New edition of Modern Chinese Dictionary

The Modern Chinese Dictionary, published by The Commercial Press, goes on sale in its fifth edition today. It adds 6000 new entries and removes 2000 obsolete, regional, or rarely used terms.

The release of a new edition provides an opportunity to keep up with the political slogans that change every few years. “Harmonious society,” a concept that Hu Jintao has been emphasizing lately, is defined as “a stable, orderly society that embodies a democratic legal system, is fair and just, sincere and friendly, is full of creative energy, and in which people and nature exist in harmony.”

The editors were even able to include two terms used during the talks on the 30th of April between Hu Jintao and Lien Chan, slipping them in just under the wire before printing began on 2 May.

Less fortunate was online slang – none of it was included. The reason given was that terms commonly used on forums or when messaging are known to only a small sector of society, and the language changes so rapidly, anyway. On the other hand, the editors apparently believe that “Sudan-1,” which leapt into the national consciousness earlier this year during a cancer scare, has staying power.