Shubhda Gurung (Ph.D. Candidate, Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; HYI Chinese Studies in India Visiting Fellow, 2024-25)
Abstract: As 2024 marked a hundred years since the Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s 1924 China visit, the present moment is an apt time to reflect on its impact on cultural interactions between India and China. This paper aims to explore the perspectives of Ji Xianlin, an important Chinese scholar and a key historical witness to the tumultuous events of the twentieth century. Within China, divergent views surrounded Tagore’s visit, both during and after his stay, and Ji is one of many scholars who have written about this historically significant event. Ji’s perspectives emanate from his encounter with Tagore as a middle schooler in Jinan, Shandong Province. Six decades later, Ji was not only a world-renowned Indologist but also the translator of one of the key works on Tagore – Tagore by Fireside. Ji’s academic perspectives on Tagore were primarily unbiased by contemporaneous politics. Ji recognized the support and sympathies Tagore was able to draw towards China during the War of Resistance against Japanese aggression. Through the lens of Ji Xianlin’s research on Tagore’s thoughts and writings on China, this paper examines the footprints of how Tagore’s 1924 China visit influenced the Indian perception of China, and vice versa.
Keywords: Tagore, Ji Xianlin, India, China, Cultural Interactions
About the Working Paper Series:
The Harvard-Yenching Institute is pleased to make available working papers by HYI affiliated scholars on topics in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture. The HYI Working Paper Series welcomes submissions from all HYI-affiliated faculty and fellowship grantees (including graduate students). Scholars are invited to post papers either in English or in an Asian language. To submit a paper, please email strogatz@fas.harvard.edu.
The views expressed in the HYI Working Paper Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. HYI Working Papers have not undergone formal review and approval. Such papers are included in this series to elicit feedback and to encourage discussion. Copyright belongs to the author(s). Papers may be downloaded for personal use only, and may not be cited without the author’s permission.