Civilization Differences and Modernity——Rabindranath Tagore’s Political Ideals and His Perspective on Chinese Civilization
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Huang, Wei-Lin
Abstract
For most of the contemporary Chinese scholars, the tempestuous debates among Chinese intellectual community induced by Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to China in1922 is no less a misunderstanding of Tagore’s words than a burst of blind hostility against Tagore. However, beyond the ‘misunderstanding’, it remains a difficult problem to locate Tagore’s thoughts in any intellectual or political position; hence numerous researchers take “ambivalence” as the character of Tagore’s thought.
Tagore and his Chinese criticizers shared a common problem besides the pressure of the invasion of Western civilization: to compete with the West in the name of “modernity” without losing their civilization particularity, identities and dignities. However, the perspectives on civilizations Tagore and his Chinese criticizers share were not in agreement, inconsonance was obvious among them since their visions of “modernity” were divergent.
To understand Tagore’s ideals developed from his perspective on civilizations, this thesis will first analyze how Tagore had been influenced by India’s colonial circumstances and the circulation of Orientalism knowledge. Secondly, it will elucidate how Tagore integrated his universal ideals, particularity of Indian civilization and the picture of world-politics together, and then developed his civilization perspective and political ideal of “Pan-Asianism.” Finally, through analyzing how 1920s Chinese intellectuals understand Tagore, I will argue that the debates aroused by Tagore’s visit represented different expectations of “modernity” among Tagore and his criticizers.
Subjects
Rabindranath Tagore
Civilization
Modernity
Orientalism
Pan-Asianism
India
China
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-99-R96322054-1.pdf
Size
23.53 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):f2910eb0d7ef4e64836f1645910c1dc3