by Mahmoud Fouly
CAIRO, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The China Cultural Center in Cairo celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival on Saturday in a festive atmosphere climaxed with the Egyptian students' performance for a Chinese poetry recitation contest.
Celebrating family reunions and sights of the full moon, the Mid-Autumn Festival is marked on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which falls on Sept. 10 this year.
During the evening, the center's yard was converted into a contest venue, where walls and trees decorated in red lighting brimmed it with a joyous mood.
Rivaling Egyptian students expressively interpreted their choice of Chinese poems against background videos themed on Chinese culture and created by respective contenders to elaborate stage effects.
Ten students were awarded prizes, and the top winner went to Nada Hosny, a student from the Al-Alsun Faculty at Suez Canal University in Ismailia province who performed on a poem written by late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
"My ambition is to get a scholarship to travel to China and then study for a master's degree when I come back. I dream of becoming a Chinese-language teacher," Hosny told Xinhua.
Giving credit to her professors for her fluency in Chinese, Hosny said she decided to study Chinese because she "found that the Chinese language is one of the best for the job market."
Nada's professor Sheng Yusi, also goes by "Salma" in Arabic, told Xinhua during the event that she was very proud that her student made it top in the contest and felt that her efforts were rewarded.
"We teach foreign students the Chinese language and also convey the Chinese culture to them. We exchange our cultures," Salma said in fluent Arabic.
The ceremony was inaugurated by Zhang Tao, charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy in Egypt, for inviting more "Egyptian friends" to learn about the Chinese culture and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
For his part, Yang Ronghao, cultural counselor of the Chinese embassy and director of the China Cultural Center in Cairo, said he was impressed by the improvement of the students' language skills and their understanding of Chinese poetry this year.
El-Hassan Ali, a student at the Confucius Institute at Cairo University, was among the six students who achieved third place.
"I participated in many China-related activities including this one marking the Mid-Autumn Festival. Through these activities, I've learned a lot about Chinese culture and made many Chinese friends," he said.
Chinese has become one of the most wanted languages among Egyptian learners, according to Hassan Ragab, dean of Al-Alsun Faculty at the Suez Canal University and director of Confucius Institute at the university.
"I believe this has to do with China's economic rise and cultural influence, the distinguished Egyptian-Chinese relations and the strategic ties between Egypt and China," Ragab told Xinhua. ■