65. Because the Guy Next to You At the Coffee Shop Might Be a 29-Year-Old Poetry Scholar From Beijing Translating the Works of Allen Ginsberg Into Mandarin.

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By Richard Morgan
Published Dec 9, 2012

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(Photo: Victor Prado/New York Magazine)

Older Chinese translations of Ginsberg exist, but to call them loose might be generous—“go fuck yourself” rendered as “go hit yourself,” a “starry dynamo” becoming “a generator that has stellar scintillation.” Ming Hui believes his country needs versions of “Howl” and “America” truer to their author’s original, radical intent. When not communing with texts at Columbia, he hangs out at Fair Folks Café on West Houston, a modern-day beatnik among the latte sippers.

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