Shortlist of Chinese character of the year

Source: China Daily (12/17/15)
Top 10 shortlist of Chinese character of the year announced
By Xu Jing(chinadaily.com.cn)

Following Malaysia, Singapore and Japan’s announcements of the year’s top 10 Chinese characters, China will release its annual character and word of 2015 as well. Ten candidates for the poll were announced recently and the final result will come out on Dec 21.

Co-hosted by the National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center, the Commercial Press, People’s Daily Online and CCTV, the annual event has been held since 2006. It includes four parts: online users’ recommendations, experts’ voices, online polling and final announcement.

On Dec 11, the candidates of the annual vote were published on People’s Daily Online. For annual characters on Chinese issues, the candidates are 实 (solid or reality), 跌 (crash), 拼 (struggle), 廉(incorruptibility), 稳 (steady), 强 (powerful), 灾 (disaster), 改 (change or reform), 梦 (dream) and 创 (create). For annual characters on International issues, there are 悲 (sorrow), 恐 (terrorism or dread), 乱 (disorder), 廉 (incorruptibility), 法 (France), 俄 (Russia), 难 (difficulty), 呦 (pronounced you, a character in Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou’s name), 战 (war) and 变 (change).

In addition, candidate words on Chinese issues include 二孩 (second child), 阅兵 (parade), 习马会(the meeting between Xi Jinping and Ma Yingjiu), 互联网+ (Internet Plus), 新常态 (new normal), 打虎 (hunting tigers, an anti-corruption campaign), 创业 (start a business), 股灾 (stock market crash), 雾霾 (smog) and 反腐 (anti-corruption). While candidate words on International issues include 反恐 (anti-terrorism), 一带一路 (the Belt and Road Initiative), 伊斯兰国 (ISIS), 难民 (refugees), 亚投行 (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), 巴黎恐袭 (Paris attack), 共赢 (win-win), 包容 (comprehensive), 空难 (air crash) and 和平 (peace).

According to the experts, the shortlist of characters give a glimpse into hot issues throughout the year which preoccupied the Chinese. Among the characters and words, “incorruptible”, “anti-corruption”, “smog” and “new normal” were nominated continuously for the second year. It shows that Chinese people sustain attention on social issues such as environment protection and corruption elimination.