{"id":952,"date":"2012-05-31T10:40:04","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T02:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=952"},"modified":"2012-05-31T10:40:25","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T02:40:25","slug":"952","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=952","title":{"rendered":"NYRblog on Red Pine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ian Johnson at the New York Review of Books’ blog<\/a><\/em>has a nice piece on Chinese poetry translator Bill Porter (a\/k\/a Red Pine <\/a>\u8d64\u677e) and his second life as a writer for a Chinese audience, in Finding Zen and Book Contracts in Beijing<\/a>. Here’s a key paragraph, which explains the importance of cross-cultural currents that have allowed non-Chinese scholars of pre-modern China to end up explaining Chinese culture to Chinese people:<\/p>\n

In the travel writing that has made him so popular in China, Porter\u2019s tone is not reverential but explanatory, and filled with humorous asides (such as the traveler\u2019s need for a good laxative, or his twenty-year pursuit of a Guggenheim fellowship). His goal is to tell interested foreigners about revealing byways of Chinese culture. Unexpectedly, this approach also works for Chinese, many of whom are about as removed from their culture as Porter\u2019s target audience is in the West. But this means that what is a niche market in western countries\u2014the Chinese culture enthusiast\u2014is a mass market in China. It also helps that Porter is a foreigner. Many wonder how foreigners see this complex culture, which during the 20th century Chinese writers, thinkers, and politicians blamed for their country\u2019s demise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article also mentions the plight of the translator, economically speaking: “For most of the past decade, he says, his annual income has hovered around $15,000. Several of his books humorously thank the US Department of Agriculture\u2014for providing food stamps that have kept him and his family going.” And as a Facebook friend of mine, a poet and former publisher who lives near Red Pine in WA, wrote: “Bill Porter spends 20 years in a Taiwanese Zendo studying Chinese classics while Stephen Mitchell spends 20 hours in a library studying what other translators have done with Tao Te Ching<\/em>. Guess who gets rich in America and who gets by on food stamps.” I should add, though, that if it weren’t for Mitchell’s twenty-some hours, I may not have ended up studying Chinese in the first place.<\/p>\n

For some of Red Pine’s thoughts on translating Chinese poetry, here’s a piece I published on CipherJournal<\/a>, back in the day: Dancing with the Dead: Language, Poetry, and the Art of Translation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ian Johnson at the New York Review of Books’ bloghas a nice piece on Chinese poetry translator Bill Porter (a\/k\/a Red Pine \u8d64\u677e) and his second life as a writer for a Chinese audience, in Finding Zen and Book Contracts … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,16],"tags":[543,375,542,544],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8srwF-952","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4049,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4049","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":0},"title":"Peninsula Daily News Feature on Red Pine","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When it was announced last month that Red Pine (Bill Porter) had won the American Academy of Arts & Letters Thornton Wilder Prize for translation, his local Peninsula Daily News went out to report. The article covers his background: He wanted to study anthropology with Margaret Mead at Columbia and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wqtcq1f34a8kduuv3sc0e76o-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/11443796_web1_180415-pdn-poet-winds-award-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2723,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2723","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":1},"title":"Red Pine on Journeys, Poets, & Best-Sellerdom in China","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"August 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The NYTimes Sinosphere blog has an interview with poetry translator Red Pine, a\/k\/a Bill Porter. Here's an excerpt: Q. Besides your travel books, your translations of some classics, such as the Platform Sutra and the Heart Sutra have been published in Chinese. Most Chinese readers probably don\u2019t care about how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2459,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2459","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":2},"title":"Bill Porter (Red Pine) in News China","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A News China article features Bill Porter, a\/k\/a Red Pine \u8d64\u677e. It's mostly a promo for his \"new book, Finding Them Gone, which will also be his final book,\" the article says (forthcoming from Copper Canyon). But it ends with significant details and a point about translating classical Chinese poetry.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3439,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3439","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":3},"title":"Wadland on Red Pine’s Finding them Gone","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The new LARB features Justin Wadland on Finding them Gone: Visiting China\u2019s Poets of the Past, a Chinese poetry guide through China by Red Pine, the avatar of Bill Porter. Wadland begins: IN FINDING THEM GONE, the translator Red Pine, a.k.a. travel writer Bill Porter, calls on more than 40\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/larb-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/finding-243x366.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4621,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4621","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":4},"title":"Red Pine Interview at Emergence","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill Porter (Red Pine) interviewed at Emergence Magazine Emergence Magazine has published an interview with Bill Porter, a\/k\/a Red Pine, renowned travel writer and translator of classical Chinese poetry. The interview covers his early interest in China and poetry, and his beginnings as a translator, as well as some of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/emergencemagazine.org\/app\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Red_Pine_Bill_Porter_2880_WEB-800x573.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3527,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3527","url_meta":{"origin":952,"position":5},"title":"Klein on New Premodern Chinese Poetry Translations in LARB","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks has published \"Tribunals of Erudition and Taste: or, Why Translations of Premodern Chinese Poetry Are Having a Moment Right Now,\" my take on what looks like something of a resurgence in translation into English. I use a nineteenth-century debate between Matthew Arnold and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"2016-07-15_1030","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/2016-07-15_1030.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/2016-07-15_1030.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/2016-07-15_1030.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/2016-07-15_1030.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":954,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions\/954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}