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The Chinese character kong, a word that generally means control, has been selected as the 2011 character of the year in China.

The word was chosen after recommendations from Internet users, expert reviews and online polling that was jointly organized by the National Language Resource Monitoring and Research Center under the Ministry of Education, the State-run Commercial Press, and the China Youth Daily, a report in the newspaper said on Thursday.

Two million Internet users took part in the selection, the report said.

Kong, replacing the character zhang (meaning price hikes)from last year, symbolizes a logical consequence of the government launching proper macro-economic policy to keep the hikes under control, said a statement issued by the organizers.

A statement on Wednesday after a three-day central economic work conference attended by senior leaders said the country would maintain the steady macro-economic policy and measures to control inflation, stabilize prices and regulate the property market.

The selection of kong indicates the public's expectations and the government's efforts to respond to the expectations, the organizers' statement said.

Moreover, the use of kong as shorthand for a homophone of the English word "complex" to express a special liking, is also getting popular this year, which reflects a more diversified lifestyle of the Chinese people, the statement said.

In this respect, the word kong usually follows a noun or verb. For instance, weibo kong refers to those people who like to use micro blogs very much and spend a lot of time micro-blogging.

The phrase shang bu qi, which means too delicate to bear a blow, was chosen as the phrase of the year, revealing the public's sensitivity to personal and social problems, and their call for justice and equity.

Also, "debt" and "euro debt crisis" were voted the international word and phrase of the year, showing the public's growing awareness of a globalized world, the report said.

Questions:

1. What is the Chinese character of the year?

2. What does it mean?

3. What was it last year?

Answers:

1. Kong.

2. A word that generally means control.

3. Zhang (meaning price hikes).

（中國日報網英語點津 Rosy 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the US, including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.