Previously, one of the arguments I had with my friend was that it was easier to create new words in English/European language than in ideogrammic languages like Chinese. In English, you can misspelled words (Googol becomes Google), add letters at the end of a word to change its meaning (self + ie = selfie), or create entirely new words (twitter). In Chinese, you were traditionally limited to the number of existing Chinese characters. You can combine different Chinese characters to form new meanings, but you actually don't create a new Chinese character.
However, an incident involving Jackie Chan is changing that. Jackie Chan's name in Chinese is Chéng Lóng (成龙). His name translates to "becoming [the] dragon".
In a video commercial, Jackie utters a sound effect - "Duāng!" - which doesn't have any equivalent in the Chinese language.
Chinese netizens were so amused by the word that they combined the two characters from his Chinese name to form an entirely new Chinese character. The new character basically means "Boing". The problem is that since the character is not officially recognized by the Chinese government, there is no convenient way of typing it on the computer. Most Chinese netizens who want to use the word simply type "duang".
While it is entirely possible to create new Chinese characters, like how Jackie Chan accidentally inspired people to do so, it would still be very difficult to use the newly created Chinese characters. Still, it's cool to know that most Chinese netizens are open to the idea of creating new Chinese characters and linking it to current events.
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-GLOgDD5o&w=854&h=480]
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