Favorites: My Harvest Year 2011

Favorites: My Harvest Year 2011 (Alberta Times) As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year, we have to look back and see if we have wasted our years? Since using a computer more than ten years ago, major life events...

(Alberta Times)

Send off the old year and welcome the new year. I have to look back and see if my years have been wasted? Since I started using computers more than ten years ago, all major life events, creations, submissions, readings and travels have been input into files in categories to record references and encouragement. This is a private matter and not worthy of a smile to others. Suddenly, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper received an invitation to contribute to the special topic "My 2011". After careful consideration, I wrote a crude article to share with literary friends, poets, and readers. From the beginning of the year to today, there have been as many as 121 literary creations including this article, which is the most prolific in history; including 5 micro-novels, 21 essays, 32 essays, and 63 poems. (In the past many years, the average is about ninety articles per year.) I have read a total of 42 books such as poetry collections, essay collections and novels, as well as literary magazines such as: "Hong Kong Literature" monthly, "Xinhua Literature" quarterly, "Thai Chinese Literature" bimonthly, etc. "The Style of Australian and Chinese Celebrities" by Zhang Aoli and "The First Night" by Zhang Jinfan have also been read in the middle of the year. Four of my Chinese haiku poems "Chuxiong Collection" won the Excellence Award in the "First Domestic and Overseas Chinese Haiku Creation Grand Prix". I just received the award-winning "Certificate of Honor" from the organizer "Chinese Han Haiku Society" last week. It’s a shame to say that I didn’t make any more Han haiku this year. In the middle of the year, I was unexpectedly appointed as the "honorary president" of the "Fengya Han Haiku Society" in Hunan Province; the other two people appointed were the deputy secretary-general and English secretary of the "World Chinese Writers Association Exchange Association", Ms. Lin Shuang from New Zealand, and the editor-in-chief of Century Poetry Magazine and poetry friend Liu Qingyu from Singapore. In order to participate in the "Celebration of the Centenary of the Revolution of 1911" series of activities, in April, as the Secretary-General of the "Shihua Writers Exchange Association", I invited the famous Taiwanese writer Professor Chen Ruoxi to come to Macao and held two very successful lectures in Sydney and Melbourne. The novel "30 Days of Rage" and the poetry collection "March Riot", which was sponsored by the "Australian Nanming Publishing Fund" last year, were signed with Taiwan's Xiuwei Publishing House and released in May and July respectively. The book launch conferences for these two volumes of my novels were held in Melbourne and Sydney successively, which is one of the major events in the Australian and Chinese literary and poetry circles. It took eleven years to build the "Bronze Statue of Founding Father Dr. Sun Yat-sen", and finally the erection ceremony was held on November 20 at Lingxingmen Square in Melbourne's Chinatown. As the secretary of the "Committee for the Preparation of the Bronze Statue", I immediately felt that I had lived up to the high expectations of the Chinese community. It was so relaxing and joyful to complete the task of building the "Bronze Statue of the Founding Fathers" and no longer have to worry about it. This year, it seems that the horse is moving. In April, I accompanied Professor Chen Ruoxi to give a lecture in Sydney. Unexpectedly, I flew to Sydney to host a poetry collection conference in mid-October. It is such a joy to be able to gather with literary friends and poets from Sydney. In May, I went to the United States to visit relatives and participated in an eight-day trip to Yellowstone Park with my eldest daughter, grandson and Wanbing. In San Francisco, I was invited to a banquet by the famous humorist Wu Lingyao, the standing consultant of the World Chinese Exchange Association. Accompanied by the poet Chao Sheng, I went to the city's nursing home to visit the writer and journalist Chen Dazhe. That night when we passed through the casino, we were hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Yin Haoliu, the president of the "Las Vegas Chinese Writers Association", the deputy secretary-general of the "World Chinese Exchange Association" and the well-known writer. Unexpectedly, I had to fly to San Francisco again on August 23 to attend the funeral for my late mother-in-law. Due to the sudden incident, I was shocked to hear that my mother-in-law was suffering from terminal cancer in mid-July. The doctor determined that she could survive for half a year, and planned to fly to the United States to accompany my wife to serve the elderly after the release of my collection of poems. Therefore, I declined to participate in the "Tourism Literature Seminar" held in Hong Kong and missed the opportunity to communicate with writers and scholars at home and abroad. He lives a busy life in retirement, with a fulfilling life and a happy body and mind; he gets up at 6 a.m. every day, goes to the study room at 7 o'clock, surfs the Internet the next day, handles the affairs of the "World China Expo", and assists in the management of the "World Expo" website editing. The next day, I go to another study room to type on the computer keyboard and create prose, novels, essays or poems. After lunch break, they read books, newspapers or magazines, and occasionally go to the garden to plant flowers and cut grass. In the evening, if there is no social gathering, they watch movies or TV series to spend the long night. Even with the afterglow of the evening sky, we must shine brightly and follow the words of Master Cheng Yen: "Knowing how to use your time to benefit people is happiness!" Literary creation and holding the heart of carrying the Tao can be regarded as "Dharma giving". "Live until you are old and learn until you are old" is my motto. I will continue to study and study after retirement, because "it is too late to study in this life." Life is short, we should cherish the good time every day. Wasting time is equivalent to joking with our precious life. We would like to encourage everyone. And I wish the readers to achieve greater heights in the coming year, everything goes well, a happy family, good health; writers and poets, spiritual thoughts welling up, happiness, and ~~~^_^~~~ mouths open often.

Melbourne on December 15, 2011.