Tan Chung

Tan Chung (born April 18, 1929, in Matubahar, Johor) is an authority on Chinese history, Sino-Indian relations and cultural exchange. Tan Chung has been a doyen of Chinese cultural studies in India for nearly half a century.

In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour by the Govt. of India and the China-India Friendship Award by the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in the same year.

Career

Tan Chung taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the University of Delhi for many years. His father, Tan Yunshan (1898-1983), was the Founding Director of the Department of Chinese Language and Culture "Cheena-Bhavana" at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan and a key figure driving Nationalist China's interactions with the Indian freedom movement during the 1930s and 1940s. After Tan Chung's retirement from JNU in 1994, he worked as a Research Professor at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi and currently lives in Chicago, USA. He has been Honorary Director of the ICS/Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi.

A conference in his honor, at the occasion of his 80th birthday, was held in New Delhi in December 2008.

In June 2013, Yunnan Academy of Social Science conferred upon him the honorary Fellowship of the Academy.

In December 2013, Visva-Bharati University conferred Deshikhottama (D. Litt and the highest honor of the University) upon Professor Tan Chung.