A shortlist of the 20 hottest Chinese words and Chinese characters of 2017 has been announced.

Words and characters on the list related to domestic topics include "share," "cloud," "new era," and "kindergarten," while those related to international issues include "nuclear," "intelligence," "AlphaGo," and "gravitational wave."

The "share" (left) and "cloud" are among the characters on the 20 hottest Chinese words and Chinese characters of 2017 campaign. [Photo: China Plus]

The campaign, whose organizers include the National Language Resource Monitoring and Research Center and the Commercial Press, received thousands of different words and characters proposed between Nov. 20 and Dec. 4 by netizens nationwide.

The campaign's website got more than 200 million clicks from netizens, whose picks were discussed by a panel of experts before the shortlist was decided and released Saturday.

The final list of two words and two characters will be announced on Dec. 21.

The shortlist reflects people's lives and the hot issues that have come up in the past year, both in China and abroad, according to the experts.

This year's campaign is the 12th of its kind. It aims to encourage people to record their lives and depict changes in society and the world in words.