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BOOK REVIEWS
Among other things, the map on page 92 is a black-and-white photo reproduction of the original colour map. Through this "simplification", the beauty of the original map is completely lost. This tells us that if we want to turn out a worthwhile map, we should take pains. The demand may, however, be contradictory to the strain of life in Hong Kong,
The whole volume also contains thirty-four photos printed on art paper, all very clear. Compared with general publications in Hong Kong, the printing and binding of the book can be said to be beautiful, and printing errors are also few. Nevertheless, I should like to point out several places that had escaped the eye of the proofreader : On page 26, the figure in "The area of cultivated land is approximately 5.1 sq. miles" is obviously “51 sq. miles" misprinted; on page 56, "6.5 miles" is obviously "6.5 sq. miles" with the word "sq." missing; on page 127, "the remainder came from Japan" should read; from Taiwan; on page 115, "December 1951 - August 1945" is also clearly a misprint. A few other places could also be cited.
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These minor flaws naturally will not detract from the academic value of the book as a whole, and in the second edition they can be easily corrected. The publication of the book is undoubtedly an important increment to the literature of Hong Kong.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
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CHENG-SIANG CHEN
POCKET DICTIONARY CHINESE - ENGLISH AND PEKINGESE SYLLABARY. Chauncey Goodrich. Hong Kong University Press 1964. Re-issue March 1965.
As a pocket or table companion, this is one of the best dictionaries available for students of Chinese. Its unique value lies in its combination of conciseness with comprehensiveness. Despite its moderate size, it contains, including duplicates, as many as 10,587 characters, i.e. two or three thousand more than some other considerably larger dictionaries.
It carries a chronological table of Chinese history, lists of the Chinese "ten celestial stems" and "twelve earthly branches”, a group of four sexagenary cycles for the period A.D. 1804 - 2043, and Chinese units of weights and measures, all of which are reference data of practical value.