India: Literary master Rabindranath Tagore

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Today, when talking about India, many Chinese youths would think about Bollywood films, as well as tourist attractions such as the Taj Mahal, India Gate and Jama Masjid, but decades ago, most Chinese people would immediately think of a name – Rabindranath Tagore.

Tagore, who was most widely known as the poet with his sensitive, philosophical and beautiful verses in collections such as “Gitanjali,” “Golden Boat,” and “Wild Geese” among others, was also a musician, artist, and social activist.

He was also the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for “Gitanjali” in 1913. But besides the poems, he also has a number of well-known novels, songs, dramas and essays.

Scenery on the Ganges. /VCG Photo

Jodhpur city, the India state of Rajasthan. /VCG Photo

Taj Mahal in the Indian city of Agra. /VCG Photo

The Indian Gate in New Delhi, India. /VCG Photo

The Jama Masjid of Delhi. /VCG Photo

Sari, traditional clothing for Indian women. /VCG Photo

The poet has also greatly influenced Chinese modern literature by inspiring writers such as Guo Moruo, Bing Xin and Xu Zhimo. Xu founded a Chinese literary society dubbed “The Crescent Moon Society” in 1923, which was inspired by one of Tagore's poems, “The Crescent Moon.”

Tagore's visit to China back in 1924 was quite a cultural event at that time, and he was warmly welcomed by celebrities of the country's literary and artistic circles. According to a newspaper report back then, the streets were occupied with thousands of students expecting to see him.

Tagore had mentioned good friendship with many Chinese literary masters after the visit, and he even asked Liang Qichao to give him a Chinese name, Zhu Zhendan, which implies a good relationship between the two countries.

Nowadays, the Chinese people are still familiar with him, and everyone can recite a line or two.

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."

-- Rabindranath Tagore, "Gitanjali 35"

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