Beijing celebrates 150th anniversary of Indian poet's birth
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![Artists perform to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in Beijing on May 7, 2011. [Wang Zhiyong/China.org.cn]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20110508/001ec94a1ee40f3091bc1b.jpg "Artists perform to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in Beijing on May 7, 2011. [Wang Zhiyong/China.org.cn]") |
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Artists perform to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in Beijing on May 7, 2011. [Wang Zhiyong/China.org.cn] |
The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Embassy of India in Beijing have teamed up to sponsor a series of visual arts and literary events on the Nobel Prize-winning poet's life, work and achievements.
India's ambassador to China Subrahmanyam Jaishankar spoke at a ceremony kicking off the series.
A Chinese publishing house has undertaken a major project to translate Tagore's complete works in 28 volumes. The first seven volumes, translated directly from Bengali, have been published and were presented as gifts at the ceremony.
Tagore was born in India on May 7, 1861 and is one of India's most prominent poets, writers, artists and philosophers.
He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for his poetry anthology Gitanjali, becoming Asia's first Nobel laureate.
Chen Duxiu, one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party, translated the anthology into Chinese as early as 1915. The translation was published in New Youth, an influential Communist publication of the time.
Two of Tagore's novels were translated in 1917.
Tagore had much admiration for China. One can find numerous references to China in his work, signs of his curiosity for the Middle Kingdom.
Tagore's two visits to China in 1924 and 1929 left a deep impression on a number of Chinese poets and writers.
Last May, a documentary film produced by Bivash Mukherjee on Tagore's tour of China was shown to visitors at the World Expo in Shanghai. The film discussed why Tagore's journeys in the 1920s both stirred up controversy and created a Chinese following for the poet.
In 2006, the People's Daily elected Tagore as one of the 50 foreign personalities who have influenced modern Chinese thinking.
It's reported that a statue of Tagore will be erected in Shanghai in a small park next to the house of renowned Chinese poet Xu Zhimo, where Tagore lived during his visit.
Tagore was born in India on May 7, 1861, and is one of India's most prominent poets, writers, artists and philosophers.
Gitanjali, Stray Birds, Crescent Moon and other masterpieces by the poet are well-known in China.
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