s πππππ : After Death](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/lu-xune28094monika-lin-1.png?w=1024)
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Beggars by Lu Xun, translated from the Chinese into English by Matt Turner Iβm walking alongside a high, peeling wall, stamping loose dust. Several others walk alone. A breeze comes up, and tree branches above the wall, with still-unwithered leaves,…
![[FEATURE] Lu Xun’s πππππ : Beggars](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/weeds_lu-xun.webp?w=1024)
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Trembling Decay by Lu Xun, translated from the Chinese into English by Matt Turner I dreamt I was dreaming. I didnβt know where I was, before my eyes, late night, the confining interior of a small hutβand I could also…
![[FEATURE] Lu Xun’s πππππ : Trembling Decay](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/web-page-2-1024x693-1-1.webp?w=604)
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{Written by Matt Turner, this review is part of Issue 46 of Cha.} {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} David Clark, China-Art-Modernity: A Critical Introduction to Chinese Visual Expression from the Beginning of the Twentieth Century to the Present…
![[REVIEW] “Experiments in Form: A Review of David Clark’s πΆβπππβπ΄ππ‘βππππππππ‘𦔠by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/david-clarke_china-art-modernity.jpg?w=1024)
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{Written by Matt Turner, this review is part of Issue 46 (March/April 2020) of Cha.}Β {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Eric Selland, Object States, theenk Books, 2018. 65 pgs. Eric Selland, the author of Object States and five…
![[REVIEW] “Margin Walker: Eric Selland’s ππππππ‘ ππ‘ππ‘ππ ” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/eric-selland_object-states.jpg?w=1024)
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{Written by Matt Turner, this review is part of Issue 46 (March/April 2020) of Cha.}Β {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Liu Ding ειΌ and Carol Yinghua Lu η§θΏθ― (editors), Salon Salon: Fine Art Practices from 1972 to 1982…
![[Review] “Beijing! Beijing!: A Review of Salon Salon: Fine Art Practices” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/salon-salon_beijing.jpg?w=1024)
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{Written by DragoΕ Ilca, this review is part of Issue 45 (January/February 2020) of Cha.}Β {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Matt Tuner, Not Moving, Broken Sleep Books, 2019. 48 pgs. I really wish there weren’t that many Matt…
![[REVIEW] “Lots of Tricks in Its Pages: Matt Turner’s Not Moving” by DragoΕ Ilca](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/not-moving_by-matt-turner-1.png?w=1024)
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{Written by May Huang, this review is part of Issue 44 (June/July 2019) of Cha.} {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Mi Jialu (author), Jennifer Feeley, Matt Turner, Haiying Weng, Lucas Klein, Michael Day, and Feng Yi (translators), Deep…
![[Review] “Songs of the Seasons: Mi Jialu’s Deep Breaths” by May Huang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/deep-breaths.jpg?w=1024)
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{Written by Matt Turner, this review is part of Issue 39 (April 2018) of Cha.}Β {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Paul French, Bloody Saturday: Shanghai’s Darkest Day, Penguin, 2017. 116 pgs. Most general summaries of Shanghai are too…
![[Review] Shanghai Swan Song: Paul French’s Bloody Saturday: Shanghai’s Darkest Day](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/bloody-saturday.jpg?w=400)
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{Written by Matt Turner, this review is part of Issue 39 (April 2018) of Cha.}Β {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films.} Kaitlin Solimine, Empire of Glass, Ig Publishing, 2017. 297 pgs. When Wang Guanmiao, future husband of Huang Li-ming,…
![[Review] Revolutionary Practice: Kaitlin Solimine’s Empire of Glass](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/empire-of-glass1.png?w=417)
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{Written by Matt Turner, this review is part of the “Writing Hong Kong” Issue (December 2017) of Cha.}Β {Return to Cha Review of Books and Films} Simon Cartledge, A System Apart: Hong Kong’s Political Economy from 1997 until Now, Penguin, 2017.…
![[REVIEW] “Between a Rock: Simon Cartledge’s π΄ ππ¦π π‘ππ π΄ππππ‘: π»πππ πΎπππ’π πππππ‘ππππ πΈππππππ¦ ππππ 1997 ππππ πππ€” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/simon-cartledge_a-system-apart.jpg?w=872)
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Cha: An Asian Literary JournalΒ is now calling for submissions for Issue 39, scheduled for publication in March 2018. Please send in (preferably Asian-themed) poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews, photography & art for consideration. Submission guidelines can be foundΒ here. Deadline: 31…
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