Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t26: Wei Fengjiang
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t26
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Wei Fengjiang
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Wei Fengjiang (October 14, 1912 - March 5, 2004) was a Chinese student of Rabindranath Tagore, born in Xiaoshan (now Hangzhou City), Zhejiang Province.
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Born in 1911, he was recommended by Tan Yun-shan to study in Visva-Bharati University and became a Chinese student of Rabindranath Tagore in 1933. He happened to be Indira Gandhi’s classmate when he studied in Visava-Bharati University. He obtained the Master of Arts degree of the university in 1937, and was appointed by Tagore as an Associate Professor of Cheena Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University in April. In the same year, he went to Sabarmati Ashram and began to study with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He returned to China in 1939, and taught in schools of Zhejiang and Shanghai. Wei Fengjiang also worked as the
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Rajiv Gandhi meets Wei Fengjiang in 1987 in New Delhi
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President of Yuexiu Foreign Language School, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province in his later years. In 1987, he was invited by the Government of India to visit the country, and returned to his Alma Mater Visva-Bharati University and Sabarmati Ashram. In 1988, he was received by the visiting Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Beijing. The then Indian President Ramaswamy Venkataraman visited Wei Fengjiang twice in Hangzhou in 1990 and 1992, respectively. In 1997, he was again invited to visit India. He died on March 5, 2004. Both the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi sent messages of condolence to praise his contributions to the friendship and cultural exchanges between China and India.
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Wei Fengjiang, as the sole Chinese student of Tagore and follower of Mahatma Gandhi, had many of his works published, including ‘*In Mr. Gandhi’s Home* (*South Asian Studies*, Edition 1, 1985), ‘*Ruminations on Present and Past Homes of Tagore* (*South Asian Studies*, Edition 1, 1986), ‘*Past Leaders of the Indian National Congress Leaders I Knew* (*South Asian Studies*, Edition 3, 1986), ‘*India Revisited* (*South Asian Studies*, Edition 1, 1988) and also ‘*My Teacher Tagore*’ (1986). In his ‘*My Teacher Tagore*’, he recalled the thoughts, creativity and life of Tagore and his teachers and friends in Visva-Bharati University based on his own experiences.