Category: China

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Bill Porter in China

Two articles with photos.

1. A New York Review of Books item on author Bill Porter (also known as Red Pine) visiting China, where translations of his books on Chinese hermits — Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits and Zen Baggage: a Pilgrimage to China — have made Porter very popular. The recent translations have prompted commissions for Chinese-language works not presently in English. The NYRB blogger notes that “Last year, Porter says, he earned $30,000 from his China book sales, pushing him out of the world of food stamps and into the realm of the tax-paying lower-middle class.” Porter’s present visit will include 20 interviews. Features a photo.

URL: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/may/29/zen-book-contracts-bill-porter-beijing/

2. A China Daily article calls Porter an “eastern mystic” in a straightforward summary of Porter’s biography and recent interest in his writings, translations, and visits to China. Also includes a photo.

URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-06/05/content_15474162.htm

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Zhongnan hermits today

Sympathetic article titled “The sound of silence is the height of seclusion,” in China Daily, describes the contemporary hermits of the Zhongnan mountains. The hermits are Taoist and Buddhist. Li Jiwu, a researcher in religious studies at the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, “who has been studying the mountain’s hermit culture for five years, believes these reclusive people perform vital work on behalf of the society they’ve shunned, both by setting an example to others and by passing on the wisdom they’ve acquired.”

Quoting Li:

Although these people live far away from modern society, they are actually helping it. They’re like a mountain stream that brings fresh water down into the town – the water eventually reaches it one way or another.

The hermit culture has been associated with the mountain for so long that the local authorities and people are very supportive towards those setting up their mao peng [i.e., “grass hut”].

The authorities even allow hermits to live in an abandoned village located higher up the mountain. The villagers moved out in the 1990s as a part of a poverty alleviation program. The village accommodates about 16 hermits, and although they live close to each other, they rarely talk.

Not everyone can cope with the hardship and loneliness on the mountain, especially lay practitioners. I have seen many quit within weeks because there is always something they can’t let go, such as wealth or even the Internet. People should realize that it is not a getaway holiday. Being a hermit is a serious lifestyle choice.

URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-03/29/content_14936505.htm

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Hermits in China

From the China Daily website, an article on a man inspired by Bill Porter’s search for hermits related in Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits who pursued his own search for hermits.

The article is titled “Man finds spiritual life through hermits” and describes Zhang Jianfeng’s efforts to contact over 600 hermits in Zhongnan Mountain, the same mountainous vicinity that Porter explored.

URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-02/16/content_14627189.htm

PHOTO: Zhang Jianfeng (left with three hermits (© CFP – ChinaFotoPress)

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Ni Zan, 14th cent. Chinese hermit painter

This China Daily article highlights the 14th-century Chinese landscape painter Ni Zan (Ni Tsan), known as the “hermit of cloud forest.”

“You hardly find images of people in his paintings, except for maybe a few Taoist monks, as he regarded ordinary people as so much less attractive than what he imagined and depicted in his art,” notes Lu Li, director of the curatorial department of Nanjing Museum in Jiangsu province.

URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sunday/2011-09/18/content_13727099.htm

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Bill Porter interview

A November 2010 interview of Bill Porter (aka Red Pine) in Beijing, China, can be listened to or downloaded from China International Radio’s CRIEnglish website. Porter is well-known for his books and translations, especially his 1993 Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits. In the interview (in English) Porter reflects on his life and work, and discusses the difference between the “small” hermit and the “great” hermit.

URLs:
website – http://english.cri.cn/8706/2010/11/17/1721s605500.htm
listen to audio – mms://media.chinabroadcast.cn/en/features/spotlight/2010/1117redpine.wma
download the mp3 – http://media.iphone.cri.cn/features/spotlight/2010/1117redpine.mp3