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Egyptian twin sisters devoted to bridging China-Arab cultural ties through translating books, teaching Chinese

Updated: 2017-10-10 | By: Xinhua

Shiamaa Kamal reads a Chinese textbook in her office at the Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, on Sept. 28, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]



Shiamaa, who has translated three books on the Belt and Road initiative into Arabic, noted that there are so many different minorities, ethnic groups, religions and historic backgrounds that would be translated to connect the countries along the Belt and Road routes.

Rasha praised the initiative not only because it focuses on promoting partnerships and cooperation with participants, which is totally different from the Western models, but also because it shows China's determination and great efforts to convince its partners to support and advance it.

She cited that China, in marketing the Belt and Road initiative, has established research centers, held seminars and conferences, and translated related information into several languages.

Official statistics found that Egyptian youths like to work in China's projects that are spreading in the entire region, and to learn the Chinese language in order to work as tourist guides.

With nearly 200,000 Chinese tourists visiting Egypt in 2016, China has become the fourth largest source of tourists for Egypt, in a major boost to its tourism industry that has been suffering from a slowdown due to political turmoil and terror attacks since 2011.

Accordingly, the two sisters believe Egypt and China should enhance coordination, not only between their culture ministries, but also between the publishing and translation industries in the two countries.

Besides attending many book fairs and seminars on China in the Middle East in 2017, Rasha also traveled to many Arab and European countries to promote her books about China from the Chinese angle, in cooperation with Chinese writers, novelists and translators.

"When I translated a series of books on the history, geography, food, and minorities in Xinjiang, I felt like the guard for that treasures, not merely a translator," Rasha added.

Rasha is now working on translating more books about China into Arabic, including those about the Belt and Road initiative.

"Our mission is not only translation, but to introduce the Chinese culture to the Arab people," Rasha said.

The twin sisters now dream of translating the Islamic-Chinese encyclopedia into Arabic, as they see it as a very important step for correcting the inaccurate information about Chinese Muslims and introducing the Chinese philosophies, ethics and social disciplines to the Arab countries.

"The Arabic and Chinese languages might be difficult, and their distance is far apart, but the cultural rapprochement would narrow the gap and eliminate the difficulties," Shiamaa said.

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