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Editor’s note: Ratan Bhattacharjee’s essay on Amitav Ghosh’s 2025 Pak Kyongni Prize win situates this landmark recognition within the broader terrain of world literature and ecological thought. Ghosh’s achievement underscores the moral and imaginative strength of diaspora writing, linking history,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Amitav Ghosh’s Pak Kyongni Prize 2025: A Diaspora Writer’s Triumph” by Ratan Bhattacharjee](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/untitled-design-28-1.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Sean Wang (director), Didi, 2024. 96 min. In Chinese culture, parents often address their children by their familial roles, a gesture of affection and intimacy. My mother calls me…
![[REVIEW] “The Weight of Love: Sean Wang’s 𝐷𝑖𝑑𝑖 and the Chinese American Family” by Theodora Yu](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/sean-wang-director-didi-2024.-2.jpg?w=625)
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TIFF 2025 ▞ 10. The Archivist’s Film: A Conversation on Kunsang Kyirong’s 100 Sunset▞ 9. She Was Screaming into Silence: A Conversation on Cai Shangjun’s The Sun Rises On Us All▞ 8. You Don’t Belong to Anyone: A Conversation on…
![[TIFF 2025] “She Was Screaming into Silence: A Conversation on Cai Shangjun’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑛 𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑂𝑛 𝑈𝑠 𝐴𝑙𝑙” by Nirris Nagendrarajah, Cai Shangjun & Han Nianjin](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/cai-shangjuns-the-sun-rises-on-us-all-2025.-131-min.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kevin Alambra (director), Warla, 2025. 111 min. I have just watched Warla. I cannot claim any lived experience concerning trans issues; however, I found myself uneasy with the bluntness…
![[REVIEW] “𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑎: A Crime of Passionate Advocacy?” by Matthew Ordonez](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/warla_kv.png?w=600)
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Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 was awarded to the Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” Coverage in outlets such…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Whose Words Win the Nobel? On Translators and the Question of Literary Recognition” by Kabir Deb](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/copy-of-copy-of-taken-as-strictly-true-neuroscience-and-sinology-in-laszlo-krasznahorkais-f09d90b7f09d9192f09d91a0f09d91a1f09d919ff09d91a2f09d9190f09d91a1f09d9196f09d919cf09d919b-f09d918.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Johannes Schönherr, North Korean Cinema. A History, McFarland, 2012. 224 pgs. My experience with the three books on North Korean cinema I had read up to this point—Paul…
![[REVIEW] “Johannes Schönherr’s 𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝐾𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝐶𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎: Rise (and Fall?) (and Rise again?) of the Propaganda Machine” by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/johannes-schonherr-north-korean-cinema.-a-history-1.jpg?w=838)
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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 Kiriti Sengupta. Kiriti Sengupta, Selected Poems, Transcendent Zero Press, 2025. 228 pgs. It has been more than a decade since the medical practitioner turned poet,…
![[REVIEW] “The Stillness Between Fire and Water: On Kiriti Sengupta’s 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑒𝑚𝑠” by Abhik Ganguly](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/selected-poems-final-1-scaled-e1754154149300.webp?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mallika Bhaumik, When Time is a Magic Jar, Red River Press, 2025. 108 pgs. When Time is a Magic Jar by Mallika Bhaumik is like finding an old, dusty…
![[REVIEW] “When the Jar Spills Time: Reading Mallika Bhaumik’s 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝐽𝑎𝑟” by Wani Nazir](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/when-time-is-a-magic-jar.jpg?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 Mending Bodies. ▞ Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies, Two Lines Press, 2025. 240 pgs.▞ Michael Shanks (director), Together, 2025. 102 min.…
![[REVIEW] “The Fantasy of Wholeness through Body Horror in Hon Lai-chu’s 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 and Michael Shanks’s 𝑇𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟” by Charlie Ng](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/the-fantasy-of-wholeness-through-body-horror-in-hon-lai-chus-mending-bodies-and-michael-shankss-together.png?w=1024)
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TIFF 2025 ▞ 10. The Archivist’s Film: A Conversation on Kunsang Kyirong’s 100 Sunset▞ 9. She Was Screaming into Silence: A Conversation on Cai Shangjun’s The Sun Rises On Us All▞ 8. You Don’t Belong to Anyone: A Conversation on…
![[TIFF 2025] “You Don’t Belong to Anyone: A Conversation on Kalainithan Kalaichelvan’s 𝐾𝑎𝑟𝑢𝑝𝑦” by Nirris Nagendrarajah & Kalainithan Kalaichelvan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/kalainithan-kalaichelvan-on-karupy-1.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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