苦 or bitter is chose as the Chinese character of 2015 in Malaysia. [File photo]

In the annual selection of Chinese characters jointly conducted by the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (FCAM) and Han Culture Centre Malaysia (HCCM), 苦(pronounced ku）or bitter was chosen as the Chinese character of 2015 in Malaysia.

According to Xinhua News Agency, 14,078 Malaysians from 65 countries and areas participated in the poll, the largest number of participants in history, and some 16% of them had chosen the word “bitter”. Around 15% of the participants chose the word 貪 (conrruption) and 14% of them chose 稅 (tax).

In addition, 捐(tax), 亂(unrest), 跌(crash), 恥(shame), 霾(smog), 一(one) and 震(quake) were also listed as the top 10 Chinese characters for the year in Malaysia.

President of FCAM Fang Tianxing announced the result last Friday. He said that the top 10 Chinese characters showed the public dissatisfaction with the new consumption tax policy, soaring commodity prices and the depreciation of the Malaysian ringgit.

Malaysia started the annual Chinese character selection since 2011. In 2014, 貪（corruption）, 馬（abbreviation of Malaysia）, 失(lost) , 漲(inflation) , 難(tough), 航(flight), 苦(bitter), 愁(worry), 稅(tax) and 迷(puzzle) were chosen as the Chinese characters of the year in the country.