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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ❀ Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. 148 pgs.❀ Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. 129 pgs.❀ Julie Otsuka,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Julie Otsuka: The Ideal of Justice and the Reality of History” by Jiahe Chen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/julie-otsuka_cha.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 Idol, Burning. Rin Usami (author), Asa Yoneda (translator), Idol, Burning, HarperVia, 2022.144 pgs. Japan, for me, has long been a pop music paradise. On my…
![[REVIEW] “When a Passion Turns Toxic: Rin Usami’s 𝐼𝑑𝑜𝑙, 𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔” by Wendy Tokunaga](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/rin-usami-author-asa-yoneda-translator-idol-burning.jpg?w=946)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Annie Zaidi, Bread, Cement, Cactus: A Memoir of Belonging and Dislocation, Cambridge University Press, 2020. 166 pgs. Annie Zaidi’s memoir Bread, Cement, Cactus: A Memoir of Belonging and Dislocation…
![[REVIEW] “Lived Reality: Annie Zaidi’s Memoir 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑, 𝐶𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝐶𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑠” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/annie-zaidi-bread-cement-cactus-a-memoir-of-belonging-and-dislocation.jpg?w=971)
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“Article 5.3: Under no circumstances shall any citizen go to the capital.” This is one of the most serious of all our laws. Anyone who grew up in my village of Orfetel, only a few days’ travel from the ruins…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “In Farghestan” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/farghestan6-1.png?w=972)
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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 Half Sound, Half Philosophy. Jing Wang, Half Sound, Half Philosophy: Aesthetics, Politics, and History of China’s Sound Art, Bloomsbury, 2021. 232 pgs. Jing Wang’s Half…
![[REVIEW] “Overhearing 𝑄𝑖: Jing Wang’s 𝐻𝑎𝑙𝑓 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑, 𝐻𝑎𝑙𝑓 𝑃ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑦” by Maurice Windleburn](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/half-sound-half-philosophy-aesthetics-politics-and-history-of-chinas-sound-art.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Yvonne Yevan Yu, Christine Vicera, and Julie Ham (editors), Ingat: An Anthology of Works by Migrant Domestic Worker Creatives in Hong Kong, Small Tune Press, 2024. 228 pgs. The…
![[REVIEW] “Sometimes Painful, Sometimes Uplifting—𝐼𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑡: 𝐴𝑛 𝐴𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑂𝑓 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠 𝐵𝑦 𝑀𝑖𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝐷𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑟 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝐼𝑛 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝐾𝑜𝑛𝑔” by Tim Pit Hok Yau](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/4670.jpg?w=500)
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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 In the Mood for Love. Wong Kar-wai (director), In the Mood for Love, 2000. 98 min. I have been haunted by the same film for twenty-five…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Ghosts of Wong Kar-wai: On 𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒” by Anders Kølle](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/in-the-mood-for-love-wong-kar-wai-2020-4k-red-ds-os-195-_blur.webp?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jiaming Tang, Cinema Love, John Murray, 2024. 304 pgs. Cinema Love is the impressive debut novel by Chinese-American writer Jiaming Tang. The book’s blurb and the opening chapters may…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Gut-punching Melodrama: Jiaming Tang’s 𝐶𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jiaming-tang-cinema-love-john-murray.jpg?w=975)
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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 Mina’s Matchbox. Yōko Ogawa (author), Stephen B. Snyder (translator), Mina’s Matchbox, Pantheon Books, 2024. 288 pages. In Yōko Ogawa’s previous novel, The Memory Police, set…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Memory-keeping: Yōko Ogawa’s 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑎’𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑏𝑜𝑥” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/819ycgclrml._sl1500_.jpg?w=940)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Lauren Walden, Surrealism from Paris to Shanghai, Hong Kong University Press, 2024. 152 pgs. In Surrealism from Paris to Shanghai, Lauren Walden has done modern Chinese art history a…
![[REVIEW] “Recovering Shanghai’s Lost Surrealist Tradition: Lauren Walden’s 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑚 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔ℎ𝑎𝑖” by Paul French](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/surrealism-from-paris-to-shanghai.jpg?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
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