Feature: Chinese Spring Festival in Cairo embodies China-Egypt cultural interaction

Crossing a short wooden bridge over the Nile River to enter Maadi Island Park in Cairo, eyes are bedazzled by hundreds of Chinese and Egyptian people all around the colorful park celebrating together the Chinese Spring Festival, in a unique scene of embodiment of China-Egypt cultural interaction.

Once getting in, Egyptian and Chinese bands are seen performing together the traditional Chinese fan dance. A few steps further, a group of people are holding hand in hand making a circle and chanting some popular Chinese songs.

The Chinese drummers were keen to receive the Egyptian families who came in with their children to join the Chinese celebrations at the park, where a small tree carried three large yellow-shaped Chinese words "Happy Spring Festival."

In his speech at the ceremony, China's Ambassador to Egypt Song Aiguo told the visitors that the festival has four aspects of happiness: it provides joy for the Chinese and Egyptian people together, comes shortly after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Egypt, marks the 60th anniversary of the China-Egypt diplomatic ties, and coincides with the China-Egypt cultural year.

All over the park, there were stands displaying traditional Chinese arts and handcrafts including paper cutting, woodcraft, dough figurines, tea making, herbal medicine, as well as traditional Chinese games like the Diabolo where kids and adults could play or learn how to play.

"We hold this festival in Cairo not only for the Chinese community in Egypt, but also for the Egyptian people to join us in the celebrations of the Chinese New Year, amid an atmosphere of happiness," said Chen Dongyun, cultural counselor of the Chinese embassy and director of the Chinese Cultural Center.

She added that Chinese and Egyptian habits and traditions are similar, and hoped that Egyptian families also participate in such Chinese celebrations. The 2016 China-Egypt cultural year will include various activities in culture, education and cinema, she said.

Visitors of all ages crowded around the main performance of the famous traditional Chinese dragon dance, while men in costumed mascots of a yellow-black tiger and a white lion played and took pictures with children all around.

"I came to attend the festival to take a closer look at the Chinese culture, for such activities help a lot with cultural communication between Egyptians and Chinese," said Haitham Ahmed, a 31-year-old Egyptian man, while waiting for two other friends to come along.

At one of the Chinese stands, Xiaolin, a young Chinese woman from the Confucius Institute of Egypt's Cairo University, was busy with her customers who showed great interest to the monkey tools and the paper cutting she was selling, for "the Monkey" is the sign for the current Chinese New Year.

"This year is the China-Egypt cultural year. Our institute plans to hold lots of cultural activities and add the Chinese culture into our students' curriculums for further mutual understanding and culture interaction between the two peoples," she told Xinhua, describing Egyptians as warm-hearted and hospitable.

The festival saw crowdedness over the Chinese food that appealed to a lot of Egyptians so much that many, particularly women, asked for the recipes and ingredients for cooking.

"It is such a beautiful day and I did not expect it to be this popular and successful," said Ma Ying, a Chinese girl living in Egypt and working for Chinese telecommunication corporation Huawei. She spoke in fluent Arabic accent as she said she was brought up here in Cairo.

"The response of Egyptians to traditional Chinese foods and songs makes me believe that the Chinese language will soon be more popular in Egypt," Ma told Xinhua.

Maadi Island Park obviously looked more Chinese than Egyptian on this day, which was very interesting for Egyptians; even the shade for rest was a large red plastic object that looked more like a small Chinese temple.

"The activities are so attractive and expressive that it made Egyptians more curious to know about the Chinese culture," said Mohamed Nasser, a 22-year-old Egyptian who works as air attendant at a Chinese airliner. "I hope the festival will draw more Egyptians to learn about China and join its activities."

Among the attractive Chinese arts that dazzled visitors' eyes were the "Luo Hua," a kind of art where a hot pen used for drawing on wood, the facial mask drawings and lantern decorations.

Nasser Abdel-Aal, professor of Chinese studies at Ain Shams University and former adviser to the tourism minister, expressed happiness to attend the Chinese festival. He expected more Chinese tourists to come to Egypt in 2016 in more cultural interaction between the two nations. Endit