Autor: Tan Chung

Tan Chung was born in Malaysia and received the Indian name „Asoka” from Tagore (at Santiniketan) in 1929, grew up in China, and spent 45 years in India teaching in Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and other institutions. After having served as Head of the Department of Chinese and Japanese Studies of Delhi University, and Chairman of the Centre for Afro-Asian Languages and the Centre for East Asian Languages of Jawaharlal Nehru University, and as Professor-consultant and Head of East Asia Research in the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, he now resides at Chicago in retirement. He has authored and edited 19 books (11 in English, 7 in Chinese, one bilingual). His China and the Brave New World and Triton and Dragon have provided useful references for the teaching of 19th century China in India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places. The recent book Tagore and China which he initiated and edited with other scholars breaks new ground in the studies on Tagore as well as on India-China cultural affinity. He was the recipient of Padma Bhushan in 2010 and received the China-India Friendship Award from Premier Wen Jiabao in the same year. D.N. Gupta obtained M.A. and Ph. D degrees from the University of Delhi. He taught History at the prestigious Hindu College for over 40 years. His publications include: Communism and Nationalism in Colonical India (1939-1945), Bhagat Singh: Select Speeches and Writings (ed.), Changing Modes of Production in India (ed.), and R.C. Dutt”s Open Letters to Lord Curzon: Speeches and Papers(ed.).