Rabindranath Tagore's visit to China in 1924 is a landmark event in the relationships of India and China in modern times. He formed deep bonds with Chinese artists and intellectuals. His poems were widely translated and read in China. His relationship with Chinese intellectuals and artists were representative of the possibility of revolutionary artistic and cultural synthesis between China and India based on reviving the age-old connection between the two people.


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Portrait of Tagore by Xu Beihong, 1940, Xu Beihong Memorial Museum.

Liang Qichao was a famous Chinese intellectual who joined the Chinese reform movement with Kang Youwei and was part of the early intellectual vanguard of Chinese self-determination. He was looking for a way to combine Confucian and Buddhist ideals with western modernity. His ideas were an early influence on Mao Zedong. hosted Tagore during his visit to China in 1924 and looked up to him, as well as to Indian civilization greatly.

"And now we are told that, within recent years we have at last come into contact with civilised races. Why have they come to us? They have come coveting our land and our wealth; they have offered us as presents cannon balls dyed in human blood; their factories manufacture good and machines which daily deprive our people of their crafts. But we two brothers were not like that in the days gone by. We were devoted to the cause of the universal truth, we set out to fulfill the destiny of mankind, we felt the necessity for co-operation. We Chinese especially felt the need for leadership and direction from our elder brothers, the people of India." - Liang Qichao

Xu Zhimo was one of the most famous Chinese modern poets. He formed a deep friendship with Tagore and was influenced by his poetry. Xu Zhimo was called Susima by Tagore and he called Tagore Rubidadda.

Your influence suggests the very return of the spring: as sudden and as marvelous. our youths, newly emancipated, like the tender buds on the stem, need but the embrace of the southern breeze and the kiss of the morning dew to set them aflower, and you have supplied it. Your poems have colored our warp of thinking and feeling; have revealed new possibilities in our otherwise rigid and lurid language. - Xu Zhimo on Tagore

Xu Beihong was one of the pioneers of Chinese modern art. He was invited to Viswa Bharati by Tagore, and he also met Gandhi during his visit to India. He made portraits of both Gandhi and Tagore. He made his painting "The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountain" with Indian models at Shantiniketan while visiting India. He said "My visit here is that of a pilgrim. I have come not to give but to receive the great gifts that India may have to bestow upon my country and people as she did in the days gone by."

The Foolish Old Man Moves a Mountain by Xu Beihong, 1940, Xu Beihong Memorial Museum.

Tan Yun Shan was invited to teach at Viswa Bharati by Rabindranath Tagore. He was a founder of the Cheena Bhavana on the campus premises. Tan Yun Shan was responsible for an enormous amount of research bringing out the commonalities between India and China. He considered Rabindranath Tagore to be his guru. He said "Our two countries, both situated in the bright and glorious continent of Asia. India to the south-west and China to the north-east, spread out lordly in different directions but yet are linked up at the main line, just like the two wheels of a carriage or the two wings of a bird, and, even better to say, like the two hands and feet or the two ears and eyes of a person." Some of his writings can be found here: http://ignca.gov.in/eBooks/India_world_ks_40.pdf