Category: reviews of translations
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Hiro Arikawa (author), Philip Gabriel (translator), The Travelling Cat Chronicles, Berkley, 2018. 277 pgs. Hiro Arikawa’s The Travelling Cat Chronicles, translated by Philip Gabriel, is a heart-warming book that…
![[REVIEW] “Out Beyond the Horizon: Hiro Arikawa’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠” by Hui-Hua Lu](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/screenshot-2024-08-28-at-15.31.04.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Yao-Chang Chen (author), Pao-Fang Hsu, Ian Maxwell, and Tung-Jung Chen (translators), Puppet Flower: A Novel of 1867 Formosa. Columbia University Press, 2023, 298 pgs. The American servicemen are in…
![[REVIEW] “Send in the Marines: Yao-Chang Chen’s 𝑃𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑡 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟”by Jeff Tompkins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/puppet-flower-a-novel-of-1867-formosa.jpg?w=972)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Banana Yoshimoto (author), Michael Emmerich (translator), Asleep, Grove Atlantic, 2001. 171 pgs. If you’ve read Banana Yoshimoto’s celebrated novella Kitchen, there won’t be much surprise in Asleep for…
![[REVIEW] “The Art of Retelling, Benign Ghosts and 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑜 𝑛𝑜 𝐴𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒 in Banana Yoshimoto’s 𝐴𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑝” by Elnura Huseynova](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/asleep_banana-yoshimoto.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ta Duy Anh (author), Quan Manh Ha and Charles Waugh (translators), The Termite Queen, Penguin Random House SEA, 2023. 256 pgs. Ta Duy Anh’s novels, replete as they are…
![[REVIEW] “A Daring and Unsettling Portrait: Ta Duy Anh’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛” by Mia Tompkins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/the-termite-queen-copy.jpeg?w=625)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Tongueless. Lau Yee-Wa (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Tongueless, The Feminist Press, 2024. 280 pgs. The best way to start the review of a book like Tongueless,…
![[REVIEW] “The Tale of A Material City: Lau Yee-wa’s 𝑇𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠” by Luca Griseri](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/tongueless_cha.jpg?w=938)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Bluebeard’s First Wife. Ha Seong-nan (author), Janet Hong (translator), Bluebeard’s First Wife, Open Letter Books, 2020. 230 pgs. The following words resonate throughout the eleven…
![[REVIEW] “Outside Cones of Light was Total Darkness: Ha Seong-nan’s 𝐵𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑑’𝑠 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑊𝑖𝑓𝑒” 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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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Cho Nam-joo. Cho Nam-joo (author), Jamie Chang (translator), Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Liveright, 2021. 176 pgs. Everyone who has read Cho Nam-joo’s debut novel Kim…
![[REVIEW] “The Limited Life of a Woman: Cho Nam-joo’s 𝐾𝑖𝑚 𝐽𝑖𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔, 𝐵𝑜𝑟𝑛 1982” by Dorina Tataran](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/kim-jiyoung-born-1982.jpg?w=923)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Osamu Dazai (author), Sam Bett (translator), The Flowers of Buffoonery, New Directions, 2023. 63 pgs. The Flowers of Buffoonery (『道化の華』/ Dōke no Hana), an early work by Osamu Dazai…
![[REVIEW] “Constructing a Performative Self: Osamu Dazai’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑢𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑦” by James Kin Pong Au](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/the-flowers-of-buffoonery.jpg?w=778)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Yasunari Kawabata (author), Haydn Trowell (translator), The Rainbow, Penguin, 2023. 400 pgs. Yasunari Kawabata’s The Rainbow, recently translated into English for the first time, evokes in me a strong…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Carrying On: Yasunari Kawabata’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑏𝑜𝑤” by Gabrielle Tse](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/the-rainbow-kawabata-yasunari.jpg?w=933)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Natsume Sōseki. Natsume Sōseki (author), Matt Treyvaud (translator), Ten Nights Dreaming and The Cat’s Grave, Dover Publications, 2015. 96 pgs. It was the twilight of…
![[REVIEW] “Reading Natsume Sōseki as a Historian of Twentieth-Century East Asia” by Emily Matson](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/natsume-soseki.png?w=1024)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Violets. Kyung-sook Shin (author), Anton Hur (translator), Violets, The Feminist Press, 2022. 218 pgs. I fell in love with Kyung-sook Shin’s writing after reading the…
![[REVIEW] “Keeping You Captivated: Kyung-sook Shin’s 𝑉𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠” by Dorina Tataran](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/violets.jpg?w=932)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Natsume Sōseki. Natsume Sōseki (author), Matt Treyvaud (translator), Ten Nights Dreaming and The Cat’s Grave, Dover Publications, 2015. 96 pgs. Natsume Sōseki’s Ten Nights Dreaming…
![[REVIEW] “A Dreamlike Book: Natsume Sōseki’s 𝑇𝑒𝑛 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒” by Marsha McDonald](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ten-nights-dreaming-and-the-cats-grave.jpg?w=647)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS 📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Thuận (author), Nguyễn An Lý (translator), Chinatown, New Directions, 2022. 160 pgs. A train in the Paris Metro is brought to a halt by a potential bomb threat. Her commute disrupted, the unnamed narrator of Chinatown begins…
![[REVIEW] “On the Primal and Final Mystery: Her Mind Unravels in Thuận’s 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛” by Kammy Lee](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/chinatown.jpg?w=800)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on The Woman in the Purple Skirt. Natsuko Imamura (author), Lucy North (translator), The Woman in the Purple Skirt, Penguin Random House, 2021. 224…
![[REVIEW] “Obsessed: On Natsuko Imamura’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑢𝑟𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑆𝑘𝑖𝑟𝑡” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/the-woman-in-the-purple-skirt.jpg?w=925)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mahasweta Devi (author), Arunava Sinha (translator), The Murderer’s Mother, Seagull Books, 2023. 248 pgs. The Murderer’s Mother (Murderer Er Maa), originally published in 1992, is the latest…
![[REVIEW] “A Sobering Read: Mahasweta Devi’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑢𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑟’𝑠 𝑀𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟” by Jack Greenberg](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/mahasweta_murderers_mother__15926.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mourning a Breast. Xi Xi (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Mourning a Breast, New York Review Books, 2024. 320 pgs. My grandmother was seventy-five when…
![[REVIEW] “Living On: Xi Xi’s 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/mourning-a-breast_xi-xi_jennifer-feeley.jpg?w=938)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Hiroko Oyamada. Hiroko Oyamada (author), David Boyd (translator), The Hole, New Directions Publishing, 2020. 112 pgs. Hiroko Oyamada’s…
![[REVIEW] “Trapped in The Uncanny Valley: Hiroko Oyamada’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑒” by Maria Cohut](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/hiroko-oyamada_the-hole.jpg?w=778)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Tongueless. Lau Yee-Wa (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Tongueless, The Feminist Press, 2024. 280 pgs. Wai, the tragic figure at the heart of this…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on A Cha Chaan Teng That Does Not Exist. Derek Chung (author), May Huang (translator), A Cha Chaan Teng That Does Not Exist, Zephyr…
![[REVIEW] “Being a Hongkonger: Derek Chung’s 𝐴 𝐶ℎ𝑎 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑎𝑛 𝑇𝑒𝑛𝑔 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐷𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝐸𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡” by Mary King Bradley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/a-cha-chaan-teng-that-does-not-exist.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mourning a Breast. Xi Xi (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Mourning a Breast, New York Review Books, 2024. 320 pgs. What should those of us…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Touring the Land of the Dead. Maki Kashimada (author), Haydn Trowell (translator), Touring the Land of the Dead (and Ninety-Nine Kisses), Europa Editions, 2021.…
![[REVIEW] “A Profound Exploration of Reality—Maki Kashimada’s 𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑: 𝑇𝑤𝑜 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑠” by James Kin Pong Au](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/touring-the-land-of-the-dead-and-ninety-nine-kiss.jpg?w=890)
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[REVIEW] “Navigating the Fault Lines of Travel: Yun Ko-eun’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡” by Jack Greenberg
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Yun Ko-eun (author), Lizzie Buehler (translator), The Disaster Tourist, Serpent’s Tail, 2020. 186 pgs. After reviewing Yun Ko-eun’s latest collection of short stories, published in this journal,…
![[REVIEW] “Navigating the Fault Lines of Travel: Yun Ko-eun’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡” by Jack Greenberg](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/the-disaster-tourist.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Mourning a Breast. Xi Xi (author), Jennifer Feeley (translator), Mourning a Breast, New York Review Books, 2024. 320 pgs. From the preface to the…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on People from My Neighbourhood. Hiromi Kawakami (author), Ted Goossen (translator), People from My Neighbourhood, Granta Books, 2021. 96 pgs. The world depicted in Kawakami…
![[REVIEW] “Coexistence of the Familiar and the Unfamiliar: Hiromi Kawakami’s 𝑃𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑀𝑦 𝑁𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑟ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑑” by James Kin-Pong Au](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/people-from-my-neighbourhood.jpg?w=1005)
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Chris Song’s Note: “The Charred City” conveys the manic restlessness Hongkongers felt after 1997. The story is set in the stifling social atmosphere of post-Handover Hong Kong, which was “charred”, ironically by pervasive celebratory fireworks. The protagonist, at the behest…
![[TRANSLATION] “The Charred City” by Lok Fung, Translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/lok-fung-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.jpg?w=1024)
Cha 