As 2015 draws to an end. It's time to look back and reflect on what we've been through and one way to do that is to choose a word, or a Chinese character, that came to the fore in some way, a popular practice in China and other places that uses Chinese characters.
Q1. So give the characters of the year.
It's something that's taken pretty seriously. The National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center and the Commercial Press jointly chose the "廉" as the character of the year.
It means "clean politics". It's the third year of China's anti-corruption campaign. Government officials are under investigation. The number is four times that of 2013.
And the top words in Chinese media during 2015 are Internet Plus, a national strategy to utilize the Internet to boost other industries and Parade Blue when Beijing hosted the military parade commemorating the war victory, Beijing enjoyed days of super blue skies when polluters were shut down and traffic was controlled.
In other countries, for instance, Japan, the character is "安". Of course it's pronounced differently in Japanese. It means safety. It's reported that many worry about the controversial security law. And in Singapore, "耀", the last character of the name of the country's late leader Lee Kuan Yew. It means to shine and glory.
Q2. And there are also some buzz words trending in today's pop culture. Tell us more.
There's a bunch of them. I've picked some of my own favourites. 吓死宝宝了. literally: the baby is terribly scared. You say it when you are shocked at something. For instance when you can't see anything outside the window because of air pollution. You are actually the baby and 为国护盘, or protect the board for the country.
That happened when Chinese stock markets slumped dramatically earlier this year, when many sold their stock in a panic, against advice to hang on for the country's sake, to maintain stability.
And then "The world is so big, I want to take a look". It's from a high school teacher's resignation letter, when she fell in love with a man and decided to start a new life.
It's praised as the most heartfelt resignation letter, and many travel agencies have offered to pay for the teacher's trip and, lastly: "Say it three times when it's important".
You repeat your words three times on your social media postings when you think it's important. So I would say this to a friend when the air quality is bad outdoors: wear a mask, wear a mask, wear a mask, and end with the note "Say it three times when it's important".
