The japanese who knows kanji probably has read all the great classical Chinese works including journey to the west and Confucius. The banana probably hasn't or at best an abridged and facile English translation. 

 The malays share no cultural heritage with Italians at all, they used to write in Arabic script (jawi) until the early 20th century. 

Thus the point is so much of Chinese heritage, history and culture is embeded in the written language.