Rise in translation improves Arab access to Chinese literature

CAIRO - Egypt's National Center for Translation has been focusing on translating Chinese books into Arabic to help Egyptian and Arab readers better understand China amid the Asian country's growing global influence, according to the organization's chief.

NCT director Anwar Mogheith says Arabs used to gain their knowledge of China through reading Chinese books translated into Arabic from intermediary languages like English, French and German.

"We faced the problem of a scarcity of Chinese books directly translated into Arabic, despite China's cultural influence in all fields including arts, literature, poetry, science, industry, development and others," Mogheith explains.