The launching ceremony of the annual Chinese character and word voting was held on Nov 20 in Beijing. [Photo/CRI]

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 實(solid or reality), 跌(crash), 拼(struggle), 廉(incorruptibility), 穩(wěn)(steady), 強(powerful), 災(zāi)(disaster), 改(change or reform), 夢(dream) and 創(chuàng)(create). For annual characters on International issues, there are 悲(sorrow), 恐(terrorism or dread), 亂(disorder), 廉(incorruptibility), 法(France), 俄(Russia), 難(difficulty), 呦(pronounced you, a character in Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou's name), 戰(zhàn)(war) and 變(change).

In addition, candidate words on Chinese issues include 二孩(second child), 閱兵(parade), 習馬會(the meeting between Xi Jinping and Ma Yingjiu), 互聯(lián)網(wǎng)+(Internet Plus), 新常態(tài)(new normal), 打虎(hunting tigers, an anti-corruption campaign), 創(chuàng)業(yè)(start a business), 股災(zāi)(stock market crash), 霧霾(smog) and 反腐(anti-corruption). While candidate words on International issues include 反恐(anti-terrorism), 一帶一路(the Belt and Road Initiative), 伊斯蘭國(ISIS), 難民(refugees), 亞投行(Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), 巴黎恐襲(Paris attack), 共贏(win-win), 包容(comprehensive), 空難(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.

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