"Feng (lockdown)" is the Chinese character of the year for 2020, with a dramatic increase of its usage amid the worldwide battle against the spread of COVID-19, said the list-making magazine New Weekly.

In addition, the Guangzhou-based magazine also listed 10 key phrases for 2020, including COVID-19, Wuhan, social distancing, "revengeful" consumption, Civil Code and corporate slave.

The magazine also presented 20 awards to a variety of influential people or groups or cultural products that have garnered popularity last year. For instance, the Best Film Award went to The Eight Hundred, the world's highest-grossing film last year, and Li Chen took home best actor for The Eight Hundred and My People, My Hometown, two blockbusters that propelled the recovery of domestic movie market after cinemas reopened.

Recalling the lockdown of Wuhan, the Chinese city hit hardest by the pandemic, Beijing Normal University professor Yu Dan said "feng" has become a collective memory for all Chinese people.

Despite lockdown,- which was conducted as a pivotal means to prevent pandemic infection in some cities and countries and created an abrupt halt to social gatherings,

Chinese people have benefited from the rise of the diversified, digital social means, rewriting the rules for this new year, Yu said.