我
Like the iPhone and iPad, perhaps ‘我’ (wǒ ) is the most commonly used character in Chinese. This character literally means ‘I/me,’ and therefore is expected to be seen and heard a lot in people’s daily life. But very few people, including many native Chinese speakers, realize that the character ‘我’ is actually comprised of two separate characters: the first part is ‘手’, which means ‘hand’, and the second, ‘戈’，refers to a dagger axe– a typical ancient Chinese weapon made of bronze.
So ‘我’ originally means ‘hold the weapon in my hand.’ It demonstrates capability and power. In order to be ‘我’ and rely on oneself, one is supposed to be both physically and mentally strong in order to counter the possible temptations and threats which may stem from both the mind or the physical world.
Mr. Ko Wen-je, the current mayor of Taipei, made an interesting comment on ‘我’. See: 柯P：有能力抵抗的人才是「我」
Another interesting correlation about the character ‘我’ and the character ‘找’ “search for; look for” is made by Mo Yan, the 2012 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. The difference between these two characters is the top left stroke, which is missing in ‘找’ “search for; look for” character.
Mo Yan wrote a beautiful essay ‘我’ and asked the readers a philosophical question as to what is this missing stroke in life we are looking for? Money? Power? Grades? Health? Or happiness?
And so now I ask you, what is the missing stroke you are looking for?