In so many words...

[Photo by Zou Zhongpin/China Daily]

Scholar wrestles with illness, and his dictionary finally sees the light of day. Li Wenfang reports in Guangzhou.

A Chinese academic has been lauded after battling through cancer to complete the first update of a comprehensive Chinese-French dictionary for more than two decades.

The second edition of the Grand Contemporary Chinese-French Dictionary aims to keep pace with a language increasingly influenced by the Internet.

It includes translations of popular Web words, such as weibo (micro blog), and new phrases, including ditanjingji (low-carbon economy), fangnu (people tied to mortgage) and tuangou (group buying).

Published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, the book contains more than 7 million French words and Chinese characters, almost twice the size of the first edition.

Chief compiler Huang Jianhua, 79, a former president of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, says the dictionary better caters to both Chinese and French readers, as it labels distinctive Chinese words that often confuse foreigners.

Unlike Chinese-English dictionaries, which are numerous and cover multiple sectors, he says it is harder to compile a Chinese-French dictionary.

"That is why we have included as much information as possible in a single dictionary, to serve the reader," says Huang, who was a student of Liang Zongdai, a renowned poet and translator, at Sun Yat-sen University. "In some cases, we provide a few translations for one word for readers to contemplate."