Rings by Zhu Ailun.[Photo provided to China Daily]

This year's theme is a Chinese saying: "Harmony in the family is the basis for success in any undertaking" and the 30 characters share the common component baogaitou (which implies a house).

Wang Lijun, a professor at BNU's School of Chinese Language and Literature, says that the characters are related to life in ancient times.

In ancient times when hanzi resembled tiny pictures, the character jia (home) consisted of a baogaitou on the top and the component shi (a pig) at the bottom.

This was to indicate that it was only when people started to rear animals that they began to lead a settled life.

And since the ancients typically stored their wealth at home, many Chinese characters with the baogaitou component were related to wealth such as bao (treasure) and fu (rich).

Wang says the character ning (tranquil) for example, consists of components including baogaitou, xin (heart), min (which implies a utensil), and ding (which looks like a table), and the combination means that a meal at home calmed people.

Yu Dan, a professor at BNU who initiated the contest, says that hanzi reflects the origin of ideas and is a suitable way to tell foreigners about Chinese history and culture.

The last contest was held in 2016 and the theme was the component xin.