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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mandira Chakraborty, Firefly Games, Sambhavna Prakashan, 2025. 217 pgs. The world we inhabit today is a curious interplay between misinformation and an overwhelming excess of information—one click or…
![[REVIEW] “Mandira Chakraborty’s 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑦 𝐺𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠: Stories of Light and Shadow” by Sayan Aich](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/mandira-chakraborty-firefly-games.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Nobuhiro Doi (director), Hanamizuki, 2010. 128 min. Water plays a significant role in the work of many filmmakers. One might, for instance, recall the rainwater and silvery puddles…
![[REVIEW] “The Measure of Love in Nobuhiro Doi’s 𝐻𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑧𝑢𝑘𝑖” by Anders Kølle](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/hanamizuki-e3838fe3838ae3839fe382bae382ad.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Anru Lee, Haunted Modernities: Gender, Memory and Placemaking in Post-industrial Taiwan, University of Hawai’i Press, 2023. 246 pgs. Anru Lee first learned of the 25 Maiden Ladies’ Tomb…
![[REVIEW] “From Spirits to Statues: Commemorating Women Workers in Anru Lee’s 𝐻𝑎𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠” by Elsa Mathews](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/haunted-modernities-gender-memory-and-placemaking-in-postindustrial-taiwan.jpg?w=994)
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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 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…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Magical Realism or Political Prophecy? Hon Lai Chu’s 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 Reexamined” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](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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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 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] “The Persistance of Memory: Han Kang’s 𝑊𝑒 𝐷𝑜 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡” 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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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Robin Visser, Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan, Columbia University Press, 2023. 352 pgs. In recent years, the escalating global urgency surrounding ecological crises has prompted renewed…
![[REVIEW] “Relational Ecologies and the Displacement of Borders: Reading Visser’s Sinophone Environmental Imaginary” by Sonalika Chaturvedi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/questioning-borders-ecoliteratures-of-china-and-taiwan-columbia-university-press.jpg?w=1000)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Adam Mars-Jones’s Box Hill: A Bold Celebration of Queer Love and Desire” by Hongwei Bao Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Pillion & Box Hill. Adam Mars-Jones, Box Hill, Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020.…
![[REVIEW] “Adam Mars-Jones’s 𝐵𝑜𝑥 𝐻𝑖𝑙𝑙: A Bold Celebration of Queer Love and Desire” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/box-hill.jpg?w=779)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Nicholas de Villiers, Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang, The University of Minnesota Press, 2022. 216 pgs. As one of the most celebrated Chinese-language…
![[REVIEW] “Feeling Queer—Nicholas de Villiers’s 𝐶𝑟𝑢𝑖𝑠𝑦, 𝑆𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑦, 𝑀𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑦: 𝑆𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑖𝑙𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑠𝑎𝑖 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑔-𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑔” by Haley Agcaoili B.](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang.jpg?w=971)
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Jacqueline Leung’s note: “果實微溫,” pronounced “gwo sud mei wun,” translates literally from Cantonese as “warm fruit” and phonetically echoes “grocery run.” When Stuart Lau Wai-shing attended the Iowa International Writing Program in 2017, a bus would arrive each Tuesday morning, ferrying…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Warm Fruit” by Stuart Lau, translated by Jacqueline Leung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/stuart-lau_jacqueline-leung_cha.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mike Sakas (director), City of Shells: Our Forgotten Oyster Reefs, 2025. 66 min. As Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds us, we cannot restore our relationships with nature without also engaging…
![[REVIEW] “Re-story-ation of the Hong Kong Oyster: 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑠” by Tim Pit Hok Yau](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/mike-sakas-director-city-of-shells-2025.png?w=1024)
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Header artwork by Annysa Ng 茶 First Impressionsclick for information 茶 Essays click for information 茶 En Routeclick for information 茶 XI XI—Can We Sayclick for information 茶 Write to Powerclick for information 茶 Auditory Cortexclick for information
Cha 