Sinologist finds common themes between China and Egypt

2015-08-11            Source: Chinaculture.org

Egyptian Sinologist Mai Ashour at the historical mosque in Cairo.

The rapid development of China's economy in the past three decades has not only drawn the world's attention to its economic sphere, but also caused the world to notice its unique culture. Chinese literature, though an important part of the Chinese culture, was not widely read by others outside China until Mo Yan became the first Chinese winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012.

But to Sinologists and translators, who have long devoted their time and passion to the worlds woven by Chinese writers, Chinese literature is not something new. "Since the 19th and 20th century, Sinologists and Chinese scholars have been promoting Chinese literature overseas, and they have helped the world to understand China through their lens," said Zhang Longxi, a professor teaching at Hong Kong City University.

In this ongoing series about the translation of Chinese literature, we invited some Sinologists to share with us their observations about how Chinese literature is received in their countries, their opinions on the promotion of Chinese literature and their stories during their translation. In this article, we invited Egyptian Sinologist Mai Ashour to talk over these issues.

Mai Ashour is a young Sinologist and translator. She graduated from Chinese Language and Literature Department, Cairo University. As a lover for Chinese literature, she translated a lot of Chinese short stories, poses and poems into Arabic and wrote a lot of articles about China and Chinese culture. She is also translator of the book Ranghaiziaixuexi (Make study enjoyable to kids).

Mai Ashour reads her first book in Chinese while studying at Cairo University.

How did you become interested in Chinese literature? What are the literary works that introduced you to the world of Chinese literature?

When I was studying Chinese in Chinese Language and Literature Department at Cairo University, I used to attend lectures on Chinese culture, philosophy, history and literature, and subconsciously fell in love with Chinese literature. It happened because it is very deep, unique and full of philosophy, and I discovered many common themes between China and Egypt.

At first I started reading some classic writings of Zhang Ailing, San Mao, Lao She and Bing Xin, then I started reading Chinese modern literature. I read the works of Zhou Guoping, Bi Shumin, Feng Jicai, Xue Xiaochan, Fang Yingwen, Long Yingtai, shi Tiesheng, Han Han, Xi Murong and Li Yueliang , and a lot of writings and works from Taiwan and Hon Kong.

What is the first book that you read in Chinese? When did you decide to translate Chinese literature, and when did you actually get start?

The first book I read in Chinese was Hongyanlushui, or For Love or Money, from Zhang Xiaoxian, at that time I was in grade three in the university. And then I read Laiba, Haizi (Come, kid) from Chi Li.

I started translating Chinese works when I was at grade two. At that time professor Hisham El Malky, a lecturer, conducted a translation workshop for us and the result was that we translated Chinese idiom stories. After graduation, I started translating Ranghaizixuexi (Make study enjoyable to kids) by Yang Xia and it was published 2012.

In 2013 I decided to start translating literature as I felt it was about time to introduce a lot of Chinese literature, especially modern literature, to Arab readers, so I started translating Chinese Short stories, poses and poems. I published them in different Arabic magazines, cultural newspapers and websites in order to reach the largest number of Arab readers all over the world.

What is the biggest difficulty you face in translation?

Translation is not just transferring a language into other language, but it needs reading and understanding the culture and history as well. Of course Chinese language is very hard, but the hardest part is understanding different backgrounds related to culture,history, society, Chinese thinking and philosophy.

I started translating some writings of Shi Tie Sheng and one of them was Woyuditan, or Me and The Temple of Earth, in which he talks about the temple of earth and describes that place that influenced him.But when I began translating it I found a bit hard to imagine what he was describing because I have never been there, so I decided to go to the Temple of Earth to see and feel the place.

How do you choose the works that you want to translate? Is it more of a personal preference or a decision based on other factors?

The content is the most important for me. I read the work and when it attracts me, I start translating it, no matter who is the writer, or whether it is modern or classical work.

Sometimes it does happen that I translate according to what I need to know about Chinese culture, thinking and society. And other times I translate according my personal mood, and in this case it is usually prose or poem. I feel that Chinese literature really touches my heart.

What are the authors that are popular with the Egyptian translators? Is Chinese literature popular with the Egyptian readers? Do you see a rise of interest in Chinese literature since Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in literature?

I think the most famous author in Egypt right now is Mo Yan, after he won the award a lot of translators started to translate his works.

Yes of course Chinese literature is becoming more popular in Egypt nowadays, people are eager to read about Asian literature, especially Chinese literature, because they think China is similar to Egypt, has a long history and great civilization. They are interested to understand and know more about it, and I can see this clearly when I translate a Chinese short story or a prose, a lot of friends and readers start to give me feedbacks, and ask me about the author and about Chinese culture.

Definitely, a lot of people started to read Mo Yan's work after he won the Nobel prize and also started to get much interested in China and Chinese culture.

Do sinologists have a big influence on the publishing house in deciding what Chinese literary works to be introduced to Egypt? What's the current situation of Chinese literature introduction in Egypt?

Yes because sinologists are the bridge between the two cultures and languages, so most of the time they do choose the works that will be translated.

I don't have an accurate numbers, but what I can tell you that there are more works being translated into Arabic.

If you were to recommend the Chinese some Egyptian literature, what would they be? Do you have any plan of translating Egyptian literature to Chinese?

I would recommend strongly the literary works of the Egyptian female author and writer Radwa Ashour.

At the moment I am concentrating on translating Chinese literature into Arabic, but in the future I will take this step and start translating Egyptian literature to Chinese.

China and Egypt are two countries with time-honored histories. Do you find the two countries have similarities culturally? If so, are these commonalities also reflected in literature?

Yes sure, there are a lot of similarities between Egypt and China, and the more I translate literature the more I discover the commonalities, especially in family relations and how it is important, and also how Chinese people are warmhearted. I can touch this obviously when I translate texts full of different feelings, no matter if it is about love friendship or other things.