Translated books are a big hit at Cairo book fair

CAIRO — Decorated with Chinese-style red lanterns, the pavilion of translated Chinese books saw a big turnout of book lovers at the 54th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair, the largest book fair in the country.

The pavilion of the Bayt Al-Hekma Cultural Group, a publishing house mainly devoted to the Arabic translation of Chinese books, as well as Chinese language learning books and courses, displayed about 1,000 book titles during the fair, all in Arabic and English and centered on Chinese culture, history, literature and economy, among many others.

Visitors of different ages frequented the pavilion of Chinese books. Some parents picked out children's books for their kids, while some young people were attracted to books on Chinese culture, history and development.

Abdel-Rahman Ibrahim, an 18-year-old high school student, was taking a tour of the pavilion to choose a book on Chinese history.

"China has overcome a lot of problems throughout its history while Chinese wisdom is shown in their literature, thoughts and philosophy," the Egyptian student says.

The fair also saw many Egyptian Chinese language students looking for relevant books, dictionaries and lexicons to help improve their linguistic skills.

"I greatly admire the Chinese culture and people, so I want to learn more about China, an ancient civilization with a unique language, history, literature and culture," Noura Gamal, a junior student of Chinese at Ain Shams University in Cairo, says.

Meanwhile, a Chinese novel translated into Arabic by Egyptian translator Radwa Imbabi won the best-translated children's book at the fair.

Ahmed al-Saeed, CEO of Bayt Al-Hekma, says that China's tremendous development is one of the reasons for the growing popularity of Chinese books.

"We cover everything related to China for Arab readers. We provide printed, audio and electronic books on the most well-known Arab platforms, and they achieve great success. We have moved from the stage of promotion to that of popularity," says the head of the group.

Mohamed El-Fiqi, head of the General Egyptian Book Organization's central department for marketing, says that "the Chinese pavilion participates in the fair with many rich book titles that increase in number every year in a very successful effort to bring the cultures of Egypt and China closer".

The 54th Cairo International Book Fair, organized by the General Egyptian Book Organization under the Ministry of Culture, kicked off on Jan 25 and concluded on Feb 6.

It exhibited the books of about 1,047 publishing houses from more than 50 countries and regions and attracted nearly 3 million visitors.

Xinhua