Chinese, Arab youths contribute to bilateral exchanges, cooperation

Mahdy Ahmed Saleh (1st R), an Egyptian student studying in Jingdezhen Ceramic University in China, learns painting in Jingdezhen, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo by Wang Zhongqing/Xinhua)

NANCHANG, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Mahdy Ahmed Saleh, an Egyptian student studying at Jingdezhen Ceramic University, was surprised to find more and more features of his hometown appear in Jingdezhen, a world-famous "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province.

Special products from the Arab countries such as dates, camel milk products and olive oil, are on display in the market on the Taoxichuan ceramic art avenue in Jingdezhen. Paintings, sculptures and ceramics by renowned artists from 22 Arab countries are on show in a local museum.

Hundreds of years ago, smalt, an ingredient used to make the famous Chinese blue and white porcelain, was imported from Arab countries. Passionate about China's ceramics culture, Saleh came to Jingdezhen to study ceramics three years ago.

For Egypt and other Arab countries, ceramics are one of the China's most famous calling cards, he said.

Saleh has had an extraordinary cultural experience in this small city. His teachers have moved their practical classes to archaeological sites, museums and ancient buildings. On both sides of the roads in Jingdezhen, street lights are decorated with blue and white porcelain. There can be five or six ceramic museums on a single street, and ceramics artworks can be seen everywhere -- and this is one of the things that has pleased Saleh most.

Currently, Saleh's research project in Jingdezhen focuses on the study of Chinese ceramics from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

"Arabic characters appeared on Chinese porcelain artworks in the Tang Dynasty. And after the development in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Arabic characters on Chinese porcelain became more common in the Ming Dynasty," Saleh said. "This verifies the development of China's relations with Arab countries."

The 30-year-old said he hopes to stay in China after graduating, as exchanges and cooperation between China and Arab countries have been strengthened further.

"If I have the chance, I would like to work at a museum or in an archaeology department," he said.

On the banks of the Nile River in Saleh's hometown of Cairo, capital of Egypt, Chinese construction has forged a new bond between the Chinese and Arab peoples.

Iconic Tower, a key project jointly built by China and Egypt under the Belt and Road Initiative, is under construction at the Central Business District site of Egypt's new administrative capital, some 50 km east of Cairo.

A group of young people from China are working tirelessly on the 385.8-meter-high tower, which is expected to become the tallest skyscraper in Africa upon completion.

Yan Yueping, a safety engineer at CSCEC Egypt, a subsidiary of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), walks around the construction site every day to ensure progress.

The project has created more than 30,000 jobs in Egypt.

"We learned the local language from our Egyptian colleagues, and they also learn Chinese from us," Yan said, adding that China-Egypt cooperation has promoted exchanges between the two peoples, and helped them understand each other better.

As of October 2022, four Arab countries -- the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Tunisia -- have announced that Chinese has been included in their national education systems. A total of 15 Arab countries have established Chinese departments at their universities, and 13 have established a total of 20 Confucius institutes and two independent Confucius classrooms.