Category: Special
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “The Metaphor of Trees: Stephanie Ellen Sy’s The Magnificent Banyan Tree and the Green Tong Lau” by Rebekah Chan Stephanie Ellen Sy (writer), Ishita Jain (illustrator). The Magnificent Banyan Tree…
![[ESSAY] “The Metaphor of Trees: Stephanie Ellen Sy’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑎𝑛 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝐿𝑎𝑢” by Rebekah Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Seed-Plant-Tree-3.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s If I Do Not Reply Is Poetry, Gentle Irony and Defiance” by Cyril Camus Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on If I Do Not Reply. Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, If…
![[ESSAY] “Tammy Lai-Ming Ho’s 𝐼𝑓 𝐼 𝐷𝑜 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑦 Is Poetry, Gentle Irony and Defiance” by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/tammy-lai-ming-ho-2026-1.png)
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[FICTION] “An Asian Study: January” by Anna Nguyen Anna Nguyen on “An Asian Study: January”: My forthcoming chapbook, Cruel Sentimentalism, begins with a scene from my memory of watching The Assassin, the last film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. This particular title is…
![[FICTION] “𝐴𝑛 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦: January” by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/anna-nguyen-an-asian-study-cha.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “What’s Queer about Hong Kong Comics?” by Ronny Chan What’s queer about comics? I’ve been grappling with this question ever since I took a stab at crafting my first queer…
![[ESSAY] “What’s Queer about Hong Kong Comics?” by Ronny Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/combsisters_008.jpg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Theory after Academia: The Frenchmen, A Lover’s Discourse, and the Return to Everyday Life” by Anna Nguyen ❀ Emily Eakin. The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory. Penguin, 2026. 496…
![[REVIEW] “Theory after Academia: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛, 𝐴 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟’𝑠 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒, and the Return to Everyday Life” by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/theory-after-academia-cha.png)
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[ESSAY] “To Belong: Impressions of Hong Kong” by Raimondo Vanitelli Photograph © Raimondo Vanitelli You take in the city and the city accepts you, even if momentarily. 1 The intersection feels timeless. Red cabs with white roofs honk at each other,…
![[ESSAY] “To Belong: Impressions of Hong Kong” by Raimondo Vanitelli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/raimondo-vanitelli-2.jpg)
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[ESSAY] “A Look Back on Anime: Memoir, Poetics, and Literary Hedonism” by Franz Austin V. De Mesa Filipinos wave a One Piece flag as they take part in a protest against corruption at Rizal Park. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Image On 21…
![[ESSAY] “A Look Back on Anime: Memoir, Poetics, and Literary Hedonism” by Franz Austin V. De Mesa](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/e28098a-symbol-of-liberation-how-the-one-piece-manga-flag-became-the-symbol-of-asias-gen-z-protest-movement.jpeg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Scattered Thoughts and Admiration for Her Name Upon the Strand and Other Tammythings: A Partial Retrospective” by Cyril Camus Click here to read all entries in Chaon An Extraterrestrial 🌻…
![[ESSAY] “Scattered Thoughts and Admiration for 𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑁𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑈𝑝𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑑 and Other Tammythings: A Partial Retrospective” by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/books-by-tammy-lai-miing-ho.png)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Kore-eda Does Not Direct Life and Death” by Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles Hirokazu Kore-eda (director). After Life, 1998. 112 min. Every time I say that I am from Carmen, people…
![[ESSAY] “Kore-eda Does Not Direct Life and Death” by Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/after-life-directed-by-hirokazu-kore-eda.jpg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Many Hong Kongs: Xu Xi’s Horizon Hong Kong” by Rebekah Chan Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Horizon Hong Kong. Xu Xi. Horizon Hong Kong: Selected Stories, Gaudy Boy, 2026. 288…
![[REVIEW] “Many Hong Kongs: Xu Xi’s 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑧𝑜𝑛 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝐾𝑜𝑛𝑔” by Rebekah Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/horizonhongkong122925.webp)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “How beautiful will be the feet, of the one who comes to announce my death to me”: Patrick Holland’s Oblivion as “inchoate place on the shores of Oblivion and Mnemosyne” by Jason S…
![[REVIEW] “How beautiful will be the feet, of the one who comes to announce my death to me”: Patrick Holland’s 𝑂𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑛 as “inchoate place on the shores of Oblivion and Mnemosyne” by Jason S Polley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/patrick-hollands-oblivion.jpg)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Never Finish Making Refuge: Mai-Linh Hong’s Continental Drift” by Anna Nguyen Click HERE to read all entrieson Continental Drift. Mai-Linh Hong. Continental Drift, Trio House Press, 2026. 108 pgs. There…
![[REVIEW] “Never Finish Making Refuge: Mai-Linh Hong’s 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑡” by Anna Nguyen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/mai-linh-hong.-continental-drift.webp)
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[FICTION] “Three Travelling Portraits: India” by Matt Reeck Also read “No Moral at Its End”, Matt Reeck’s essayon “Three Travelling Portraits: India” Preeti (Delhi) I FLEW INTO INDIA on December ninth. I was going to stay at the Fulbright House…
![[FICTION] “Three Travelling Portraits: India” by Matt Reeck](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/screenshot-2026-07-10-at-18.33.52.png)
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[ESSAY] “No Moral at Its End” by Matt Reeck Also read Matt Reeck’s story “Three Travelling Portraits: India”. When I wrote “Three Travelling Portraits,” I was interested in depicting some of the sexual tension that I had experienced and witnessed…
![[ESSAY] “No Moral at Its End” by Matt Reeck](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/screenshot-2026-07-10-at-19.06.38.png)
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[ESSAY] “The Internet Cafe That Died During The Pandemic” by Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles There was a well-known internet café in our municipality. Like all other small businesses, it was located at our public terminal since there were no complex…
![[ESSAY] “The Internet Cafe That Died During The Pandemic” by Laurehl Onyx B. Cabiles](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/screenshot-2026-07-11-at-11.40.29.png)
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[FICTION] “The Room After the Typhoon” by Christian Wilken Christian Wilken on “The Room After the Typhoon”: “The Room After the Typhoon” began with a memory from my year as an exchange student in Okinawa, from 2013 to 2014: the…
![[FICTION] “The Room After the Typhoon” by Christian Wilken](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/christian-wilken.png)
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[INCIDENTAL] “Bear, Boar, Monkey, Mouse, and Cat” by Marsha McDonald Bear © Dima Solomin and Marsha McDonald I am returning this year to Japan for a month mid-November, staying near Osaka, and visiting friends, doing my creative work. I will…
![[INCIDENTAL] “Bear, Boar, Monkey, Mouse, and Cat” by Marsha McDonald](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/screenshot-2026-07-11-at-14.09.19.png)
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Editor’s note: Julien Pieron’s essay examines Sophie Houdart’s Ce territoire qui, comme une pulsation… (Éditions des mondes à faire, 2026), an ethnographic study of post-Fukushima life in Tōwa that portrays a world where catastrophe persists as an unclosed present. Through…
![[ESSAY] “Life in the Persistence of Fukushima: Sophie Houdart’s 𝐶𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑞𝑢𝑖, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑒 𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛…” by Julien Pieron](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/maf_houdart_scan_01-resp2880.jpg)