'Sharing', 'Original aspiration' chosen as Chinese word of the year

"Sharing" and "original aspiration" have been chosen as the Chinese Character and Word of the Year 2017, respectively, in China, according to a survey released Thursday.

The survey also chose "intelligence" and "a community with a shared future for mankind" as the international Chinese Character and Word of the Year, respectively, for 2017.

Sharing is taken from the term word "sharing economy," a business model which has become popular in China during the past few years.

The saying "remain true to our 'original aspiration' and continue marching forward" has been widely publicized by Chinese leaders and officials on many occasions.

In 2017, artificial intelligence was one of the most discussed ideas in the world, and "a community with a shared future for mankind" was a concept that China promoted constantly on the global stage, representing the search for a more equal, peaceful and open world.

Experts say that the chosen characters and words reflect the news, life, and public thought in China, reflecting the changing times.

The winning Chinese characters and words were chosen from several thousand recommendations and 200 million hits by Internet users over the last month.

The Character and Word of the Year has been going for 12 years. This year's survey was conducted by the Chinese National Language Monitoring and Research Center, the Commercial Press, People.cn and QQ.com.