For some participants, the visit underscored how deeply rooted stories often carry universal truth.
"Good literature is an art of empathy," says Egyptian Sinologist Ahmed Sayed, who holds a PhD in ethnology from China's Ningxia University. "The more rooted a story is in its own soil, the more likely it is to resonate with the globe."
In Arabic-speaking countries, the connection between the local and the global is increasingly reflected, according to Tunisian scholar Khaled Elhaj Ahmed. "Villages surrounded by fields and history reveal the essence of literature. Stories that seem local often hold universal truths," he says.
Wang Yuewen, former president of the Hunan Writers Association, notes that vivid stories about China's rural transformation capture a shared human experience with universal appeal.
