popular word - 2012年度汉字

Chinese Character of the Year 2012 Announced

The Chinese character for dream, namely "梦(mèng)" has been named the 2012 Character of the Year, Chinanews.com reports.

The character for "梦(mèng)" was considered to reflect the realization of China' dreams — hosting the Olympic Games, space exploration, a China-made aircraft carrier and a Nobel Prize-winning author.
Other top choices were Diaoyu, 衡,"héng" (check and balance) and 选举 "xuǎnjǔ" (election).

钓鱼(Diàoyú), which indicates the Sino-Japanese tension over the Diaoyu Islands, reflected people's concern about national dignity.

The characters 衡(héng) and 选举 (xuǎnjǔ) were chosen as International Characters of the Year, because they reflected people's interests in elections across the globe in 2012 and their concerns about the balance of power.

Words were selected from the print media, TV, the radio and the internet, and the winner chosen by the National Language Resource Monitoring and Research Center, Commercial Press, and China Network Television. The award was first presented in 2006.