'Chinese dream' search surges online

Students celebrate the National Day at a school in Huainan, Anhui province, on September 29, 2014. [Photo/IC]

Internet search for the words "Chinese dream" has soared over the past two years since President Xi Jinping used the phrase to describe the "great renewal" of the Chinese nation, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Tuesday.

The search index for "Chinese dream" on Baidu.com, the largest search engine in China, was only about 300 before Xi made his comment, on par with the search for the rarely used word "high-energy physics," the daily reported.

By June 2013 the search index had already surged to 70,000 and stood as high as 11,275 in November 2014 alone.

"Chinese dream is my dream," is a hot topic in writing, drawing and speaking contests across the country and tops searches related to "Chinese dream," it said.

On Cnki.net, the largest database of research papers in China, 13,700 out of the 14,890 papers related to "Chinese dream" were published over the past two years. Only 35 such papers were published annually before 2013.

Xi visited "The Road Toward Renewal" exhibition in Beijing on November 29, 2012, days after he was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

He said that "to realize the great renewal of the Chinese nation is the greatest dream for the Chinese nation in modern history".