What's the Good Word? Asian Pop's 2010 Year in Review

Jeff Yang searches for the right expression to describe the year that was in Asia and Asian America

The period between Christmas and New Year's is what you might call the year's lame duck session -- a time usually spent (by those lucky enough to be employed) furtively shopping for post-holiday bargains and bitching on Twitface about having to go into the office.

But even if most of the white-collar world is in a state of psychic hibernation, those of us in the word-ejaculation profession know that language never sleeps. Lexicographers and search engine operators around the world have spent the past week feverishly announcing the results of their annual "Word of the Year" brainstorms -- unveiling the singular terms that best sum up the zeitgeist of 2010 in their respective cultures.

According to the users of the hugely popular Internet forum Tianya, China's 2010 WotY is zhang, literally translated as "swelling"; the term is a reference to the high-flying economy's sharply rising prices.

By contrast, the WotY picked by Korean netizens, "iPhone," suggests a blithe indifference to the precarious global economy (double-dip recession? There's an app for that).

And the 2010 WotY for the Philippines, via the Filipinas Institute of Translation, is "jejemon," a term for the text-mad Filipino youth who've created their own thumb-based netslang, jejenese -- "jejeje" being a common online stand-in for the sound of laughter.

Meanwhile, back in the States, the New Oxford American Dictionary announced that its Word of the Year was former Alaskan half-governor Sarah Palin's inane Tweeologism "refudiate." As a result of this selection, the term, which Palin acknowledges only came about because she accidentally swapped an "F" for a "P," will be enshrined in all future editions as a formal part of the English language. In short, as a Pinoy friend of ours pointed out -- jejeje! -- Palin gets to be in the dictionary for something Filipinos do all the time.

That's why, as we turn to our pals in the Asian American blogosphere for our usual end-of-year wrapup, we at Asian Pop HQ have decided to submit our own bold fresh pieces of English language for consideration in future editions of NOAD. I mean, WTP do we have to lose, right?

Erace: (v.) To cast movie roles with Caucasian actors.