Customer Reviews

Far East Chinese-English Dictionary

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This dictionary is the best Chinese-English dictionary I have come across. I've yet to see anything that even comes close to the level of excellence that it attains. This dictionary is essential for any intermediate and advanced student of Chinese.

In it are contained some 120,000 entries arranged under some 7330 characters, selected from vast wealth of sources ranging from Chinese classics to newspapers and colloquial language, emphasising wide application and current usage. Whilst not an encyclopaedic dictionary, the entries often contain cultural information. Many proper nouns are included, e.g., names of famous people, famous events, geographical names, etc.

The characters in the dictionary are arranged according to the classical Kangxi radical method, and the common vulgar and corrupt forms of the characters are listed in addition to their standard form. A table of characters whose radical is difficult to identify is provided to aid users. Indices with the characters arranged according to their pronunciation are also very helpful for finding characters whose pronunciation one knows, but whose exact form one cannot remember.

The definitions of the characters and phrases are clear and concise, often containing encyclopaedic information, particularly those words pertaining to classical Chinese culture. Pronunciation for the individual characters is given in Pinyin, Zhuyin and Gwoyeu Romatzyh, whilst the pronunciation of the phrases are given only in Zhuyin.

Physically, the dictionary is of a very manageable size, containing some 2000 very thin pages, which are of quality paper. The print, whilst not large, is clean and clearly legible.

All in all, then, the Far East Chinese-English Dictionary is a great asset on any Chinese learner's bookshelf. It has everything in its favour: its price, its size, its quality and its content. I simply cannot go past this dictionary, being both comprehensive and concise.

This is the Chinese to English dictionary I have seen the most frequently used by ROC immigrants. Written in Traditional Chinese and primarily using Zhu4 Yin1 Fu3 Hao4 (bo po mo fo) (but having a GR romanization and hanyu pinyin index,) this dictionary is great for the user who wants to have a good reference. Has a total stroke count and radical index as well, creating 5 total indexes. Very comprehensive, including many literary phrases out of modern use. Far East book company also publishes an English-Chinese edition.

This is an excellent Chinese to English dictionaries containing over 7300 characters and 120,000 entries thereunder. The definitions are clear, concise and accurate; the print is sufficiently large, and, more importantly, clearly printed. The dictionary itself is not inordinately large, so as to be inconvenient to carry around. It is well bound, and the paper is of high quality; the book is surprisingly thin for one of some 2000 pages. The arrangement of the characters is by the traditional Kangxi radicals, by far the best method of arranging a dictionary; included is a table of characters whose radicals are difficult to identify, thereby making it easier to find these characters. In short, this is by far the best medium-sized Chinese-English dictionary available that I've seen.

Just keep in mind that this dictionary was written in Taiwan and that not all entries are for Mainland Chinese. There is more at stake here than the difference between simplified and traditional characters. I studied out of this dictionary for years and found myself not understood in Beijing (at times).

The best part about this dictionary is a particular edition that highlights in red those entries that are most common. Found that particular edition very helpful. Don't know if that is the offering here. But keep on the look out for the "highlighted" edition, as well.

The late Liang Shih-ch'iu (Liang Shi-qiu) was the original editor-in-chief of this superb dictionary. He was an amazingly learned scholar of Chinese language and civilization. The dictionary used to be known as the "Liang Shih-chiu dictionary," and it remains among the most useful Chinese-English sources. For serious students of the Chinese language, it is indispensible.

The 7000 main characters are arranged by radical. The sub-entries are very thorough. The definitions in English are detailed. The main entry is pronounced by bo-po-mo, pinyin and national romanization. The compound characters are pronounced by bo-po-mo. This is a 1700 page dictionary.

Above all, this is designed more for advanced learners, native speakers, and particularly users who are familiar with the Taiwanese Zhuyin symbols as all the entries are organized by Zhuyin instead of Pinyin. As Pinyin becomes a more commonly used romanization system for Mandarin, users who don't know Zhuyin or are more familiar with Pinyin may find it inconvenient to use. The main entry (the listed character) does provide the Pinyin of the character in addition to Zhuyin and Wade-Giles symbols, but the sub-entries (the compound nouns and phrases) are only listed with Zhuyin and with no Pinyin reference. I do like the fact that it offers traditional characters. (I believe that a simplified character version is also available out there.) Despite my personal preference on the romanization system, it is a relatively better Chinese-English dictionary compared with those in the market. It has a fairly comprehensive collection of sub-entries under each character with good definition and translation. Last but not the least, the reference pages at the beginning with the traditional radical system and at the end with all three romanization systems listed are pretty useful for learners who are really into learning traditional characters and/or need references on different phonetic romanization systems. So if you don't mind looking up words with Zhuyin symbols, it is a pretty good Chinese-English dictionary.

This dictionary is *the* most complete, useful and fascinating available! It has numerous compounds, as well as marking what characters are used for Chinese names, some famous people with those names, idioms and more! With just a miniscle amount practice this book is very easy to use and worth the price. You might want to get the medium sized version. It's easy to read and not cumbersome at all. If you are a student of Chinese BUY THIS DICTIONARY! You'll end up learning a lot more from it than just the word you were trying to look up.

This is a very good hard-cover Chinese-English dictionary for those who are interested in a dictionary that features traditional characters and uses Zhuyin (bo po mo fo) for pronunciation, such as anyone interested in visiting Taiwan. The characters are organized by radical number and stroke count, and a Zhuyin phonetic index is in the back of the dictionary, as well as phonetic indices for two other phonetic systems (Gwoyeu Romatzyh and the U. N. Mandarin Phonetic Symbols). Since the dictionary is a Chinese-English dictionary, it is very useful for looking up Chinese characters you read and words you hear. For each character entry, there are often multiple (up to several dozen in some cases) common phrases of two or more characters in length all starting with that character. As I am a native English speaker, I have found that the dictionary is well complimented by an English-Chinese dictionary so that I can also look up words and phrases I know in English and would like to say or write in Chinese.

I recommend this dictionary to native English speaking students of Mandarin Chinese with traditional characters.

I have used this dictionary for nearly 10 years, and I believe that in that time, working regularly with classical documents, I have encountered no more than 5 characters not included in this dictionary. Certainly for students of modern Chinese, this is as complete a dictionary as you will likely ever need. Characters are listed by several different indexes in both the front and the back, including one index for characters with ambiguous radicals! My only objection is that alternative character forms are inconsistently listed in the indexes, meaning that characters that at first appear not to be included may be included under different forms. Others will not like the absence of the most contemporary usages and colloquialisms; in return, however, they will get a wide range of definitions used in both classical and modern Chinese, a remarkable number of phrases, both classical and modern, and a constantly useful range of biographical and historical names, which can otherwise be very difficult to locate. All in all, my dictionary of first choice on a shelf that includes at least 10 of them.