At the last week of 2020, let’s see what are the 2020 Chinese Characters voted by people where Chinese characters are used – China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
The “Chinese Character of the Year” started in Japan from 1995. They choose ONE Chinese Character to indicate the most significate thing in the year. China (2006), Taiwan (2008), Malaysia (2011) and Singapore (2011) started their own Chinese Character of the Year later.
Japan
密 /mì/
Close – distance
Close – feeling
Keep physical distance, but close relationship.
China – domestic
民 /mín/
People
China International, Taiwan & Malaysia
疫 /yì/
pandemic
Singapore
罩 /zhào/
cover, overspread
China & Taiwan People
闷 /mèn,mēn/
闷 /mēn/ Verb:
shut indoors, cover tightly, stop speaking
闷 /mèn/ Adj
bored, depressed, in low sprite
As you can see, the most common 2020 Chinese Character is “疫 /yì/” (Pandemic).
If you want to know all the past Chinese Characters, please visit here.
If you are interested in learning Mandarin Chinese, please join our 2021 Chinese Classes.
Note: All the Chinese character pictures are from 汉字屋 . A great webstie to learn Chinese Character.
2020 Chinese Character update:
Japan just revealed their best new created Chinese character in 2020.
This clever created new Chinese character clearly indicated “To Sit With Socical Distance” by moving one “人“（person) from side to side to a lower position. Hope the 2021 will be another new Chinese character with person siting on all the seats. Like indicated below.
Do you like Chinese characters? You may make your own Chinese character for 2021.