Massive Chinese-English dictionary ready to hit the shelves

Wu Guanghua has spent 14 years compiling a Chinese-English dictionary, which will be released by Shanghai Translation Publishing House later this year.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The new dictionary contains about 20,000 phrases that have surfaced in more recent times but are widely used. They include zhongguo meng (Chinese Dream), fangchan xiangou (restrictions on the purchase of multiple homes) and jiong yidai (an online term for young people).

In addition, phrases such as shanhun find standardized mention as "rush wedding", instead of the more popular "flash marriage".

"New words keep appearing with the country's rapid development, especially in the past 15 years. Our study should follow the progress and offer readers as much as possible," Wu says.

The dictionary sticks to older Chinese wisdom, too. It contains 30,000 Chinese set phrases, slang expressions and proverbs, as well as nine appendices with more information.

"The dictionary will serve as a record of the Chinese language and society, and as a cultural carrier for future generations," says Zhang Boran, a professor of Nanjing University in East China's Jiangsu province.

Zhang describes the dictionary as a "positive attempt to gain stronger power of discourse as Chinese culture deepens its interactions with the world".

The dictionary also has 160,000 quotes, some of which are from classical literary masters.