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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Chan Tze-Woon (director), Blue Island, 2022. 97 min. A history student, I linger in the Hong Kong Museum of History’s condensed Hong Kong Story exhibition: one room per millennium,…
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Beijing Bubbles: Andrew Field’s Rocking China” by Matt Turner Andrew Field, Rocking China: Rock Music Scenes in Beijing, Shanghai & Beyond, Earnshaw Books, 2023. 212 pgs. You can listen…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Yudho Aditya (director), Pria, 2017. 22 min. In a world where heterosexuality is still considered the norm, there remain many deterrents for LGBT people from embracing their queerness. And,…
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lt usually takes me two short scooter rides, a session on the Puyuma express train, and a fair amount of walking and waiting to get to and from work every day. I’ve recently given up riding my second scooter from…
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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 How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart. Florentyna Leow, How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart, The Emma Press, 2023. 152 pgs. I open Florentyna Leow’s How Kyoto Breaks…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Soetsu Yanagi, The Beauty of Everyday Things, Penguin, 2018. 352 pgs. The best book purchases are those of volumes discovered serendipitously on a shop shelf, just as the best…
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TH: We are pleased to present an exclusive essay by Frances An on her forthcoming novel, Ladder Brake. Frances also offered us an excerpt from the book. On Writing Ladder Brake by Frances An After her high-achieving older sister disappears,…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Nathan Go, Forgiving Imelda Marcos, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023. 240 pgs. Nathan Go’s novel Forgiving Imelda Marcos comes at a kind of global cultural moment for things Filipino and…
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Translated from the Chinese original, also available below, by the author. Drawing of Mimi by the author. Mimi I’d like to tell you about Mimi. She’s a cat, the shop cat of Taihing Fresh Fruit Store, downstairs in the Tai…
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A scan of a photo I took in August 2015, with a Polaroid camera, using film made by the Impossible Project. It shows a section of a tree that was cut down. A time named “just the next day” and…


![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Hong Kong History in Chan Tze-Woon’s 𝐵𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝐼𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑” by Michelle Suen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/blue-island.png?w=1024)
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Beijing Bubbles: Andrew Field’s 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎” by Matt Turner](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/rocking-china-copy.jpg?w=1024)
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Traditionalist Material Symbols in Yudho Aditya’s 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑎” by Upasana Dandona](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/pria-fi.jpg?w=600)
![[EXCLUSIVE] “The Temptation of the Claw Machine’s Revenge” by Quenntis Ashby](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/the-24-hour-claw-machine-arcade-on-the-corner-of-fuxing-road-and-lide-street-copy.jpg?w=1022)
![[REVIEW] “Shelter Amid Unfamiliar Rains: Florentyna Leow’s 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝐾𝑦𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑠 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡” by Ari Santiago](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/how-kyoto-breaks-your-heart-1.jpg?w=1024)
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Craft Work: Soetsu Yanagi’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/onta-ware-collected-by-yanagi-soetsu.jpg?w=1024)
![[EXCLUSIVE] “On Writing 𝐿𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝐵𝑟𝑎𝑘𝑒” by Frances An](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/ladder-brake-1.png?w=1024)
![[REVIEW] “One Father’s Regret: Nathan Go’s 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐼𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑎 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑠” by Noelle Q. de Jesus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/forgiving-imelda-marcos-1.jpg?w=900)
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Mimi” by Jasmine Tong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/mimi_jasmine-tong_cha-an-asian-literary-journal-1.jpg?w=1024)
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Just the Next Day” by Lydia Kwa](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/tree-shaman-1-1.jpg?w=907)