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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…
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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…
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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…
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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”,…
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Editor’s Note: “The Body as a Site: Class, Migration, & Geographic Distance in Contemporary Chinese Women’s Fiction” is the second in a series of three essays, together entitled “Glimpsing the Other Shore: Distance, Difference, and the Feminist Gaze in Contemporary…
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Editor’s Note: “Distance & Difference: Feminist Frameworks in Zhang Li’s An Anthology of Short Stories by Chinese Women” is the first in a series of three essays, together entitled “Glimpsing the Other Shore: Distance, Difference, and the Feminist Gaze in…
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Editor’s note: Sadie Kaye interviews artist Sai Pradhan on her forthcoming Hong Kong exhibition With Regard to Myths, exploring identity, myth, and materiality. Working on raw, stained fabric, Pradhan evokes symbols, dogs, geckos, eggs, to reflect love, loss, and time.…
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Reading—Making Notes on (There is Always Music)—Geoffrey William Brodaksilva’s The Philosophy of Aggressiveness” by Jeremy Fernando Geoffrey William. Brodaksilva. The Philosophy of Aggressiveness: The Necessity and Indeterminacy of Escape, Atropos…
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Editor’s note: Matt Turner recalls a heat-soaked 2008 dérive across Beijing, tracing Soviet-era housing while reflecting on memory’s fragility and the city’s rapid transformation. Prompted by Hari Kunzru, he contrasts Situationist theory with lived wandering, critiquing both superficial psychogeography and…
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “King of the Hong Kong Kids: Martin Hürlimann’s Hong Kong” by Simon Patton Martin Hürlimann. Hong Kong, Thames and Hudson, 1962. 139 pgs. From Martin Hürlimann’s Hong Kong My sense…


![[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)
![[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)
![[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)
![[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)
![[ESSAY] “The Body as a Site: Class, Migration, & Geographic Distance in Contemporary Chinese Women’s Fiction” by Caterina Petroselli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/distances2-1.jpg?w=596)
![[ESSAY] “Distance & Difference: Feminist Frameworks in Zhang Li’s 𝐴𝑛 𝐴𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛” by Caterina Petroselli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/distances1.jpg?w=597)
![[CONVERSATION] “Art & Soul” by Sadie Kaye and Sai Pradhan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/with-regard-to-myths-sai-pradhan-19-20-21st-march-invitation.jpg?w=1024)
![[ESSAY] “Reading—Making Notes on (There is Always Music)—Geoffrey William Brodaksilva’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐴𝑔𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠” by Jeremy Fernando](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/the-philosophy-of-aggressiveness-geoffrey-w-brodaksilva-author.jpg?w=855)
![[ESSAY] “Remembering a Beijing Dérive” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/untitled-design-31.png?w=329)
![[REVIEW] “King of the Hong Kong Kids: Martin Hürlimann’s 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝐾𝑜𝑛𝑔” by Simon Patton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/martin-hurlimann-reader-image.jpg?w=651)