ABC Dictionary available in China (Beijing, at least)

[roddy]

I saw a Chinese edition of DeFrancis's ABC dictionary, the one that's in Wenlin and Pleco's new PDA Plecodict (I have the preview version of this, and am looking forward to doing a full write-up on it when it's finished) in Beijing today, in the Foreign Languages Bookstore on Wangfujing. They had both full and pocket editions.

I didn't have time to note the ISBN or publisher (something like the '大字典出版社‘？) but may be worth keeping your eyes open for. Would certainly be cheaper than the international edition.

Roddy

[sfr@rcn.com]

Yeow. I would love to have the pocket edition to match my pocket oxford dictionary. This is absolutely my favorite dictionary. I probably use it at least as much as Wenlin because it still is faster to thumb through a book than bring up a program, query it and wait for the answer or your choice of answers.

Sandra

[roddy]

True. For my money, the one big failing of programs like Wenlin and Clavisinica is that they don't run in the background and let you 'hover' over a characters in IE or Word like Jinshan Ciba does.

Roddy

[ChouDoufu]

How many entries does the pocket version have? how does it compare to the oxford?

[yonglan]

Is that the ABC Comprehensive with 196,000+ entries?

[roddy]

It certainly looked comprehensive - if it was to get any bigger you'd need two volumes. I'll drop in next time I'm passing and have a closer look (I'm not inclined to buy it though, as I already have Plecodict)

Edit: I found the publishers page for this.

Roddy

[yonglan]

That web site can't make up it's mind whether it's 108rmb or 120rmb. Plus they want to add on shipping fees (in addition to what the PO will charge you). Heck, even Zhengzhou's Xinhua Shudian has this now.

[chengdude]

Finally, some copies of the ABC Comprehensive have trickled their way far inland and have become available from my local bookstore monopoly (well, the other monopoly as Xinhua isn't carrying it as of yet). Price is 120 RMB for an oversized, slipcased hardcover with ribbon marker. Up until now, only the pocket-sized ABC featuring fewer entries was available; handy I suppose, but with such a tiny typeface that any practicalities are offset...at least to these aging eyes.