In the last week of every year, we will write a blog about the Chinese Character of the year. Do you know these 2022 Chinese Characters? Read more.
The Chinese Character of the Year is like the Person of the Year of TIME magazine. Japan is the first country to choose one Chinese character to indicate the theme of the year. This started in 1995 and became a very popular event in Japan and Asia. Other countries also choose their Chinese character of the year to show the most important thing people think about the year. China started in 2006, Taiwan in 2008, Malaysia and Singapore started in the same year 2011. Recently, some overseas Chinese communities also started their Chinese characters of the year, like America, France and others.
Let’s have a look at the Chinese of the year for Japan, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore now.
Japan Chinese character of the year
This year the Japanese chose 戦 to indicate the war in Ukraine, the shooting of former Prime Minister Abe and the fight against inflation.
戦(战) /zhàn/
war, fight
China Chinese character of the year – international
This is the Chinese character to reflect the international situation. 战 is the simplified format of 戦. It is the same as Japan’s 2022 Chinese character 戦. The war in Ukraine is the main issue in 2022.
战 /zhàn/
war, fight
China Chinese character of the year – domestic
This year Chinese people chose “稳“ which means “stable” and “certain”. The unpredictable Covid-19 situation and lockdown caused unstable and uncertain situations in China. Chinese people hope the situation will be stable and certain.
稳 /wěn/
stable, certain
China-Taiwan Chinese character of the year
Most Chinese people in China and Tawan think 2022 is a hard year for the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan. So they chose “思” to indicate that Chinese people on the two sides of the Taiwan straits need to think about their relationship carefully and hope the situation to be improved.
思 /sī/
deep thinking, wish, hope
Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore’s Chinese character of the year
涨 became the 2022 Chinese character in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore due to the high inflation in 2022.
涨 /zhǎng/
rise, inflation
If you compare the 2022 Chinese characters with the 2021 Chinese characters, you will find people are now more concerned about war and inflation other than Covid-19.
If you want to know all the past Chinese Characters, please visit here.
If you are interested in learning Mandarin Chinese, please join our 2023 new classes.
You can also purchase a YCT1 Chinese character worksheet to learn how to write Chinese characters step by step.