Chinese characters 'Hehe' meaning harmony voted word of 2023

Participants perform traditional calligraphy during the annual New Year's calligraphy contest at the Budokan martial arts hall in Tokyo. Photo: AP

The Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) announced recently that the Chinese characters "Hehe," meaning harmony, were selected as the China-Japan-South Korea Word of the Year 2023, beating 11 other words to represent the spirit of the three countries.

"The reason why people picked the word "Hehe" is because people hope the trilateral cooperation among the three countries will contribute to common prosperity and harmony in East Asia," TCS Deputy Secretary-General Sakata Natsuko said at the announcing ceremony.