Naguib Mahfouz’s trilogy has made a big impact in Beijing

CAIRO – 21 June 2018: Chinese Ambassador in Cairo Song Aiguo announced the launching of the Arab-Chinese Forum in Cairo, which began on Thursday, and which aims to promote cultural relations between China and all Arab countries.

In 2004, the Chinese-Arab Cooperation Forum was launched along with the One Belt One Road Initiative, which was a cultural starting point for the development and consolidation of intellectual cultural relations between China and Arab countries.

The ambassador added that Egypt and China have two ancient civilizations and that these two civilizations will flourish with a cultural exchange and a solid consolidation of relations.

During the Chinese cultural year, many Chinese events were organized in a large number of Arab countries. Naguib Mahfouz's Trilogy was also translated from Arabic to Chinese which created a positive impact on Chinese readers. Such translations help to promote cultural exchange.

Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz was born in 1912. Mahfouz’s first novel was “Khufu’s Wisdom”. He then wrote 35 novels afterwards and fifteen collections of short stories, alongside the “Echoes of an Autobiography” in 1994, according to an article by AUC press.


The iconic literary author was not only satisfied by writing short stories and novels, but also took the initiative to work on 25 film screenplays that featured specific writing techniques such as flashback. Egyptian cinema has witnessed over thirty Egyptian films that were based on Mahfouz’s novels and literary works.


He also wrote weekly columns in state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram and Al-Ahram Weekly in 1971, including “Naguib Mahfouz at Sidi Gaber: Reflections of a Nobel Laureate 1994–2001”.

Author of 34 novels, over 350 short stories, five plays and dozens of movie scripts, Mahfouz was by all means the most disciplined writer ever. He wrote for one hour every day throughout his 70-year career, while he also smoked three cigarettes per day and walked by the Nile every morning.


He met weekly with new a generation of writers, artists and readers through an informal seminar, which was a habit he developed in the 1950s.