For those who were disappointed with Japan’s choice of æ„› (Ã i in Mandarin — love) for the 2005 kanji of the year, there’s always Taiwan’s watered-down, copycat version, in which some 30,000 votes were registed on a Web site.
And the winner is
瞎
This character represents the Mandarin word xiÄ, which means “blind.”
Xia (瞎, the character meaning blind in Mandarin Chinese) beat sha (殺, kill), men (悶, frustration) and xian (é®®, fresh or weird) as the word of the year for 2005,” Liang Hsiang-yi (連祥一), deputy manager of yam.com, told a news conference.
Heavy and frequent use of the word “xia” to mean “reckless” by Taiwanese pop singer and teen idol Jay Chou’s (周æ°å€«) has meant the word “xia” has come to mean more than just “blind” among the nation’s young people.
“This shows many people are dissatisfied with the social and political chaos in Taiwan last year,” Liang said.
For me, the linguistically interesting part of this is the use of the word “chaos.” This is often the translation of Mandarin’s luà n (亂 / ä¹±). Luà n, however, can also mean “disorderly” and “messy,” which are the more appropriate translations in most instances.
A little more on the meanings that have come to be associated in Taiwan’s pop culture with xia:
「瞎ã€å—泛指白目ã€ç„¡åŽ˜é ã€äº‚æžç‰çš„æ„æ€ï¼ŒæŸç¨®ç¨‹åº¦ä»£è¡¨å˜²è«·èˆ‡ç„¡å¥ˆï¼Œå°ç…§ç¶²å‹ç¥¨é¸å‡ºä¾†2005年度最「瞎ã€çš„幾個事件，則是由「王éœç‘©å®¶æš´æ¡ˆã€ã€ã€Œè·æ£’打å‡çƒã€ã€ã€ŒçŽ‹è‚²èª 腳尾飯事件ã€åˆ†åˆ¥å¥ªå¾—å‰ä¸‰å，顯見網å‹å°åŽ»å¹´ç™¼ç”Ÿçš„社會事件有霧裡看花ã€ç”šè‡³è¢«è€çš„無奈感å—。
sources:
- Youth name 2005 a ‘reckless’ year, Taipei Times, Saturday, January 14, 2006
- ç¶²é¸ 2005：瞎鮮殺悶樂 2006ï¼šè²¡é †å®‰å’Œæ–°, CNA, Sunday, January 15, 2006
Matt said
Now THAT’s what I call Chinese character of the year!