“Just why would you visit China?” “What’s there to eat besides insects?” “But it has a horrible track of human rights abuse.” “I’d rather go to Europe.” For years, most of my social acquaintances have been reticent about the idea of visiting China, deeming it ‘dangerous, disgusting and boring’ for no obvious reason than what they’ve been told or what they have read about in foreign news outlets. Although Egypt has a plethora of Chinese restaurants and receives millions of Chinese tourists every year, the common, every-day Egyptian doesn’t know much about China either. Moreover, films and TV series have barely represented China in a positive way. One example of this is ‘Fool el Seen El Azeem (The Great Beans of China), a 2004 comedy film featuring Mohamed Henedi who goes to China for an international cooking competition only to experience a culture shock as he proceeds to reinforce the most cliché stereotypes about Chinese culture. On the other hand, the few who understand that the country, home to 34 divisions (including provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions) and, according to 2017 statistics, 1.386 billion people, has plenty to offer often…
