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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…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1989. 288 pgs. The day I began writing this piece, a family of Chinese descent were killed in a shooting…
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I’ve cried a little today—at church, during the opening lines of the liturgy, and then again over Sunday brunch with my husband. Little ripples of grief bubble up to the surface, then recede. Another month of trying to get pregnant,…
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In Laundry City, all life began with the shirt. The rest was optional. Mustard types of men frequently wore that, believing they were invisible, and shame was the weight of a t-shirt. Houses were made of expensive washable elephant hides,…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Liu Liangcheng (author), Jeremy Tiang (translator), Bearing Word, Balestier Press, 2023. 340 pgs. Liu Liangcheng’s Bearing Word is a story about a polyglot translator, a donkey who can see…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Akira Kurosawa (director), Stray Dog, 1949. 122 min. Tokyo is a city that is always changing. Old buildings are constantly being torn down and new ones put up. As I…
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📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY In 1992 the writer Ah Cheng 阿城 kept a Venice Diary. One of its entries consisted of a single line: “Today is June 4, it’s been three years.” These words appear in the book’s Hong Kong…
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📁 RETURN TO JUST ANOTHER DAY On a hot day in July 2022, far from Hong Kong and far from Beijing, I had the privilege of taking part in a tour of the 1863 Bear River Massacre site in southern Idaho…


![[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)
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Amy Tan’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐽𝑜𝑦 𝐿𝑢𝑐𝑘 𝐶𝑙𝑢𝑏 and the Will to Live” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/le_joy_luck_club__c1.jpg?w=1024)
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Early Spring” by Sheela Jane Menon](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/story_pandemic-pup-1.jpg?w=1024)
![[EXCLUSIVE] “The Laundry City” by Meiko Ko](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/the-laundry-city_photo-by-oliver-farry.png?w=1024)
![[REVIEW] “Everything Comes Alive, Every Creature Has Agency: Liu Liangcheng’s 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑” by Serena De Marchi](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/bearing-word-1.jpg?w=657)
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Akira Kurosawa’s 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝐷𝑜𝑔 as a View into Post-war Tokyo” by Jeremiah Dutch](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/stray-dog-3.jpg?w=836)
![[JUST ANOTHER DAY] Thomas Chen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/just-another-day_cha.png?w=1024)