Interview: Confucius Institutes enhance China-Egypt ties: director

The Confucius Institutes have helped to boost China-Egypt relations by promoting mutual understating between the people of the two nations, an Egyptian Chinese academic professor said.

"The Confucius Institutes have achieved great objectives of making Egyptians understand China, and also gave Chinese people a better chance to understand the populous North African country," Rehab Mahmoud, director of the Confucius Institute at Cairo University, told Xinhua.

There are two Confucius Institutes in Egypt, one in the capital and the other in Suez Canal province, while 470 institutes and 800 Confucius classes have been established across the world.

Mahmoud said the mutual ties between Egypt and China go beyond signing trade and economic deals.

"We share historical background of solidarity and civilization, and we are peaceful people who never sought controlling other nations' wealth in terms of the colonialism and hegemony," she said.

Located at the campus of Cairo University, the Confucius Institute has been co-founded by Cairo University and China's Peking University in 2007.

The institute, the first one in Egypt and North Africa, started its Chinese language courses in 2008, attracting hundreds of Egyptian students every year since then.

Mahmoud noted that the students do not necessarily need to major in Chinese language, and the institute has attracted students from medicine, commercial and engineering colleges across the country.

"The number of students has increased from 30 in 2007 to more than 1,500 in 2015," said Mahmoud, who is also the director of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature in Cairo University.

The professor said the skyrocketing Chinese economy is one of the most important motivations for Egyptians to study the Chinese language.

Mahmoud expected that within two years, the Chinese will be listed as a second language in many universities and schools across Egypt.

"The Egyptian students graduated from the Confucius Institutes are capable to meet the demands of labor market, due to their direct interactions with Chinese professors, who are real example that embodies the Chinese people," she explained.

Furthermore, China has been paying much interest to the cultural interactions recently, Mahmoud said.

The Confucius Institute at Cairo University has held a number of different singing and dancing activities, symposiums, photography competitions and calligraphy contests, she said.

"The Egyptian students not only learn the Chinese language at the institute, but could also enjoy Chinese movies and literature among many things," she added.

The professor said 2016 is the China-Egypt Culture Year, and the Confucius Institutes in Egypt will hold many "Chinese Culture Days" in cooperation with Egypt's Supreme Council for Culture to further promote the Chinese culture. Endit