Cha + Tree Hollow Pacific Campaign—Call for Submissions

樹窿太平洋行動
Tree Hollow
Pacific
Campaign

[NOTE: If you would like your submissions to also be considered for publication in Cha, please specify so in your email.]

Origin
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A Hong Kong poet on the UC Berkeley campus started distributing flash postcard-poems on the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement.

Campaign escalation
What is it?

“Pause a moment. Write a line. Send it to Tree Hollow”
An invitation to all Hong Kong protestors to participate

Since the protests started in June, there has been relentless escalation of resistance, but not even a brief second of respite to process our emotions and experiences. This is an invitation to express in a few lines your anxiety, angst, fear, loneliness, trauma, or even your feelings towards our society and the future. Write in whatever way you consider to be poetry, and send it to Tree Hollow (an encrypted email below). The Hong Kong poet will take your voice across the Pacific Ocean, hand-make it into a postcard, and:

Distribute to myriad tree hollows (strangers you will never meet) on the streets of America.
Tell these stories of Hong Kong through your voices to international activist communities (e.g. Native American, Native Hawaiian, Palestinian, Black Lives Matter communities), in the hope of bringing Hong Kong into a coalition with the international activist scene.
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As long as you have a voice, a tree hollow will be available.
Infinite strangers out there are infinite tree hollows.

What are the benefits?

For Hongkongers
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To bring the voice of Hong Kong to foreigners in a one-on-one, substantial, and human way.
To soothe emotions.
To present an elegant and sincere Hong Kong to the world.

For Americans
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Nobody can truly understand the spirit of Hong Kong through newspaper coverage, ads, and parliament debates.
Translating Hongkongers’ poems into English can help foreigners to engage with Hong Kong intimately.
Postcards can be mailed and the tree hollow multiplied.

Then what? (Wishes)
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Starting from Berkeley and San Francisco, if Hongkongers’ participation goes well, the campaign can then blossom everywhere (Los Angeles, New York, Canada, UK, Australia, Europe, etc.).
Photo-documenting every poem-postcard can potentially lead to publication of a photographic poetry collection for Hongkongers called The Hong Kong Protest Lyric.

Extremely Simple Submission Guidelines

Style: 4-5 lines
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Write and send a 4-5 line poem; or
Write a longer poem, and 4-5 lines will be excerpted from it; or
If you want to participate but can’t write any poem, a short text will also be accepted.
Upon request, your text may be transformed into a poem. Please note “text to poem” at the end of your submission.
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Language: Chinese, English, French, Russian
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