Beginning in 1995, every December a single Chinese/Japanese character is chosen to represent the previous year. Beforehand, there is a national vote where anyone living in Japan can choose what word they think portrays the feeling, mood, or overall image of the year.
On December 12th at Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto crowds of people gather to watch as the head monk uses a giant brush to write the kanji that received the most votes.
2007's character was "nise" meaning fake or under false pretenses. This year dozens upon dozens of reputable companies and supermarkets were found to have falsified expiration dates, ingredients on food products, and let's not get into China and lead or the case of the steamed meat buns that had seasoned cardboard in them. Pork and rabbit meat was being sold as beef and a few McDonald's chains were selling milkshakes made from ingredients over a year old.
The monk says later that it is very embarrassing to have such a kanji for the year 2007. Last year's word was Life, btw. The year before, Love.
Here he is revealing for the first time the kanji. You can hear the crowd's response as they realize what it is before he finishes.
Here is a list in English of the previous year's kanjis and why.
The event is put on by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society.
Not quite the positive conotation as w00t! but hey! Virginia has great timing.
5 comments:
Wow.. that's kind of an embarrassing choice of words to go down in history as such, but I suppose it reflects the way people feel about the year's events as you described them.
So is it really WRONG of me to be singing this to myself now?.. He's making a kanji and checking it twice. The crowd will find out it's naughty and "nise"...
Oh Hilary! That was niiiiiice!
Yeah, its a bit of a stinging rebuttal to all the food scandals and government/money scandals. I liked how the crowd's reaction was so subdued when they saw it.
J
Hey, I just e-mailed you, wondering if you're going to the shindig tonight.
That's kind of awesome, that is. I can't imagine what people in the US would choose for 2007.
I know what I want 2008 to be:
PEACE.
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