Patil to unveil statue of Tagore in Shanghai

Priyanka Tikoo

Beijing, May 26 (PTI) One of the highlights of Indian
President Pratibha Patil's state visit to China will include
unveiling of a statue of Rabindranath Tagore in Shanghai in
honour of the Nobel laureate's journey to the city thrice,
making a lasting impression on the Chinese poets and writers.

"During my visit, I will have the privilege of
unveiling a bust of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in Shanghai,"
she said, while interacting with the media.
"In contemporary times personages such as Gurudev
Tagore, Dwarkanath Kotnis and Prof Tan Yun Shan have become
symbols of India-China friendship and cooperation," the
President, who is on a six-day state visit to the country
said.
The statue will be unveiled on Sunday at Mao Ming Road
in Shanghai, China's gleaming business hub, bringing back
memories of Tagore's visits to this country.
The Indian poet philosopher was invited by the
Beijing Lecture Association in 1923 to deliver a series of
talks as part of its objective to have foreign scholars come
and talk to Chinese intellectuals.
Tagore visited China thrice in the 1920s and is the
most widely translated foreign author in Chinese after
Shakespeare.
Tagore made such a lasting impression on the minds of
successive generations of Chinese poets and scholars and many
of his work has been translated in Mandarin. To bring out the
original essence of Tagore's works, several Chinese scholars
learnt Bengali to translate his poems.
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 impact of his visit to China was such that
several Chinese literary personalities at that time spent a
great deal of time translating his works into Chinese. PTI PYK
RBT