Chinese books welcomed at Tunis International Book Fair

TUNIS - Holding several Chinese bestsellers in hands, including "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," Ridha Mahjoub, a 53-year-old Tunisian businessman, was searching for more books at the China exhibition booth at Tunis International Book Fair.

"Whenever I find any opportunity to learn more about China, I want to know about Chinese culture, Chinese way of living and thinking," said Ridha.

"I have once been to China, went to the cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou", Ridha said, "I love my trip there. During my meetings with Chinese people, I found a lot of wisdom in what they said and what they did."

"I'm deeply impressed by the rapid changes in China under the leadership of the Chinese government with fast economic development, as well as so many projects being built. I truly want to know more about China, this magic country", said Ridha.

The 34th Tunis International Book Fair opened on Friday and will run through April 15 in Tunisian capital Tunis.

As one of the largest and oldest book fairs in North Africa, the 2018 Tunis international Book Fair attracted 775 publishers from over 30 countries.

Four famous Chinese publishers, namely, People's Publishing House, People's Education Press, People's Medical Publishing House and China Educational Publications Import and Export Corporation, took part in the event.

President of People's Publishing House Huang Shuyuan told Xinhua that this is the second time for the Chinese delegation to take part in Tunis book fair.

"The whole delegation brought over 600 Chinese books here, translated into French or the Arab language," said Huang Shuyuan, "Covering a wide range of topics, some books introduce China's government and policies, some are about Chinese traditional culture or traditional medicine, and others are about learning the Chinese language or cooking Chinese food."

Moniya, 22, a Tunisian college student majoring in Chinese, bought two books about Chinese history and ancient folk tales. She can speak Chinese quite well.

"I will live and work in China after graduation, because there are so many opportunities for young people. As long as we have passion and talent, we could create our ideal life there. It's my dream to live in China," said Moniya.

Since the book exhibition serves as a cultural platform for locals to learn about ancient and modern China, the young girl said she and her classmates all expect more Chinese publishers to come and exhibit books next year.

In the China exhibition booth, Tunisian readers were wandering from one stall to another, and some were talking with Chinese publishers about future cooperation.

"Through this book fair, we look forward to having more Tunisian people read about China, understand China. We also hope to expand cooperation and strengthen exchanges with local publishers," Huang said.

"A local language university found us at this book fair and we communicated quite well," said Huang, "Certain cooperation projects are already under negotiation, a good start for this year's exhibition."