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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 The Milk Tea Alliance. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle against Autocracy and Beijing, Columbia Global Reports, 2025. 104 pgs. Jeffrey…
![[REVIEW] “The Courage to Dream and Defy: Review of Jeffrey Wasserstrom’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑘 𝑇𝑒𝑎 𝐴𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒” by Shui-yin Sharon Yam](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/the-milk-tea-alliance-inside-asias-struggle-against-autocracy-and-beijing.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Weike Wang, Joan Is Okay, Penguin Random House, 2022. 224 pgs. Joan is Okay, the sophomore novel by Weike Wang, opens with the line: “When I think about…
![[REVIEW] “The Telos of Toil: Reading Weike Wang’s 𝐽𝑜𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑂𝑘𝑎𝑦 Through Labour and Identity” by Tiffany Troy](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/weike-wang-joan-is-okay.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Gilda Cordero-Fernando, The Last Full Moon: Lessons on My Life, University of the Philippines Press and GCF Books, 2005. 250 pgs. “I don’t want to be boring ever.”—Chappell…
![[REVIEW] “Grandmothered! A Filipina Gen Z’s Critique of Gilda Cordero-Fernando’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛” by Janelle Tanguin](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/gilda-cordero-fernando-the-last-full-moon-lessons-of-my-life.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Shunji Iwai (director), Undo, 1994. 47 min. The film Undo (1994) by Shunji Iwai is modest in length at just 47 minutes. Yet the narrative never feels rushed,…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Beyond Earshot: Transcribing Meaning in Shunji Iwai’s 𝑈𝑛𝑑𝑜” by Miran Tsay](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/shunji-iwai.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Anand Patwardhan, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The World is Family), 2023. 96 min. “யாதும் ஊரே! யாவரும் கேளிர்!” (“Every place is our homeland, everyone is our kin”)—these words from the Tamil…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Between Memory and History: Anand Patwardhan’s 𝑉𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑑ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑣𝑎 𝐾𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑎𝑘𝑎𝑚” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/anand-patwardhan-vasudhaiva-kutumbakam-the-world-is-family-.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 In the Mood for Love. Wong Kar-wai (director), In the Mood for Love, 2000. 98 min. Some films are simply like that—from the moment you…
![[REVIEW] “𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒 at 25: Wong Kar-wai’s Cinematic Language of Longing” by G.A. Gowtham](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 Uketsu (author), Jim Rion (translator), Strange Pictures, HarperVia, 2025. 240 pgs. In the Prologue, we are told: “All right, everyone, now I’m going to show you a picture.”…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Reader as Detective: Uketsu’s 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑃𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/uketsu-author-jim-rion-translator-strange-pictures-harpervia-2025.png?w=974)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Alex John Catanese, Buddha in the Marketplace: The Commodification of Buddhist Objects in Tibet, University of Virginia Press, 2019. 334 pgs. The phenomenon of religious commodification across diverse…
![[REVIEW] “Commodifying the Sacred: Alex John Catanese’s 𝐵𝑢𝑑𝑑ℎ𝑎 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒” by Palden Gyal](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/buddha-copy.jpg?w=1024)
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Chris Song and Simona Gallo Dwelling in Tongues◉ Part I—”Hong Kong & Poetry”◉ Part II—”A Translingual Self: The Art of Self-Translation” Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series of interview entitled “Dwelling in Tongues: A Conversation on…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Hong Kong & Poetry” by Simona Gallo and Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/simona-gallo-and-chris-song.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Sundar Sarukkai, The Social Life of Democracy, Seagull Books, 2022, 184 pgs. When I reflect on democracy in India today, I see a concept confined largely to the…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Democracy as Social Practice: Sundar Sarukkai’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/sundar-sarukkais-the-social-life-of-democracy.jpg?w=1000)
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