Chinese character for 'micro' named word of year

Edited and translated by Han Shasha, People's Daily Online

The result of the annual Cross-Strait Word of the Year competition was announced in Taipei on Dec. 9. The Chinese character "Wei," which means "micro" or "small," was named the 2011 word of the year, with 10 percent of the total 4.4 million votes.

The Chinese character "Wei" (small, micro, tiny or slight) was nominated by the director of the Xiamen Commercial Daily. He explained what is important to the both sides of the Taiwan Strait in 2011 was reflected in some tiny details and minor issues, and micro-blogging was also extremely popular on both sides in 2011.

The vote was jointly conducted by the Want Daily under the Want China Times Group, Xiamen Commercial Daily and sina.com. After voting online for about a month, the Chinese character "Wei" won 407,400 votes, beating 41 other candidates.

The top 10 Chinese characters elected are: Wei(micro), Ai (love), Xin (credibility),Bian(change), Sheng(rise), Tong (open), Zhi (direct), Kuai (quick), Die (drop) and Pan (hope).