CONFERENCE
The Chinese-Latvian Dictionary was compiled and written by Professor Peteris Pildegovics, a well-known sinologist and a professor of University of Latvia. He Spent 8 years to look up, translate, study and analyse the relevant Chinese and Latvian dictionaries, reference books, history books, linguistic materials, paid numerious visits to different Chinese and Latvian universities, colleges and libraries, and met and interviewed many experts on Chinese history, language, culture and traditions. After 8 consecutive years of hart-working and strenuous efforts, the compilation and written was finally competed in early 2010.
The Dictionary contains 5000 single Chinese words and 50000 Chinese word groups, with the total pages of 1025. Besides the text of the Dictionary, the author has made detailed introduction, a guide to the use of the Dictionary, table of abbreviations, the Chinese and Latvian forms of Pinyin (combine sounds into syllables), radical index and a comprehensive appendices. It is important to note that the appendices contains a brief chronology of Chinese history, a brief chronology of the beginning and ending of an era in Chinese history, table of family relationships in China, ethnic groups in China, the twenty-four seasonal division points, sixty-year Jia-ze cycle—trational Chinese chronology, heavenly stems and earthly branches, the Chinese musical instuments, acupuncture points, the abbreviations of the provinces in China, a table of countries, regions and their capitals and currencies, table of elements etc. All these make the looking up of the dictionary easy and time-saving. The Dictionary will be a great tool to enhance the mutual communications of the two peoples of China and Latvia, and will provide a big hand for those who wishes to learn Latvian language and the Chinese language as well.
University of Latvia made great contributions and efforts for the compilation of this dictionary. The Ministry of Education of Latvia attached great importance to the compilation of the dictioanary. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia provided financial support to make sure that Professor Peteris Pildegovics completed his final work of compilation in Beijing, China. The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Latvia has been pushing for the publication of the dictionary for a long time. The work by the Embassy bore the fruits. Han Ban (Confucious Institute Headquarters) of the Ministry of Education of China provided financial assistance for the publication of the Dictionary. And the Commercial Press of China completed the publishing work within a very short period of time. 1000 copies have been printed. Some of them have been handed over the the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in China and will be put on exhibition at the Latvian pavilion in the Shanghai Expo 2010.