Building bridges between China and Egypt

Watch in awe as Mohamed Jihad, a young man from Egypt, perfectly recites a traditional Chinese tongue twister.
A learning journey in Chinese
When it was time for Mohamed to choose an undergraduate course, he felt that he would take up English. However, his mother had a different opinion: “You have known English since you were a child. Everything we buy now is made in China, so maybe studying Chinese will come in handy for you.”

Thanks to her wise counsel, Mohamed started his journey in the Chinese language. He graduated from Ain Shams University in Egypt with a degree in Chinese in September 2019, and then he went on to do a Master’s in Broadcasting and Anchoring from Communication University of China.

Initially, Mohamed was baffled by the subtlety of broadcasting in Chinese. Conceptions like “lower abdomen” or “dantian” and “sinking qi to the dantian” were hard to wrap your head around. He practiced voice exercises, recited tongue twisters, did xiangsheng, cross-talk comedy, and was doing guankou, rapid-fire storytelling. Slowly but surely, his classmates left in awe as he turned into the class leader in Chinese.

After graduating from the Communication University of China, Mohamed was a foreign expert at the China International Communication Group, where he had an emphasis on the promotion of Chinese culture.

Recalling his development he says, “I used to try to be perfect in pronunciation, but now I understand what people care about is if the story touches their hearts, not whether the words are correct. ”

**Cross-Cultural Connection

Taking into consideration all the experience he had acquired of the ‘Bike-Sharing’ model in China, Mohamed shared his insights on how Egypt could also have such a system on Facebook and tagged Egyptian Minister of Transport. Two days later he was more than glad to see his idea reposted officially from the accounts of the Egyptian Ministry of Transport and that they were interested in putting it into practice.

The “Cairo Bike” sharing project has been recently launched in Cairo to reduce traffic congestion.

“We have much to learn from China. The core of humanity is in our unity,” Mohamed says. “China can really be a great example to the whole world.”

In his study in China, he felt a warm camaraderie from the Chinese people to Egypt and their eagerness to know other cultures.

In July 2023, after graduating from the Communication University, Mohamed wore Egyptian pharaoh clothes when receiving his graduation diploma on stage. The picture then quickly spread through social media.

Many among the Chinese then became curious about Egyptian culture and pharaoh clothing. This became an opportunity for Mohamed to offer Egyptians’ stories to Chinese citizens. He eventually renamed his Chinese social media account “The Egyptian Pharaoh”.

Mohamed believes he would do well to construct a bridge for his Egyptian friends to better understand China: “If I can become this bridge for my dear Egyptian friends, that would be fantastic honor—truly significant.”.