The 11th edition of the Xinhua Zidian with an inset photo showing how thick it is. (Photo : www.aliexpress.com)
Going to the movies? There’s a dictionary showing.
A film about the best-selling character dictionary Xinhua Zidian is being considered.
There is a trend right now in the film industry called Intellectual Property or IP movies. Movie companies make films out of a current popular slogan or catchphrase or even titles of songs.
One example is the movie about Xu Nuo, a lead singer of a band called “Gardenia” and Yan Xi, an aspiring dancer who wants to establish a dancing career abroad. The movie title is inspired by a song of the same title.
Directed by He Jiong, “Zhi Zi Hua Kai” (“Forever Young”) stars Du Tianhao, Jiang Jinfu, Li Xin’ai, Zhang Yunlong and Zhang Yuxi with Li Yifeng (“Xu Nuo”) and Zhang Huiwen (“Yan Xi”) playing the lead roles. It started filming in February in Thailand, and its reported release date is July 10.
“Zhi Zi Hua Kai” is a song about the flower gardenia, being described in the song as beautiful, lovely and nice. The singer is reminded by the flower of youth and love.
People’s Daily reported that a Xinhua Zidian-inspired movie might be in the making in the near future. Its enduring popularity is possibly one major reason why an interest to do a film out of it emerged.
First published in 1953, Xinhua said that its 2004 10th edition publication was its 400-millionth copy. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Commercial Press are the ones tasked for editing the dictionary.
Keeping up with the changing times, Xinhua Zidian also established its presence in cyberspace. As of this writing, the online Xinhua Dictionary has gathered 21,998 characters and 520,000 words.
In 2012, China Daily reported that a man raising geese consulted the Xinhua Zidian for the definition of “goose.” He wanted to kill one but didn’t have an idea how to identify which one is the male and which one is the female.
The man looked for the word “goose” and Xinhua Zidian gave the following entry: “Goose: A kind of poultry. The male goose has a yellow bump on its head."
Did the man succeed? No. He killed the female one.
Well, both male and female geese have a yellow bump on their heads. Xinhua Zidian didn’t emphasize that male geese have larger bumps compared to female geese.
The apparently disappointed man wrote about the matter to the editors. They revised the meaning of “goose” in a new edition of the dictionary.
Now that seems like a good storyline already.
