as chinese ambassador luo zhaohui described his teacher xu fancheng during his visit to puducherrys sri aurobindo ashram and auroville last month senior inmates of the ashram got a rush of memories of a lanky reserved man who used to cycle around the town wearing a headband with a visor chinese professor xu fancheng an indologist and artist spent 27 years at the sri aurobindo ashram teaching at the ashram school and translating the works of sri aurobindo and the mother into chinesezhaohui regarded xu as one of the bridges between the two nations born as hu hsu on october 26 1909 in changsha hunan province china xu settled down in the sri aurobindo ashram in 1951 after a brief stint in germany where he studied art and history at heidelberg university 19291932 and translated german philosopher friedrich nietzsches work also sprach zarathustra into chinesexu first came to india to teach at rabindranath tagores visva bharati university in west bengal in the late 1940s during his stay he studied classical sanskrit in varanasi and translated kalidasas meghaduta into chinesehis quest for indian philosophy and scriptures drew him to puducherry settling down in sri aurobindo ashram in 1951 he lived a life of solitude and intense learning and seeking he painted in the classical chinese style practised calligraphy and began translating the works of sri aurobindo and the mother into chinese says devdip ganguli a member of a group in auroville and ashram who organised an exhibition of xus paintings in 2010 at auroville to mark his birth centenary year celebrationsxu translated all major works of sri aurobindo and the mother including the life divine the synthesis of yoga the ideal of human unity letters on yoga and the upanishads and the bhagwat gita among others into chinesehis chinese translations could not be sold in china until the late 1970s but now there is a growing interest in his writings and philosophy and vision of sri aurobindo and the mother his colleagues in beijing brought out his collected works in 2006 and the response to them has been very positive with the universities in china starting to offer courses in sri aurobindos philosophy and the students studying the integral yoga as part of their doctoral thesis there is also a very small but growing number of chinesespeaking seekers who have visited the ashram and auroville some settling down here others spending a few months hoping to return one day to stay on says gangulizhaohui while in puducherry visited the gallery in the ashram where the paintings of xu have been preserved and displayed while addressing a gathering at the recently held 68th anniversary celebrations of the peoples republic of china at new delhi zhaohui compared his teacher with buddhist monks bodhidharma faxian and xuanzang who engaged in bilateral ties in their quest for spiritual knowledgexu has been often credited with not only introducing indian philosophy to china but also inspiring chinese universities to teaching the works of sri aurobindo he firmly