New Era Chinese-English Dictionary

Author: Wu Jingrong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Preface (Some Random Thoughts on Bilingual Dictionaries and Information)
The New Century has brought humanity into the information age. The characteristic of this era is that the speed and quantity of information generation greatly exceed any period in human history. With the advent of the Internet, the process of informatization has been further accelerated. Information storage, information explosion, information sharing, and information exchange all depend on language—so far, language is the most important carrier of information. In this information world, every region and every event is interconnected. Western scholars say that a butterfly flapping its wings in a valley in Paraguay might trigger an earthquake or tsunami in West Africa. In today's world, there is no utopia. More accurately, this information-based world can no longer have a utopia. The only thing this world has is an information superhighway. Humans navigate this superhighway using six thousand languages. Regardless of their size (how many people use them), languages should be treated equally and ride side by side on this information superhighway. Among the six thousand languages, the two with the most speakers are Chinese and English: Chinese actually covers 1.2 billion people, while English is said to cover 1.1 billion people (including those who use it as a native or second language), accounting for about one-third of the world's population. Therefore, Chinese and English play important roles in globalized life. It follows that the contact and communication between Chinese and English are of great significance. In the last century, more than one philosopher said: China is the world's China! At that time, people might not have fully understood the mystery of this proposition, but modern Chinese are certain that isolation and self-seclusion are not the way to a strong and prosperous nation. The information society is fully open. Openness! Openness! Without reform, there can be no openness; without openness, there can be no access to the information superhighway; without taking this path, ancient civilizations cannot enter the modern information-based world. In the information society, openness (to some extent) means communication, interaction, and contact. Human contact, ethnic contact, group contact, and national contact—then we see contact between different languages and different cultures. No hegemony is welcomed by the world, and no culture can be the sole way to dominate the world. No language can force another language group to accept it; Chinese cannot, and English cannot. Language hegemony is not favored by people in the present era. No language is inherently superior or inferior to another. Chinese is no more superior or inferior to English than vice versa. Because the world is not monochromatic; it is colorful. At the turn of the century, people have come to realize that "dialogue is better than confrontation," although a handful of ambitious individuals still dream of dominating the world, the international community is moving toward a multi-polar world. There will certainly be many obstacles ahead, but the steps taken will not stop. The contact between the East and West in a multi-polar world, the contact triggered by economic globalization, and the continuous contact of multiculturalism since ancient times—all of these depend on information and language. People who speak Chinese as their mother tongue proudly affirm that Chinese is a beautiful language with strong vitality and the best medium to express the thoughts and feelings of this language group. Similarly, people who speak English as their mother tongue treat English with the same pride. These two groups respect each other's languages while also respecting the languages of other groups. In the new century, more and more people will learn Chinese, which is certain, just as it is also certain that English will continue to expand its scope of application in the new century. It is clear that accelerating and deepening the contact and communication between Chinese and English is an inevitable trend in the information age in a multicultural context, and no one can stop this trend. It follows that bilingual dictionaries will play an extremely important role. It can be said that the key to a bilingual dictionary is to provide equivalent terms in two languages and corresponding (identical, different, somewhat different, similar) expressions. This is far from an easy task. This is because some words in language A may not have equivalents in language B, in which case loanwords need to be introduced (for example, the Chinese word "" has no direct equivalent in English); or only semantically equivalent words with different nuances can be found (such as the nuances of "," "," and "" that emerged in the past two decades), and some auxiliary measures are needed to achieve the purpose of communication. Another situation is that words created in language A in specific historical periods and contexts may not convey the exact connotative meaning to readers of language B when translated literally, in which case descriptive annotations or illustrative examples that clarify the meaning are needed (such as the specific meaning of "" in a particular historical period, which greatly exceeds its literal meaning). If, like this dictionary, it also includes proper nouns and technical terms that record facts in addition to words, providing equivalents (corresponding words) is not that easy—because technical terms must be translated into standardized names, and some proper nouns (such as names) need necessary annotations to help readers understand them accurately. Now, the New Era Chinese-English Dictionary has been published. This means it has entered the information society of the new century. It no longer belongs solely to its compilers or its publishers. It belongs to the public. A broad readership has the right to rigorously evaluate it. If it is qualified, it should be given a certificate of qualification. If it is qualified but not perfect, then it should be scrutinized from all angles to help improve it and promote its perfection. The publication of a large-scale Chinese-English dictionary is not just about adding a more reliable reference tool for mutual translation; it has a deeper significance: it signifies the contact and dialogue between the Eastern and Western cultural traditions and Eastern and Western ways of thinking. It will guide the world to better understand China and will guide China to better understand the world. Chen Yuan July 7, 2000, Beijing
This is a condensed version of the New Era Chinese-English Dictionary.
● Extensive word coverage, with nearly 120,000 entries. It includes popular new words in politics, economics, culture, finance, and high technology (including terms from Hong Kong and Taiwan), as well as important proper nouns in various fields with brief background explanations, offering encyclopedic functions.
● Accurate definitions and precise translations, with all entries and examples reviewed by Chinese and English experts.
● Rich examples that cover multiple expressions and reflect different collocations.
● Entries are arranged for easy lookup, with definitions clear at a glance.
● More than twenty appendices, each with unique features, some of which are specially designed for the needs of Chinese-English translation.