Chinese character of the year

Reform, tuhao, PRISM and Diaoyu Islands are among the most popular Chinese words and phrases of the year, according to a poll conducted to netizens by research institutes.

The poll, which was launched by the national language resources research and the Commercial Press and the Shandong Satellite TV last month, found that "dream" is the most popular Chinese character while "reform" is the most popular Chinese phrase during the year of 2013.

The most popular words and phrases have to do with the country's most popular news headlines, such as reform, anti-corruption, smog, housing and China Dream.

The top phrase of the year, according to the survey, is reform.

Reform topped the agenda of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee in November and later a string of reform measures was rolled out in some key areas.

Meanwhile, some new words also hit on the list, such as tuhao, or "nouveau riche", which has been used to describe the color of the new People's Daily building and the new gold-colored iPhone 5s.

The phrase tuhao became an internet instant hit earlier this year after a sentence, which is "tuhao, let's be friends", became popular.

It was later commonly used by netizens who expressed their envy at people who flaunt their wealth.

Some hotly discussed topic, such as increasing the age of retirement and allowing couples with one spouse being the single child to have a second children, also hit the list.

A proposal released by researcher at Tsinghua University suggested that the government should lift the pension age for workers, both men and women, to 65 starting from 2030.

The proposal soon raised heated discussion on the Internet and nearly 95 percent of some 25,300 netizens said they were against the prospect of the retirement age being increased, according to the survey jointly conducted by the Beijing-based China Youth Daily and Sohu, a leading news portal.

The phrase positive energy was also on the list, after President Xi Jinping used it in several occasion, including in a meeting with visiting former US president Jimmy Carter in December 2012.

China Dream, another phrase that was used by President Xi Jinping was also listed in the phrase of the year.

In the international realm, the most popular phrase, according to the survey result, is PRISM, which is revealed by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The second most popular phrase over international issues is the Diaoyu Islands, as territorial dispute continued to pull the strings of the China and Japan relationship this year.

The third most popular phrase is "Chinese dama", which could be loosely translated as middle-aged Chinese lady.

The phrase hit the list because they have been believed to have played a role in stabilizing the price of the gold market, as the slump in gold prices since April has resulted in a shopping frenzy among consumers in China.

Other phrases that hit the list of popular international phrases include Mandela, Chemical weapons, Snowden and the Air Defense Identification Zone.