Short is Beautiful: China In A Nutshell

Which word best sums up Chinese society? You might have your own opinions (and feel free to express them in the comments space below), but writer and translator Eric Abrahamsen, an alumnus of our magazine, has used the latest in his series of semi-regular New York Times columns to argue the case for "管" (guan3, to "manage" or "be in control of").

In so doing, Abrahamsen's column provides an elegant little language lesson.

But there's something else going on here. Abrahamsen is just the latest in a series of writers, organizations and governments who have attempted to summarize China or aspects of Chinese society using as few characters as possible. We think we've spotted a trend.

Back in November 2011, Beijing announced the results of its campaign to select the four words that best epitomize "Beijing Spirit." The four words voted for by 2.9 million Beijing residents: "patriotism," "inclusion," "innovation" and "virtue."

That same month, award-winning author Yu Hua (of Brothers fame) published China in Ten Words. OK, so this was a book. However, each of Yu's ten essays on contemporary China takes one single word (with the exception of one person's name) as its starting point. The ten: “people,” “leader,” “reading,” “writing,” “Lu Xun,” “disparity,” “revolution,” “grassroots,” “copycat” and “bamboozle.”

In December, in Taipei, "微" (wei1, or "micro") was announced the 2011 winner of the annual Cross-Straits Word of the Year competition.

Within days of that announcement, the Ministry of Education-backed National Language Resource Monitoring and Research Centre announced its own character of 2011: "控" (kong4, or "control").

We at the Beijinger decided to put our own spin on the "Beijing Spirit" survey by asking our 50-plus colleagues for the words which define Beijing for them. The most popular words in our staff poll: "cultural," "friendly," "generous" and "patriotic."

You all had to get your own shot at this sooner or later, so this past few weeks we've thrown the minimalist floodgates open with the Beijinger's Six-Word Writing Competition. You've got less than 24 hours to enter, by the way. Email your entries to sixwords@thebeijinger.com before 9am on Thursday, February 16.

What's next for this craze, then? Most meaningful stroke in a Chinese character? Which character best defines expats in China? Favorite Chinese phoneme? And because every good trend needs a catchy name, we've decided to call this fad of extreme summarization "nutshelling." Now get those six words in.

Photo: Hoax-slayer.com