Taipei  - A Taiwan newspaper on Saturday launched a search for the Word of the Year for 2008, offering 48 Chinese characters for the public to choose from.

The search was launched by the United Daily News and a private foundation in the hope that one Chinese character could summarize the situation of Taiwan in 2008 or reflect Taiwan's people's feelings about the year.

The newspaper opened a telephone hotline for the public to call in to vote for their choice for Word of the Year, and the Chinese character that gets the most votes would become the Word of the Year.

To encourage the public to take participate, the News and the foundation are offering rewards that include a car priced at 500,000 Taiwan dollars (15,000 US dollars).

Several countries conduct selections for the Word of the Year with the Society of the German Language starting the process in Germany in 1971 and the American Dialect Society launching a search in the United States in 1991.

But the most publicized selection takes place in Japan.

On December 12 every year and watched by a crowd of tourists and media, a priest at the Kiyomitzudera Buddhist temple in Kyoto waves a large brush to write the Word of the Year on white cardboard in black ink.

The Word of Year for 2007 in Japan was fake, reflecting Japanese people's anger at scandals involving food companies that used poor-quality ingredients to make food or sold outdated food products. (dpa)