Prof completes forgotten Pashto-Chinese dictionary

After 36 years of hard work, an elderly professor has compiled the nation's first Pashto to Chinese dictionary - except his publisher didn't remember commissioning it.

Che Hongcai, a 78-year-old professor of Afghan languages at the Communication University of China, finally delivered his hefty draft in 2012.

Editors at the Commerce Press had to dig into their archives to find the document, dated in 1978, that entrusted Che with the dictionary project.

According to Che, he and his student Song Qiangmin, who is now deceased, worked on the tome in a small office containing only a desk, a borrowed Pashto typewriter and little funding. The Pashto project was one of 160 language dictionaries ordered by China's State Council in 1975.

"This group of compilers sees cultural inheritance as their life mission," said Cui Yan, director of foreign languages at the press, who added the dictionary would be released at the end of 2014.

Che's contract entitles him to 160,000 yuan ($25,800) in fees, according to Cui.