The Chinese characters that define 2014

People in Asian countries where Chinese characters are widely used, including Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and China, have been voting for the most representative characters of the year for the past few years. The polls normally organized by academics or the media are an interesting way of determining which events or incidents have affected the people most in a calendar year.

In 2014, Malaysia hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons: the crashing of two planes. And not surprisingly, Malaysians have chosen "hang" (or flight) as the character representing 2014. The scars and void left by the two flights (one with 239 people on board is still missing and the other went down in Ukraine with 298 people) have put Malaysia Airlines in a fix. People, especially relatives and friends of the passengers, have criticized the airline for its failure to supervise the actions of its employees, particularly the flight captains, because one of them used to invite pretty female passengers to the cockpit while flying. These two accidents have also compromised Malaysia's appeal as a tourist destination.

The character that has had the greatest impact on Japanese people this year is "shui" (or tax), reflecting how much they detest the rise in consumption tax. In April, the Japanese government raised the consumption tax from 5 percent to 8 percent, the first in 17 years. But the tax increase could not help revive the sagging Japanese economy. Instead, it has increased people's living costs and led to a sluggish consumption market. Perhaps the opposition to the tax increase forced Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to defer another tax increase from October next year to April 2017.