| A stroll below the under belly of Shanghai's busy | | | | and his literary circle of friends who formed a casual |
| Yan'an Road one cool evening about two years ago | | | | dinner and discussion salon named after Tagore's |
| led Bivash Mukherjee, the man behind Gurudev: a | | | | book of prose poems The Crescent Moon. Members |
| Journey to the East; a highly informative documentary | | | | generally paid five yuan a month that allowed them to |
| on Tagore's lifelong bond with China, to a delightful | | | | eat, drink, read, meet, discuss or just play pool. |
| discovery that culturally connects China and India a | | | | Xu penned some of his thoughts in a poem which |
| century ago. In an exclusive interview with Inchin | | | | opens with the line, "There are times when our little |
| Closer, Mukherjee delves into the life, times and | | | | courtyard ripples with infinite tenderness." |
| influence Asia's first Nobel Laureate had over Chinese | | | | Xu lived quiet a colorful life. He finished his early |
| society at the time. | | | | education at Peking University and traveled to the |
| Inchin Closer: Tagore is the most translated foreign | | | | United States for further studies. Finding the US |
| poet after Shakespeare in China today. He continues | | | | "intolerable," he moved to Cambridge University in |
| to inspire modern Chinese. How did Tagore's writings | | | | England in 1920, which is where he "fell in love" with |
| culturally affect Chinese society then and now? | | | | English romantic poetry of Keats and Shelley. It was |
| Mukherjee: I have no way to confirm that the works | | | | also here in England that he discovered Tagore for the |
| of Rabindranath Tagore are the most translated here | | | | first time and sought common grounds later on with |
| after the Bard but I do know that the Chinese, by and | | | | other Asian writers. |
| large, are avid readers of books, magazines, | | | | Xu returned to China in 1922 and introduced the "new |
| newspapers – anything under the sun. | | | | wave" modern poetry that fused western elements of |
| Tagore first arrived in China in the summer of 1924. | | | | romance into classical Chinese poetry. Xu, who was |
| That was an official trip following an invitation from | | | | the official translator for Tagore during his trip to China, |
| Liang Qichao, a reformist and a Confucian scholar at | | | | took quiet a bit of flak from contemporary thinkers for |
| that time, who headed the Beijing Lecture Association. | | | | his dominant theme of love, beauty, energy and his |
| But the visit also happened during one of the most | | | | contempt for conventional morality. |
| turbulent times in China. The May Fourth Movement | | | | Tagore stayed at Xu's house twice in Siming Village in |
| that began in 1919 was at its peak with regular | | | | Shanghai. That house no longer exists but there is a |
| debates on East vs. West; modernism against tradition. | | | | plaque on the wall that makes special mention of |
| It was a conflict — violent at times — with students | | | | Tagore and Xu and other celebrities who once lived |
| and intellectuals leading the way that to some extent | | | | there. |
| shaped the history of modern China. It was also a way | | | | His death at the young age of 36 in 1931 in a plane |
| of understanding China itself … on why it reacts the | | | | crash – he had printed accounts earlier of his love |
| way it does — and rather forcefully. | | | | for "Flying" — stumped the development of modern |
| The ensuing clash of ideas and cataclysm marked the | | | | Chinese poetry. |
| beginning of the emergence of the Chinese | | | | Professor Tan Chung, who was bought to Santiniketan |
| Communist Party. | | | | by Tagore to establish the Cheena Bhavan, said that |
| Tagore was perceived by good many intellectuals as | | | | Xu's death "cut short a career of great poetic talent. If |
| an opponent of modernism (read Westernization) and | | | | he had lived as long as many of his contemporaries |
| supporter of traditional values and culture and ran into | | | | had lived, his role in the history of modern Chinese |
| opposition during his trip. We know now that was far | | | | literature would have been greater than what is |
| from true. | | | | known. So also: Tagore's influence on China's new |
| Tagore was widely traveled man and saw the best | | | | poetry would have been more pronounced than what |
| and worst of both the worlds. His Pan-Asian view | | | | is known." |
| incorporated the best of the west, but the ethos was | | | | In Xu Zhimo, Tan writes, there was a mini-version of |
| largely Asian. Not just India, China or Japan but a united | | | | Tagore. |
| Asia, which he felt could stand up to the dictates of | | | | "Rich, talented, romantic, exposed to progressive ideas |
| the dominant Europeans of the time. | | | | but not plunging into the political activities. Not unlike |
| Tagore's trip was the classic case of, as a Chinese | | | | Tagore in his young days, Xu Zhimo had tender |
| professor told me, being at the wrong place, at the | | | | feelings for fellow-beings, was inclined towards the |
| wrong time. That he is still read, discussed and admired, | | | | charm of Nature, but knew how to make the best in |
| despite the hostility of his trip, says volumes about how | | | | material life. He was a potential Chinese Tagore being |
| influential Tagore has been in modern China. I was also | | | | wiped out in his formative stage by ill fortune." |
| told that his books made the rounds during the Cultural | | | | Inchin Closer: What prompted you to do this |
| Revolution, offering some semblance of hope during | | | | documentary Gurudev? Can you describe some of |
| those troubled times. | | | | the high points in your discovery of sino-indian kinship |
| Tagore's arrival in China also gave an impetus to the | | | | through researching the documentary? |
| new wave poetry/writings that was in its infancy then. | | | | Mukherjee: It just happened. Initially all my research — |
| Everybody needs an inspiration and Tagore's visit | | | | Internet, books, Shanghai Library and Shanghai |
| provided just the spark. Xu Zhimo (in picture above | | | | Archives, Chinese blogs – were all geared towards |
| with Tagore) is among the writers who are closely | | | | writing a feature story about Tagore in Shanghai and |
| associated with Tagore. Then there is Xie Bingxin as | | | | China, which I did for my paper Shanghai Daily. I |
| well. Her writings in fact covered an era – from the | | | | thought up about a short film after that. I felt I had |
| 1920s to the 1990s. | | | | enough material to make a very short — or may be |
| In the most recent times, I can think of Zhao Lihong, | | | | a music video — with one of Tagore's songs. It was |
| who is now the vice president of the Shanghai Writers | | | | all fuzzy still in the mind. It was around this time while |
| Association. He has openly spoken about Tagore's | | | | working on the editing table that I realized that I had |
| influence in his writings. | | | | enough material for a short documentary film. My |
| I hear now that a new generation of translators is | | | | colleague Xu Qin helped me enormously with the local |
| working to bring out his complete works in 28 volumes. | | | | translations and set up meetings with writers and |
| While his previous works have been translated from | | | | professors here in Shanghai. Armed with my own |
| English and Hindi, this time they are working from the | | | | digital camcorder — the kind of stuff you see with |
| original – in Bengali. So, from 1915 or 1916 when he | | | | tourists everywhere — I went about meeting and |
| was first translated in Chinese to the present 2010 and | | | | interviewing people. It worked. They were all happy to |
| beyond – that's quite a span, isn't it? | | | | talk. A good 60 percent of the film is old footages and |
| Besides books and articles, it is heartening to see | | | | stills so there was not much "cinematic" work to boast |
| Tagore being quoted freely on Chinese blogs and | | | | off. It is a simple, straight narrative. It is more |
| internet forums here. They are essentially the young | | | | informative rather than creative. |
| crowd and much of the blogging has to do with | | | | For me, honestly, discovering a plaque with the name |
| matters of the heart or those with a spiritual bent of | | | | of a well-known Indian personality in a small |
| mind. Many of them also write/discuss on the | | | | nondescript lane in Shanghai filled me with first — |
| controversy of his visit. I read one of the blogs – | | | | surprise, and then astonishment and pride. I took it up |
| again someone in the late twenties – who wrote | | | | from there. The film is just a small work of that feeling. |
| that "it had to be a foreigner telling us to preserve our | | | | A bit amateurish stuff, but then again I wasn't hoping to |
| culture against European dominance while we fought | | | | make any money out of it. It will remain with me and |
| each other…" | | | | my friends. I am just happy that I delved into something |
| I think also much of the influence has got to do with his | | | | that was all new to me. Meeting the 91-yr-old translator |
| Asian-ness. His love for all things natural, child-like, | | | | Wu Yan brought about strong emotions. He said he |
| spiritualism … they could easily identify with him. So, | | | | would get up around 4 in the morning and translate |
| yes, he did held sway over them and continues to… | | | | one paragraph a day and then dwell over it the entire |
| Inchin Closer: What was Tagore's idea of a unified | | | | day. He was so happy to see us. For him, it was an |
| Asia? | | | | acknowledgement from afar and appreciated it very |
| Mukherjee: The doctrine was simple: Asia for Asians. | | | | much. It was a feeling of fulfillment for him as well… |
| A pan-Asian mainland that was free of western | | | | Inchin Closer: In order to improve India-China ties, we |
| influence. Tagore had declared that Asia must find its | | | | should read each other literature. What do we know |
| voice. It was based on a vague concept of universal | | | | of each other's literature? |
| humanity while championing the ideals of the east. | | | | Mukherjee: That Tagore was fairly well-known in |
| While the idea was quick to catch on, it was fraught | | | | China was something I was always aware off. During |
| with divergent views. The common binding concept | | | | one of my trips to the 7-storied Shanghai Book Store |
| was to oppose western hegemony and build an Asian | | | | on Fuzhuo Road way back in 2000, I first discovered |
| synergy. But Tagore with his Brahmo Samaj views, | | | | how much Tagore meant to them when I saw one of |
| China with its Confucian traditions and Japan with its | | | | his giant paper cut-outs on the wall next to other |
| military might were least likely to find a common | | | | literary figures like Bertnard Russell and Lu Xun, who is |
| ground. It was an idealized conception that was | | | | considered the father of Modern Chinese Literature. |
| doomed for failure. | | | | While Tagore has been well recorded here, read and |
| Worse, who was to lead it at all? While Pan-Asianism | | | | re-read and well received, I would also like to see the |
| had a tinge of spiritual and religious spirit in India, Japan | | | | Chinese get to read other known Indian writers as well. |
| assumed it to be its military might particularly after its | | | | R K Narayan, Munshi Premchand come to mind |
| victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. Also, | | | | immediately. I somehow feel that the Chinese will take |
| Japan's expansionist policies in Asia had brutalized | | | | to them very well. I did ask some of the Chinese here |
| China and Korea and Tagore was clearly | | | | if they had read any other Indian writers. They shot off |
| disenchanted by it. | | | | names like V S Naipaul, Salman Rushdie etc. but they |
| But come to think of it, the Pan-Asian concept was | | | | had all read them in English and not in Chinese. But |
| probably not entirely utopian. If the success stories of | | | | then again, I don't think we have probably read much |
| modern-day ASEAN, AFTA and other trade blocks | | | | beyond Lu Xun. At most, we see Sun Tzu being |
| are to be seen, it has clearly worked to propagate the | | | | quoted pretty much from his epic The Art of War. |
| ideas of regionalism. The idea was regional | | | | That's about it. |
| development and it seems to be working now. | | | | If you are interested in buying a copy of Gurudev, the |
| Inchin Closer: What was the Crescent Moon Society | | | | story of Rabindranath Tagore in China, please contact |
| and how did it influence China? | | | | us with your name and mailing address. |
| Mukherjee: It was the Cambridge-educated Xu Zhimo | | | | |