Copper Canyon Press Bill Porter,also known as Red Pine,an American travel writer who once worked as a radio commentator in Hong Kong,is widely recognized as one of the world’s preeminent translators of Chinese poetry and religious texts.To pay homage to China’s greatest poets,he traveled throughout China visiting dozens of poets’graves and performing rituals that featured Kentucky bourbon and reading poems aloud to the spirits. Copper Canyon Press Bill Porter, also known as Red Pine, an American travel writer who once worked as a radio commentator in Hong Kong, is widely recognized as one of the world’s preeminent translators of Chinese poetry and religious texts.To pay homage to China’s greatest poets, he traveled throughout China visiting dozens of poets’graves and performing rituals that featured Kentucky bourbon and reading poems aloud to the spirits.