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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Before TSMC and Same-Sex Marriage: Qiu Miaojin’s Notes of a Crocodile” by Glen Loveland Qiu Miaojin (author), Bonnie Huie (translator), Notes of a Crocodile, NYRB Classics, 2017, 256 pgs. To…
![[REVIEW] “Before TSMC and Same-Sex Marriage: Qiu Miaojin’s 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝐶𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑙𝑒” by Glen Loveland](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/qiu.crocodile.hires2-copy.jpg?w=990)
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[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Love and Loss in Petersen Vargas’s 𝑈𝑛/𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑌𝑜𝑢” by Jhon Steven C. Espenido
📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Petersen Vargas (Director), Un/Happy for You, 2024. 110 min. If there is one recent romantic drama that has left an everlasting mark on me, it is Un/Happy for You,…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Love and Loss in Petersen Vargas’s 𝑈𝑛/𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑌𝑜𝑢” by Jhon Steven C. Espenido](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/petersen-vargas-director-unhappy-for-you-1.png?w=841)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Chie Hayakawa (director), Plan 75, 2022. 112 min. Perhaps storytelling is an indispensable part of being human? Perhaps we all need to tell ourselves—and each other—certain stories to get…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Stories We Live By: Narrative, Meaning, and Existential Emptiness in Chie Hayakawa’s 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛 75” by Anders Kølle](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/chie-hayakawa-plan-75.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS in.light.of.living—Sik.Faan (author), jck (illustrator), and daanngaazai (calligrapher), Pattern, Language, Setting—A Glossary of City Spaces in Hong Kong, Enlighten & Fish, 2021. 240 pgs. Pattern, Language, Setting—A Glossary of City…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Importance of Nomenclature in 𝑃𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛, 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑔𝑒, 𝑆𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔—𝐴 𝐺𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑆𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝐾𝑜𝑛𝑔” By Vanessa Winghei Yeung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/in.light_.of_.livinge28094sik.faan-author-jck-illustrator-and-daanngaazai-calligrapher-pattern-language-setting-e28093-a-glossary-of-city-spaces-in-hong-kong.jpeg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Peter Ho Davies, The Art of Revision, Graywolf Press, 2021. 192 pgs. While I wasn’t particularly aware of the Graywolf Press series to which this book belongs—The Art of…,…
![[REVIEW] “The Last Word on Writing: Peter Ho Davies’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛” by Noelle Q. de Jesus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/peter-ho-davies-the-art-of-revision-1.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Bhaswati Ghosh, Nostalgic for a Place Never Seen, Copper Coin Publishing, 2024. 102 pgs. Nostalgia is humanity’s Janus-faced companion—simultaneously looking back and forward, with someone or something perpetually tugging…
![[REVIEW] “This is How Places Heave: Memory and Longing in Bhaswati Ghosh’s 𝑁𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑒𝑒𝑛” by Sayan Aich](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/bhaswati-ghosh-nostalgic-for-a-place-never-seen-1.jpg?w=543)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Paola Irene Galli Mastrodonato, Emilio Salgari: The Tiger Is Still Alive!, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2024. 462 pgs. The very first thought that crossed my mind upon seeing Paola…
![[REVIEW] “Asia’s Italian Novelist: Paola Irene Galli Mastrodonato” by Masturah Alatas](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/emilio-salgari-the-tiger-is-still-alive-1.jpg?w=932)
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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 A Woman Burnt. Imayam (author), GJV Prasad (translator), A Woman Burnt, Simon and Schuster India, 2023. 336 pgs. We step into a new world—otherwise inaccessible—every…
![[REVIEW] “A Tale of Love and Abuse: Imayam’s 𝐴 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑡” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/a-woman-burnt-1.jpg?w=952)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mohammad Rasoulof (director), The Seed of the Sacred Fig, 2024. 167 min. The fig tree spreads by entwining itself around another, slowly constricting, siphoning its strength, until nothing remains…
![[REVIEW] “Strangled by Power: Mohammad Rasoulof’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝐹𝑖𝑔” by Ananya Singh](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig_web-1024x559-1.webp?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 Yiyun Li. Yiyun Li, Must I Go, Penguin Random House, 2020. 368 pgs. Lately, I find fewer and fewer books that surprise me—novels capable of…
![[REVIEW] “A Meditation on Memory and Loss: Yiyun Li’s 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝐼 𝐺𝑜” by Dorina Tataran](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/must-i-go-cha-an-asian-literary-journal.png?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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