Bayt Al Hekma: The Cultural Centre Bringing China to Downtown Cairo

For centuries, China and Egypt were connected by the Silk Road, a vast trading network connecting the Eastern and Western worlds. Traces of this past can be gleaned through remnants of Chinese silks that have been discovered in the burial chambers of Egyptian pharaohs, and shards of Chinese porcelain unearthed in Fustat attesting to the dynamic trade between Ming China and Mamluk Egypt. However, with the advent of Western imperialism and its ensuing grip over global trade, the ancient Silk Road began to crumble away.

Today, a new Silk Road has emerged. China is now Egypt’s largest trading partner, with Chinese goods - from lingerie and tupperware to Huawei smartphones and BYD electric vehicles - permeating everyday life. This growing economic relationship has given rise to a vibrant and diverse Chinese expatriate community in Cairo. Their presence is most felt in the many Chinese restaurants that have sprung up across the city, where Chinese diplomats, businesspeople and students convene to unwind over a Stella and a steaming bowl of noodles.

Despite these growing economic ties, Chinese culture remains largely unknown to most in Egypt. While many of the masterpieces of Western literature have become household names, how many of us can claim to be familiar with the works of the Tang poet Li Bai or Lu Xun, the great pioneer of modern Chinese fiction? Bayt Al Hekma, a Chinese cultural foundation tucked away on Downtown Cairo’s bustling El Tahrir street, aims to change this. Inspired by the original House of Wisdom, where ancient texts in Sanskrit and Greek were preserved and translated into Arabic at the Abbasid court in Baghdad, the centre’s publishing house has translated over 1,000 Chinese works into Arabic.

During a visit to Bayt Al Hekma, its Director, Yara, gave me a tour of the centre’s library, pointing to books on a dizzying range of subjects spanning the many millennia of Chinese civilization. The only book I recognised was an Arabic translation of the famous 5th-century BCE military treatise ‘The Art of War’ by General Sun Tzu, whose strategic principles have inspired generations of military leaders and Wall Street CEOs to crush their opponents.

Picking up randomly from the shelves, I was struck by the library’s rich and varied offering. I browsed through a beautifully designed Arabic translation of ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, a Chinese war epic written in the 14th century which chronicles the struggles of feudal lords to unseat the weakening Han emperor. On the shelf beside it was ‘Diary of a Madman’ by the great Chinese modernist Lu Xun published in 1918, a biting satire of traditional Chinese society told through the story of a man’s psychotic breakdown and his conviction that everyone is trying to eat him.

“Bayt Al Hekma was founded in 2011 to use culture as a bridge to bring the Arab world and China closer together and foster cross-cultural dialogue and understanding,” Yara tells CairoScene. “Although we are headquartered in Cairo, we also have branches in China, the UAE, Morocco and Lebanon, distributing to over 140 book stores across the Arab world and working with a team of over 80 professional translators.”

Within only a few years Bayt Al Hekma has emerged as one of the region’s most dynamic and innovative publishers, publishing not just translations but original works by talented up-and-coming Arab novelists. Testament to its success was that this year, the publishing house was not only named Best Egyptian Publisher at the Cairo International Book Festival, but also received the coveted Sheikh Zayed Award for Best Publisher at the Abu Dhabi Book Festival.

The centre also runs Chinese classes catering to all levels. During my visit, my conversation with Yara was periodically interspersed by the chants of Egyptian students reciting Chinese. Speaking to the students, most were motivated by the lucrative economic opportunities promised to those who master the famously difficult language. Ibrahim, an incoming student of Chinese Literature at Cairo University, said he was inspired to learn Chinese by friends who work for Chinese companies at the New Administrative Capital. Others such as Fatima, a Yemeni medical student living in Egypt, were just driven by curiosity. “It’s a side of the world we barely know anything about. I was looking for a challenge,” Fatima tells CairoScene. “Learning Chinese has widened my horizons a lot.”

Whether you want to sign up to your first Chinese class or buy an Arabic translation of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book, you can visit Bayt Al Hekma’s website and Facebook page to learn more about the centre and its publishing house.