'Chinese dream' among top buzzwords

BEIJING - "Chinese dream," "beautiful China" and "the completion of a well-off society" were among most frequently used terms in media reports and textbooks last year, according to a report released Wednesday.

Other popular terms included "ecological civilization," "self-confidence (in the Chinese path, theories and system)" and "a nation with strong marine capabilities", said the report released by the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission.

The report was compiled based on information in the language database of the National Language Resource Monitoring and Research Center, which contained 1 billion words from 1.2 million pieces of writing from domestic media and websites.

The popularity of these new terms, promoted by China's new leadership, shows that the media paid close attention to China's development and injected positive energy into society, said Tian Lixin, a ministry official in charge of language and information management.

The media also frequently used the phrase "the most beautiful" to express their respect for people whose deeds moved and inspired the public. For example, netizens bestowed the title of "most beautiful teacher" upon a middle school teacher Zhang Lili, who was injured while saving students from an oncoming bus in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

"House" also came up often, reflecting concerns about the country's property and housing situation. The public created the terms "house slaves" to describe those forced to slave away at their jobs to pay for loans on an apartment and "house uncle" to refer to those officials with far more real estate than they should be able to afford on their salaries.

The annual report, which was the eighth of its kind, also demonstrated the urgent need for protecting dialects and the intellectual property rights of the writing styles of Chinese characters, said Yang Hong'er, a professor with Beijing Language and Culture University.