Volume 2, Issue 2

Chinese scholars just began to study Arabic literature since Reform and Opening-up of China in 1979, though Arabic language began to be taught in Peking University since 1951. Chinese scholars’ studies on Arabic literature studies at that time were at the edge of studies of world literature. Articles on Arabic literature just issued on Arab World. It was still difficult for professors of Arabic literature to issue their articles at the journals such as Foreign Literature Review, Literature Abroad, Foreign Literature Studies, Foreign Literature and Contemporary Foreign Literature in 1980s. These journals preferred to issue papers on western literature and Russian literature during that period. In recent years, studies on Arabic literature developed rapidly in China. The Chinese intellectuals do not study on ancient Arabic literature only, but study on modern and contemporary Arabic literature also. They published books on Arabic literature such as On Arabian Nights: Mythology and Reality , Singing for Love: A Study on Kuwait Poetess Souad al-Sabah , Sufism in Modern Arabic Literature , Modern Arabic Literature During the Cultural Changes , Arabic Poetry in the Context of Globalization: A Study on Egyptian Poet Farouk Guweidah, and Comparative Study of Chinese and Arabic Literature. They also wrote histories of Arabic literature, for example, History of Arabic Literature, History of Modern Arabic Literature and General History of Arabic Literature are available in Chinese book market in these years. Professor Zhong Jikun won Appreciation Award of Egypt Ministry of Higher Education in 2005, won Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s Cultural Personality of the Year in 2011 and in the same year won King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Translation. These prizes and awards show us that studies on Arabic literature have moved from the edge of China to the center of Arab world.

This research attempts to study China’s image in contemporary Arabic novels through four modal novels: The Queen Kisses the Dragon Over its Mouth by Amin Zaoui from Algeria, The Fleet of the Sun by Ali Al-Hajri from Qatar, Trilogy of Beidaihe and Spring and Autumn by Hanna Mina from Syria. The researcher seeks to answer the following questions. How was China represented in these novels as others? And how did these novels represent the self? Also, how did these novels delineate the relationships between self and others, from the perspectives of individuals and societies, culturally, politically, and economically? How is the aesthetics of these novels established?

Sunset Oasis (2007), the winner of the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2008, remains one of the most important and intricate works by Egyptian writer Bahaa Taher. Based on true historical events, the novel introduces female characters from varied nations and social classes. In spite of their differences, we find these women confined in the “margins” of patriarchal societies portrayed in the novel. This paper intends to shed new light on the circumstances of women imprisoned in the “margins” and on how they struggle against such marginalization. Indeed, women as individuals are unable to confront structural oppression and systematic inequality, as they question and reject the “discipline and punishment” of Patriarchy, and thus display an awareness the readers would applaud as ahead of their time. Hence, their seemingly fruitless endeavor is a glorious defeat.

This research deals with the image of China in the cultural heritage of the Arabs, especially in the writings of famous Arab authors such as Said al-Andalusi, Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, Ibn al-Muqaffa’, Al-Jahiz, Ibn al-Nadim and others. It was found that these writings did not mention Chinese thought, and the absence of Chinese thought can be seen as a black hole in the Arab heritage, despite the richness and depth of ancient Chinese thought. The researcher believed that the ancient Arabs did not know Chinese thought, nor did they learn about it through the Chinese language directly, so they concluded that it “did not exist”, and this imaginary non-existence contributed to this deep black hole. However, the situation has changed since the 21 st century, when we find increasing direct exposure to Chinese culture, thanks to the increase in cultural exchanges between China and the Arab world, and the steady growth in all fields in Sino-Arab relations.

Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) is regarded as the Palestinian national poet, and the leader of Palestinian resistance poetry. The Chinese version of his poetry collection A Lover From Palestine was published in 2016, then republished in 2020. In the eyes of Chinese researchers and admirers of poetry and Arabic literature in China, Mahmoud Darwish has long been aware of the Palestinian identity crisis under the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and endeavored, through his abundant works, to implement a dynamic poetic construction of the Palestinian national cultural identity, in order to unite, to maintain, and to expand Palestinian national identity on one hand, and to document and inherit Palestinian cultural legacy on the other hand. This paper, based on Darwish’s work, tries to explore the poet’s considerations of Palestinian national identity crisis, and his faith of the poetry’s indispensable role to build up the national cultural identity from three aspects: his awareness of the identity crisis, his poetic construction of a multiidentity, and his strategy of defending it. Thus the poet made a great effort to document, defend and expand the Palestinian authentic, multidimensional identity in his immortal work.

Geographical reality and diverse historical conditions left a significant impact on Chinese agricultural life since its beginning and throughout its later stages of growth. In light of it, intellectual structures were formed in ancient China over many centuries. Led by Confucianism and Daoism, various schools of ancient Chinese thoughts succeeded in forming intellectual foundations in social, humanistic and political dimensions. These thoughts came to express the achievements of Chinese humanistic development, which adheres to the customs, traditions, and virtuous family and community moral principles. Their effects are still evident today in modern Chinese humanistic thought.

The interaction between China and Arab countries has a long history. After entering the 21 st century, China-Arab relations have ushered in many important stages. In July 2018, the two sides agreed to establish a strategic partnership, which has become a new historical beginning for China-Arab friendly cooperation. At the same time, Sino-US relations plummeted. The United States changed its strategic positioning towards China, strengthened its containment of China, and opened the era of Sino-U.S. strategic competition. Therefore, China-Arab relations will be in an important field of strategic competition between China and the United States, which will become an important variable affecting the development of China-Arab relations. Starting from the internal and external factors affecting China-Arab relations, this paper intends to further analyze the changes in China’s diplomatic style of becoming more active in participating in Arab affairs and diversifying the fields and modes of exchange between the two sides under the current background of great power competition, then clarify the unity of stage and long-term, response and initiative, context and totality, and theory and practice embodied in such changes. At present, China must not only recognize the strategic significance of Arab countries, but also correctly understand the strategic contraction of the United States in the Middle East, and further consolidate China-Arab relations, expand the increment of cooperation, and pay attention to each other’s core interests by strengthening the frequency of diplomacy between heads of state, strengthening the use of multilateral mechanisms, strengthening the docking of development strategies, strengthening the supply of public goods, and strengthening exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.

The Arab-China relations go back to the second century BC. The Silk Road was the most important link that enabled the early Arabs to get to know China far from their own countries. In the modern era, a new dialogue began between the Arabs and Chinese, especially after China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, which was the official announcement of the establishment of a new Silk Road linking China with the Arab world and the rest of the world. This was preceded by exchanged intellectual, cultural, literary and philosophical dialogues, translations and seminars between Arab and Chinese intellectuals and academics based on a new understanding of Chinese philosophies such as Daoism and Confucianism, as well as the work of Chinese Muslim translators to translate Qur’an, jurisprudential books, interpretations, poems and Islamic writings from Arabic into Chinese, which paved the way for a continuous dialogue and an ongoing and open-to-the-future encounter between the two cultures.