This is from taikonaut.com.
Quote:
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Who use this word first? In May 1998, Mr. Chiew Lee Yih from Malaysia used it first in newsgroups. Almost at the same time, Mr. Chen Lan used it and announced it at "Go Taikonauts" site. They created this word in parallel, which shows it is probably the best candidate for Chinese spacemen.
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Some japanese and korean words have chinese roots to them but the pronunciation has changed significantly. Both cultures still use chinese characters (japan more so), but if you showed someone from japan or korea the characters for "Taikong" they would understand the meaning but pronounce it quite different from the chinese.