The candidates for the 2019 Chinese character and word of the year were released on Monday, with "love", "I and my country", "5G" and "block chain" shortlisted.

The top five words in each category were based on recommendations from netizens, and data from gsdata.cn, a leading new media big data analytics company, and the Chinese National Language Resource Monitoring and Research Center (NLRMRC).

"Love (爱)", "stability (稳)", "integration (融)", "innovation (创)", and "minus (减)" are the top five Chinese characters of the year in China, and "I and my country (我和我的祖国)", "5G", "study to strengthen the country (学习强国)", "hardcore (硬核)", and "It's too much for me (我太南了)" are waiting to be selected as the word of the year in China.

The candidates for international Chinese character of the year are "hard (难)", "separate (脱)", "fire (火)", "core (芯)" and "tyrant (霸)", and those for the international Chinese word of the year are "Notre-Dame (巴黎圣母院)", "block chain (区块链)", "trade conflict (贸易摩擦)", "black hole photo (黑洞照片)" and "Brexit (脱欧)".

2019 is the 14th year that a Chinese character and word of the year will be chosen. It aims to "use one character or one word to describe China and the world in that year," and encourage people to record their lives in language, and describe social changes in China and the world.

The final results will be unveiled on December 20.

(Cover image designer: Jia Jieqiong)