Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t20.14

v2.c10.s2.t20.14

Famous female writer Xie Bingxin is another important literary figure who was deeply influenced by Tagore during the New Culture Movement. In 1920, when she was still a student, she wrote an essay *Farewell to the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore*, which meant sending a tribute to the poet. In fact, this essay expressed the emotion which was the general feeling of the Chinese literary youth towards Tagore. Many years later, she wrote the preface to Chinese translated volume of *Selected Poems of Tagore*, and said that Tagore was by far the most admired foreign poets of her youth. In 1961 on the occasion of the birth centenary of Tagore, she wrote a memorial article in English, which was published in New Delhi that year in the volume titled, *Tagore Centenary Collection*. In that article she wrote about her childhood, when she discovered Tagore’s *Gitanjali*, *Crescent Moon* and other poetry collections in the school library shelves, and felt that his poetry was fresh and smooth, and full of oriental charm. She enjoyed it to her heart’s content, as if strolling along a mountain road and discovering a cluster of orchids. She also read Tagore’s short stories and other prose works. As a poet, she had deep sympathy and love for children and women. Like Guo Moruo, Xie Bingxin also led a new genre of poetry having been inspired by Tagore. Her two collection of poems, *A*