Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c4.s2.138

v1.c4.s2.138

After he returned from China, Tagore was very keen to set up a centre for the study of China and Chinese civilisation in his Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan in Bengal. He met a young Chinese scholar Tan Yunshan while in Singapore in 1927 and invited him to visit Visva-Bharati. Tan Yunshan came and stayed on in Visva-Bharati to start teaching Chinese language, initially with just five students. Tan Yunshan became Tagore’s main collaborator and assistant in setting up what became the first centre for Chinese studies in modern India. He returned to China to raise financial and other support for the project of setting up such a centre. Eventually, it was inaugurated on April 10, 1937. With the assistance given by the Nationalist Government, the Sino-Indian Cultural Society and other supporters in China, the Cheena Bhavana as it was called, was established with its own unique building and a library consisting of a large number of Chinese works.