Prof. Tan Chung

The Times of India

The Crest Edition ( Week of May 14 - May 20, 2011 )

page 16

' Tagore can be a golden bridge between India and China '

Tan Chung, 81, is a well-known scholar of Chinese cultural studies. A recipient of the Padma Bhushan, he taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Delhi for many years and now works as an academic associate in the University of Chicago. Co-edited by Chung, Tagore and China examines the various facets of the enduring relationship between a poet and a nation. Chung spoke about Tagore and more in Delhi.

We are celebrating Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary. Could you tell us how his 1924 visit to China captured the imagination of the elite and the students there?

China's fascination with Tagore began much before the visit. It started with him getting the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. China had suffered four defeats in 19th century wars and was demoralised as a nation. After the Boxer Rebellion (1899), an eight-country coalition had invaded China. The Western powers kept bullying China. There was a feeling that the yellow races have no future. When Tagore got the Nobel Prize, the Chinese were inspired. That's because he was a fellow sufferer of colonialism and had emerged on top of the world. Suddenly, they became interested in his literature. During the visit, Tagore travelled to 10 cities, including Peking and Shanghai. He spoke to teachers, students, intellectuals. The Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, has brought out a collection of his lectures and talks in China.



What was Tagore's basic thought vis a vis India and China?

He put the Eastern civilization, by which he meant India and China, in one category and the Western civilisation in another. He had said in Japan in 1916 that in the western hemisphere, the holy flame of civiliszation has been extinguished from its cradles such as Greece, Rome and Egypt. On the other hand, in India and China, the flame of civilisation survives in the place of is origin. He believed that India and China should work together to help the western civilisation overcome its crisis. He also wrote about it in 1941.

When he inaugurated the Cheena (China) Bhavana in Santiniketan, he said, "the Chinese have mastered the secret of expression, whereas the West has mastered the secret of power". By power, he meant the power that comes from a gun, from a laboratory. By expression, he meant human expression and love.



Your father, Tan Yun-shan, was the founding director of the Department of Chinese Language and Culture at Santiniketan. He was also a friend of Tagore. Tell us something about their interaction.

My father met Tagore for the first time in 1927 in Singapore. My father was teaching the Chinese diaspora there. Tagore invited him to Santiniketan. The next year, he went with my mother to Santiniketan. When I was born in 1929, my mother carried me to Tagore. He saw me and gave me a name, Ashok. But a few weeks later, my mother went back to Malaya (now Malaysia). Unfortunately, there were technical problems and that name was never used.



Was there a rupture in China's admiration for Tagore after the Communists took over in 1949?

The Tagore fever in China happened in waves. The first two waves came in 1913 and 1924. The 1950s was the period of Indi-Chini bhaibhai. In that period, there was a third wave of interest in Tagore. He was the first person to say that India and China were brothers. That view became the origin of Hindi-Chini bhaibhai. Tagore's father had visited China. As a boy, he had heard stories of China from him. The country fascinated him.



Is there any influence of Tagore on Chinese art and philosophy?

Tagore's influence is mainly in the field of literature. In 1920s, China wanted to break away from its conservative classical literature and move into new literature that had a more colloquial and simple style. They wanted poetry in the similar style. Tagore was one of the best examples of new poetry. He wrote in a simple style but was deeply philosophical. The Crescent Moon is addressed to children but it is not a children's book.



Does China remember Tagore today?

In the last 50 years, the Chinese have translated and published the collected works of Tagore. Now they are translating him again because some of the earlier translations were not up to the mark.



India and China don't share the best of political relations. Do you think Tagore can act as a bridge?

He can be a golden bridge between the two countries. In some respect, China has surpassed the West materially. You see more high-rises in Beijing and Shanghai than in New York or London. But there's a growing view that we also need cultural and spiritual prosperity. I was in China recently and they were saying China needs a renaissance. Tagore created a renaissance in Bengal.

 Avijit Ghosh  ,  May 14, 2011