Pictorial book of Indian poet fosters bilateral ties

Rabindranath Tagore in Shanghai, a Chinese-English compendium of rare images of the Indian poet's visits to China in the 1920s, is, in fact, a lot more than what the title suggests. Its ambit stretches well beyond Tagore's three trips to Shanghai in 1924 and 1929.

The book, meticulously put together by Shanghai Municipal Archives with support from the Indian Consulate in Shanghai, offers a birds' eye-view of Tagore's discovery trail across China, by publishing, for the first time, images taken in Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Jinan, as well as scarcely-seen photos shot in Shanghai during his much-publicized, if somewhat controversial, 1924 visit.

It also includes cover images of the earliest-published Chinese translations of Tagore's work, including pages from Xin Qingnian (New Youth) magazine, edited by Chen Duxiu, in which four poems by Tagore, written originally in Bengali, appeared in English (Tagore's own) and Chinese translations in 1915.