Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t16.2

v2.c10.s2.t16.2

Mu Dan was born in Tianjin. He was admitted to Tianjin Nankai Middle School and learned how to write poetry when he was 11. In 1935, he joined Tsinghua University. In 1940, he graduated from the Foreign Language Department of Southwest Associated University and remained at the school as a teaching assistant. During his stay in the university, he published many works including ‘*Praise*’ and ‘*Eight Poems*’. In February 1942, he joined the China Expeditionary Force and went to Myanmar as an army translator. In May of the same year, he followed the forces to retreat into the Bumhpa Bum Mountains after the defeat. After five months of trek, he arrived in India. He recuperated in Calcutta that winter and returned to China in January 1943. In 1947, he participated in the creative activities of the ‘Nine Leaves School’. In 1949, he went to the United States of America to study British, American and Russian literature in the University of Chicago’s Graduate School. In 1952, he obtained the Master’s Degree of literature. In early 1953, he returned home and began to serve as an Associate Professor of the Foreign Language Department of Tianjin Nankai University. He translated many works, including Eugene Onegin (1957) and Don Juan (1980). He died of an illness on February 26, 1977.