[Cultural] Australian Rainbow Parrot Quarterly Chronicle

Wu Chao Hui (JEFFI CHAO HUI WU)

Article Date: July 16, 2025, Wednesday, 6:37 PM

Many people may not know that in this era dominated by short videos and fleeting images, there is a Chinese-language print publication, published voluntarily by pure literature enthusiasts, sent globally, and collected by national libraries, which has quietly published twenty-one issues overseas.

That is the Aust Cai Hong Ying International Authors Federation quarterly magazine, which I personally founded, typeset, edited, and coordinated each issue.

It is not a commercial project, nor is it a government-supported cultural initiative, but rather an international writers' association platform spontaneously formed by a group of overseas Chinese who truly love literature, respect writing, and cherish culture. We have no funding, no team, and no printing press background, yet we have been preparing since 2004 and officially launched our printed quarterly in 2005, maintaining it for many years, with each issue printing two thousand copies, covering two to three dozen countries and regions around the world.

In each issue, I personally oversee everything from start to finish, including layout design, proofreading, cover image processing, and page count control. Every sample copy is born from my hands, like my own child. The deputy editor, Mei Zhi, always rigorously and seriously ensures quality, taking on a large amount of miscellaneous tasks voluntarily, while my father, Wu Di—honorary president of the Pen Association—serves as the general advisor for the quarterly, providing us with spiritual support and poetry review assistance.

We are different from ordinary forums; we are a solid system. Manuscripts are selected from various literary columns in the Australian Changfeng Forum, recommended by moderators, then submitted to the editorial department for review, and finally coordinated and typeset by me as the chief editor, before being printed into a book. After each issue, we face the most tedious yet most genuine step: mailing.

We implement a free sample issue system, where contributors and some readers can register their addresses. My volunteer team and I manually count, categorize, package, and deliver the samples. Each issue includes a special article titled "Mailing Instructions," which outlines the request rules, resending methods, and postal rates for various countries. The sent sample issues often fly to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as to literary friends in the United States, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

[图]

Cover of the inaugural issue of "Australian Rainbow Parrot" Quarterly

We rarely keep inventory and never pursue profit. Only when you receive a thank-you letter from a distant country, or see an author sharing the sample copy they just received in a forum, do you realize that what we do is meaningful.

More importantly, this quarterly has truly been seen by the world.

The National Library of Australia has officially included the printed edition of the quarterly "Australian Rainbow Parrot" into its national archive system. Mr. Li Rongsheng, Deputy Director of the Beijing Modern Literature Museum, personally received us and took a photo while accepting the publication into the collection. This is not just talk; it is a real cultural exchange event, evidenced by photographs.

What impressed me even more was that in 2006 and 2007, at the New Year receptions and cultural events held by the Australian Consulate General, my colleague Ms. Mei Zhi represented the Pen Society and personally presented publications to Mr. Qiu Shaofang (with ambassadorial rank), the Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Sydney, and Mr. Li Jiangang, the Cultural Counselor. The two held the publication for a photo together on the spot, leaving behind a precious historical photograph. These were not ceremonial photos, but a true representation of the respect and recognition from the country for our folk literature dissemination.

Not only that, but the Hong Kong Library also collects our quarterly magazine, and several local high schools in Australia use the works we feature as reference reading for Chinese language textbooks. One teacher told us, "The language in your publication is authentic, contemporary, and rich in Chinese cultural characteristics, which is valuable material we cannot find elsewhere." This makes me even more convinced that what we are坚持的事情并非徒劳.

With the support of the Australian Longwind Forum, hundreds of thousands of words of creative writing have been compiled into this printed publication. Our original forms such as "Australian Eight-Line Poetry," "Micro Poetry," "Modern Poetry," and "International Connection Writing" have become the starting point and memories for many writers. Contributors come from all over the world, including renowned authors and professional writers, as well as many amateurs who have embarked on a broader writing journey through this publication.

This is not an ordinary publication; it is a mark of an era, a lighthouse visible to writers scattered across the world. In today's increasingly fragmented internet, who still has the energy to print two thousand copies of a paper magazine and package them for mailing around the globe? Yet we have persisted for many years. More importantly, we have left behind a wealth of original covers, mailing records, author lists, forum backups, photographs with diplomats, and evidence from national libraries, forming a complete cultural archive structure that very few peers can replicate to this day.

Today, as I reorganized these historical photos, covers, emails, and forum screenshots, I truly realized that "Australian Rainbow Parrot Quarterly" itself has become an independent cultural structure of overseas Chinese literature.

We are not supported by anyone, nor have we ever expected to be recognized by anyone. We rely on the enthusiasm of every writer, the selection of every moderator, the packaging by every volunteer, and the persistence of delivering each sample issue thousands of miles to the hands of readers.

This is our chronicle! This is the weight of the "Australian Rainbow Parrot"!