ID :
124817
Fri, 05/28/2010 - 20:00
Auther :

China to build gallery in Kolkata in memory of Tagore


K J M Varma and Priyanka Tikoo
Beijing, May 28 (PTI) Acknowledging the lasting impression
made by Rabindranath Tagore on Chinese poets and scholars,
China is keen to construct a gallery in Kolkata to commemorate
the 150th birth anniversary of the Nobel laureate.
The Chinese interest in building a special gallery at
Rabindra Bharathi in Kolkata, perhaps featuring highlights of
his visit to China in 1920s, was conveyed to visiting Indian
President Pratibha Patil by her counterpart Hu Jintao during
their meeting here on Thursday.
China wants to build the gallery to commemorate the
150th birth anniversary of Tagore.
The Chinese gesture was seen as an effort to acknowledge
the rapport Tagore established with the Chinese people during
his visits to this country, especially to Shanghai, after
which successive generations of Chinese scholars spent
considerable time translating his works into their language.
President Patil, who would travel to Shanghai Saturday,
would unveil a bust of Tagore there on Sunday.
Such was the impression made by Tagore during his visits
to China that he along with Jawaharlal Nehru was voted among
the foreign personalities who made significant contribution to
China in the past 60 years in a poll carried out by the
Chinese newspaper Global Times early this year.
Tagore's birth anniversary celebrations organised
recently at the India pavilion at Shanghai Expo evoked a great
deal of interest, with several Chinese poets and scholars
enthusiastically participating in them.
The foot prints of Tagore's visits to China were still
felt all over Shanghai as many members of the Shanghai Writers
Association (SWA) often recite hand-translated versions
of Tagore's poetry.
At the pavilion, his selected poems in Chinese were
recited by well-known local theatre and TV personalities like
Cao Lei, Liu Jiazhen and Di Feifei.
Tagore had during his visits to Shanghai built a
marvellous bridge of friendship between India and China, the
materials for which were his literary works and his ideals
rather than bricks or cement, said Prof Zhao Li Hong, Vice
President of SWA and a great admirer of Tagore.
The life of a real writer does not end when his mortal
body perishes, he lives in this spiritual world as long as his
thoughts find universal resonance and his works are read all
over the world, Zhao said.
Bivash Mukherjee, a Shanghai-based Indian journalist,
produced a documentary recently, bringing to light various
aspects of Tagore's visits to Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing.
PTI KJV
RBT

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