Concise English-Chinese, Chinese-English Dictionary

by Anthony Paul Cowie and Wen-Hwa Hwa Zhang

Book Overview

With nearly 20,000 entries in each, this new bilingual dictionary is ideal for travelers and students of Chinese or English. Among the dictionary's many features are: *Simplified Chinese characters as well as Pinyin romanization *Pronunciation using international phonetic symbols *Numerous examples of usage in both languages *Appendices including consonants and vowels of the Chinese phonetic alphabet, and names and abbreviations of China's provinces,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195840488
• ISBN13: 9780195840483
• Release Date: April 1987
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 606 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 3.5" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

China's *other* Little Red Book

Carrying around Chairman Mao's Quotations won't get you very far in China these days, but the Concise English-Chinese / Chinese-English Dictionary is a lifesaver for exchange students or really any traveler who plans to spend more than a week in mainland China. The print is tiny although the contrast is good, and hey, you're young and your eyes can handle it! In all seriousness, this is the size of a pocket dictionary so it has to be small. Pinyin and Simplified Chinese but also includes many equivalent Traditional characters. It provides the resources to translate in both directions (ENG-->CN, CN-->ENG). The radical index at the start of the Chinese-English section is one of the best features. Plenty of compound words and common phrases in context. <br /> <br />I carried this around China and noticed many other long-term foreigners did, too. If you don't already have a copy before you go, you can easily find it in country. Mine cost eight and a half yuan (which was less than two bucks back in the early Nineties). <br /> <br />Published by Oxford University Press (Commercial Press in China); my edition is from 1990. Turtleback (cardboard reinforced) binding makes it sturdy, and the pages have rounded corners which is nice since extensive thumbing would wear them down anyway! <br /> <br />The newest edition appears to have vinyl covers and perhaps even a new editor: <br />Concise English-Chinese / Chinese-English Dictionary (Third Edition) <br />

great dictionary

after reading other reviews: wow, let it go. I suppose its different for me, its supplementary, being Chinese I use it for a quick look up for characters I have forgotten. A good friend of mine who is (not Chinese) learning Chinese is in love with this dictionary and has learned a lot from it. He owns the same edition only in larger print. Its lightweight and I don't mind the little letters being blessed by good eyesight. I mean, all in all, if you wanted to learn the language, keep in mind, this is just a dictionary and should be used as a tool, not the actual educational reference. I would personally recommend it based upon the fact that it is both English-Chinese and Chinese-English with a radical section and accurate pinyin. There is also a degree of personal satisfaction, its nothing more or less than what I needed.

An overall Great Book

Although I see that many people have a problem with the fact that many of the characters are too small, but this problem doesn't require a magnifying glass, you can simply use the pin yin to find the word in the Chinese - English section, the characters there are much larger. Its great if your looking for a REAL dictionary, not some wimpy beginners guides, and pocket travel books.

The essential little red book of all Chinese students

The five stars are for being ubiquitous; since it first appeared in 1986 every foreign student in China has been carrying this dictionary around, or the locally published version (Shangwu Yinshuguan). It does have a couple of small drawbacks - firstly that the one page appendix of province names at the back could have been expanded to list more than the capital town in each and also foreign countries and cities, secondly that, yes, the text is microscopic, but then if it wasn't you couldn't carry it in your pocket all day. And finally, a third failing lamented by many is the lack of menu Chinese; not even gongbao jiding (palace-fry chicken-cubes) gets a listing. However the one great thing about this dictionary is that it is the only pocket dictionary with both pinyin and characters. It also has a uniquely sensible character indexing system.For desk work the best medium sized Chinese-English dictionary is Han-Ying Cidian by Waiyu Jiaoxue yu Yanjiu Chubanshe, Beijing, (ISBN 7-5600-1325-2) which shares the little red book's character index system, and the best English-Chinese is the giant Ying-Han Dacidian or 'English-Chinese Dictionary Unabridged' edited by Lu Gusun (Shanghai Yiwen Chubanshe (ISBN 7-5327-1321-0).Non-English speakers note that this dictionary is also available in French (Larousse), German (Langenscheidt), and Japanese (Toho Shoten) versions, or in the corresponding Shangwu Yinshuguan editions published in China.