'Radiance' is the Chinese Character of the Year
It's a brilliant yet poignant choice to describe Singapore's golden jubilee year.
Readers of Lianhe Zaobao have chosen the Chinese character "yao" (耀) as the Chinese-language newspaper's Character of the Year for 2015.
While the word has several connotations including radiance, brilliance and glorious, it is notable for also being the third character of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew's name (李光耀).
Mr Lee, who was Singapore's founding Prime Minister, died on March 23 after a bout of severe pneumonia at the age of 91.
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Lianhe Zaobao editor Mr Goh Sin Teck said: "2015 has been an especially eventful year for the media, from natural disasters to the passing of a great man, as well as various local and international news events that hold great significance both politically and historically.
"Within a year, we have seen joys and sorrows, separations and reunions, and have tasted the sweetness and bitterness of life. Predictably, our readers eventually chose '耀'.
"Although this character can be linked to various news events, the news that will first come to people's mind would still be the passing of our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
"This shows that when readers look back at the major events of the year, the one that leaves the deepest impression is our shared memories of the seven days in March."
The word "yao" was among 10 Chinese words shortlisted by Lianhe Zaobao's editorial team along with a panel of 10 professionals from various fields.
The other characters are "min" (民 meaning citizenry), "guo" (国 meaning nation), "jing" (惊 meaning surprise or shock), "nan" (难 meaning difficulty), "xin" (信 meaning trust), "ze" (责 meaning responsibility), "xin" (新 meaning afresh or renew) , "du" (毒 meaning noxious) and "hui" (汇 meaning currency).
After Lianhe Zaobao featured and explained all 10 characters in a series of articles that ran for 10 days, readers cast their votes through Zaobao.com, SMS, e-mail and a voting form.
Last year, the character for 2014 was "luan" (乱), which means disorder or chaos.
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