List of top Chinese newspaper buzzwords in first half released

The words "housing prices regulation," "Shanghai Expo," "earthquake" and "low-carbon" were among the list of top buzzwords found in Chinese newspapers in the first half of 2010, Beijing Evening News reported on July 19.

Beijing Language and Cultural University and the National Language Resources Monitoring & Research Center released the list of words on July 19.

Catchwords in the first half of 2010 are divided into eight categories and four features. The eight categories are: overall, domestic politics, international affairs, economy, science, culture & entertainment, sports and social life. The four themes are related to the Shanghai Expo, housing, breaking events and social issues.

Based on DCC (Dynamic Circulation Corpus) of Beijing Language and Cultural University, the top ten catchwords in 2010 spring and summer Chinese newspapers are taken from full texts of 16 Chinese newspapers published between January 1 and June 30. These newspapers include Beijing Daily, Beijing Evening News, Beijing Youth Daily, Guangming Daily, Southern Weekend and China Youth Daily.

Experts believe the top ten buzzwords are a true record of Chinese society and the international community in the first half of 2010. They reflect objectively many social phenomena and hot issues occurring during the process of social development.

The following are the catchwords:

Overall: earthquake, Shanghai Expo, low-carbon, housing prices regulation, South Africa World Cup, peacekeeping police, debt crisis, school security, Twelfth Five-Year Plan, oil spill at Gulf of Mexico

Domestic politics: Shen Hao, High-speed railway, Beijing liaison offices, Yang Jiyuan, second generation of migrant workers, studying-oriented Party organization, international tourism in Hainan Island and mental impairment compensation.

International affairs: Red-shirts, Kyrgyzstan unrest, nuclear safety summit, Cheonan event, Hatoyama Yukio, British general election, Moscow metro blast, anti-whaling, plane crash of Polish president, U.S. health care reform

Economy: Goldman Sachs, economic recovery, labor shortage, ECFA, acquisition of Volvo, GEM index, China-ASEAN FTA, Toyota's "Recall Gate," structural tax deduction and raise reserve ratio.

Science: solar eclipse, 3D TV, Wang Yue, one-stoop, tablet PC, artificial life, Hadron Collider, telecom, radio, TV and Internet network integration, giant panda genome, Xiang'an tunnel in Xiamen.

Culture and entertainment: Wu Guangzhong, Avatar, Sharp Brother, Little Tigers, Du Lala Getting Promoted, Fuchuanshan Scenery, Macao studies, You Are The One, Hua Junwu, Spring Festival Gala online.

Sports: Samaranch, Vancouver winter Olympics, Mandera, soccer gambling, Four strong East Asia countries matches, figure skating, Hum Zula, Zakumi, Switzerland women's volleyball master championship and women's short-track speed skating.

Social life: mung bean, integrate purchase, garlic, SesKill, waste sorting, real-name ticket system, minimum wage, crackdown on porn and gambling, Baidu hacked and Google's retreat from China.

Feature on the World Expo: "Better city, better life," Expo park, China's pavilion, Hypol, urban best practices area, theme parks, Life and Sunshine Pavilion, Expo Axis, Expo tickets, Expo passports.

Feature on housing: property tax, land king, second mortgage, capsule apartment, State 11, policy-related house, speculation on housing purchase, 78 central enterprises out of real estate development program and New State 11.

Features on breaking news: Yushu earthquake, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, flooding accidents, snow disaster, sink holes, landslide, Icelandic volcano ashes, southwest drought, disaster of floods and drought and school attacks.

Features on social issues: Foxconn, Zhang Wuben, waste oil, Sea Palace, Heaven night club, Zhao Zuohai, cough syrup, poisonous bean, fake ATM machines and tobacco bureau chief's dairy.

By Liang Jun, People's Daily Online