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All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] “Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana: Beneath the Manicured Surface” by Nirris Nagendrarajah Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Filipiñana. Rafael Manuel (director), Filipiñana, 2026. 100 min. A successful short does not necessarily yield a successful feature. One…
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “What We Keep: Memory, Migration, and Survival in M Lin’s The Memory Museum” by Susan Blumberg-Kason M Lin, The Memory Museum, Graywolf Press. 2026. 272 pgs. Nostalgia is a…
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All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] “Wounded Souls in Stephanie Ahn’s Bedford Park” by Nirris Nagendrarajah Stephanie Ahn (director), Bedford Park, 2025. 121 min. I did not like Celine Song’s Past Lives (2023), not for lack of desire to…
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[SUNDANCE 2026] “Three Perspectives on a Haunting: Vera Miao’s 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑆𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠” by Nirris Nagendrarajah
All entries on SUNDANCE 2026 [SUNDANCE 2026] “Three Perspectives on a Haunting: Vera Miao’s Rock Springs” by Nirris Nagendrarajah Vera Miao (director), Rock Springs, 2026. 97 min. Gracie, played by Aria Kim One leaves Rock Springs with two impressions: that…
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Editor’s note: Pál Dániel Levente, a guest of honour at the 2026 Brahmaputra Literature Festival, proposes a poetics of butterflies, stones, and blades. The five poems move within that range. India, New Delhi, Agra, and the Ganges become sites of…
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS Editor’s note: Jonathan Chan reads She Follows No Progression (Wendy’s Subway, 2024), edited by Juwon Jun and Rachel Valinsky, as a collective meditation on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, attending closely to…
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Editor’s note: In this reflective essay, Gutierrez Mangansakan II recounts acting on a film by Lav Diaz to examine how Mindanao shapes Diaz’s cinema. Blending personal observation with critical analysis, he argues that the director’s duration, restraint, and resistance to…
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茶 LEEDS茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [LEEDS | REVIEW] “Building Shenzhen from the Ground Up: Sheng Keyi’s Northern Girls” by Todd Foley Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Northern Girls. Sheng Keyi (author), Shelly Bryant (translator), Northern Girls:…
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Editor’s note: In Gutierrez Mangansakan II’s essay, growing trees in red-clay pots becomes a metaphor for exile, love, and impermanence. Through memories of family, cats, and lost homelands, he reflects on denied inheritance and chosen distance, arguing that care, memory,…
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “On Grief, Diaspora, and Grace Loh Prasad’s The Translator’s Daughter”by Rebekah Chan Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Translator’s Daughter. Grace Loh Prasad, The Translator’s Daughter, The Ohio State University Press,…


![[SUNDANCE 2026] “Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana: Beneath the Manicured Surface” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image-1.png?w=1000)
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “What We Keep: Memory, Migration, and Survival in M Lin’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑢𝑚” by Susan Blumberg-Kason](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/memory-museum-m-lin-cha-asian.jpg?w=1000)
![[SUNDANCE 2026] “Wounded Souls in Stephanie Ahn’s 𝐵𝑒𝑑𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑘” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/bedford-park.jpg?w=230)
![[SUNDANCE 2026] “Three Perspectives on a Haunting: Vera Miao’s 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑆𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/rock-springs-cha-nirris.jpg?w=1024)
![[ESSAY] “Butterflies, Stones, and Blades” by Pál Dániel Levente](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/shot-by-cerqueira-hemgxmfpsaw-unsplash.jpg?w=1024)
![[ESSAY] “Reading the Gap: Indeterminacy, Translation, and Legacy in 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑁𝑜 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛” by Jonathan Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/she-follows-no-progression-a-theresa-hak-kyung-cha-reader-edited-by-juwon-jun-and-rachel-valinsky.png?w=579)
![[ESSAY] “In Search of Mindanao in the films of Lav Diaz” by Gutierrez Mangansakan II](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/lav-diaz.webp?w=1024)
![[LEEDS | REVIEW] “Building Shenzhen from the Ground Up: Sheng Keyi’s 𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑠” by Todd Foley](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/https-www.penguin.sgbooknorthern-girls.jpg?w=974)
![[ESSAY] “Reflection on Exile, Impermanence, and Red Clay Pots” by Gutierrez Mangansakan II](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/aslan-and-buffy-in-the-dirty-kitchen.jpg?w=1024)
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “On Grief, Diaspora, and Grace Loh Prasad’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟’𝑠 𝐷𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑟” by Rebekah Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/the-translators-daughter.jpg?w=880)