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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Jason S Polley opens his review essay by recounting his fond and fervent championing of Kit Fan’s first novel, Diamond Hill (2021), whose Cantonese-inflected language enabled rare intergenerational and…
![[ESSAY] “𝑍𝑜𝑖 𝐺𝑖𝑛 Canton: Reading Kit Fan’s 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑏𝑦𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛” by Jason S Polley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/goodbye-chinatown-kit-fan-cha.jpg?w=938)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Mordant Wit and Material Imagination in Huang Fan’s flower ash” by Nicholas Y. H. Wong Huang Fan (author), Josh Stenberg (translator). flower ash, Flying Island Books, 2025. 120 pgs. I…
![[REVIEW] “Mordant Wit and Material Imagination in Huang Fan’s 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑠ℎ” by Nicholas Y. H. Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/huang-fan-author-josh-stenberg-translator.-flower-ash-flying-island-books.jpg?w=600)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “What One ‘Nobody’ Did: On Mr Nobody Against Putin” by Jennifer Eagleton David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin (directors), Mr Nobody Against Putin, 2025. 90 min. Mr Nobody Against Putin…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “What One ‘Nobody’ Did: On 𝑀𝑟 𝑁𝑜𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝐴𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑃𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑛” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/mr-nobody-against-putin.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Between Moonlight and Market Prices: Reading Yam Gong” by Jonathan Han Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Moving a Stone. Yam Gong (author), James Shea and Dorothy Tse (translators), Moving a…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Between Moonlight and Market Prices: Reading Yam Gong” by Jonathan Han](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/moving-a-stone.webp?w=900)
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[ESSAY] “In Another Life, I Might Not Be A Better Self” by Lei Wang Miss Universe by John Doe If not for COVID, I would have moved back to China after my MFA, rather than remaining in Iowa. Instead of…
![[ESSAY] “In Another Life, I Might Not Be A Better Self” by Lei Wang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/lei-wang-for-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.jpeg?w=275)
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[ESSAY] “Hong Kong: Once in a Million Years” by Simon Patton Owen Chow 鄒家成 and his tatoo Between 2019 and 2021, Hong Kong was repeatedly in the international spotlight. A decisive clash between civilisations was the main reason for such…
![[ESSAY] “Hong Kong: Once in a Million Years” by Simon Patton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/718kdzhcgql._ac_uf10001000_ql80_.jpg?w=895)
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[ESSAY] “Shelves, Stories, and Silence: Reading Zheng Liu’s 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠” by Laurence Westwood
茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Shelves, Stories, and Silence: Reading Zheng Liu’s Cultural Mavericks” by Laurence Westwood Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Cultural Mavericks. Zheng Liu, Cultural Mavericks: The Business and Politics of Independent Bookselling in…
![[ESSAY] “Shelves, Stories, and Silence: Reading Zheng Liu’s 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠” by Laurence Westwood](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cultural-mavericks-the-business-and-politics-of-independent-bookselling-in-china.jpg?w=971)
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Editor’s note: Elaine Tsai’s essay traces Taiwan’s layered history before turning to Ghost Month, whose rituals of burning joss paper and offering food shape her childhood summers. These practices lead into reflections on ancestor worship, her father’s death, and beliefs…
![[ESSAY] “Ghost Month and the Afterlife” by Elaine Tsai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/the-religious-painting-unprovoked-dead-ghosts.png?w=1024)
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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?w=1024)
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Editor’s Note: “Digital Distances: Social Media, Intergenerational Conflict, and Female Visibility in Contemporary China” is the third in a series of three essays, together entitled “Glimpsing the Other Shore: Distance, Difference, and the Feminist Gaze in Contemporary Chinese Women’s Writing”,…
![[ESSAY] “Digital Distances: Social Media, Intergenerational Conflict, & Female Visibility in Contemporary China” by Caterina Petroselli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/distances3.jpg?w=593)
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