Jan
More noticeably, the updated emoji’s mask is a more accurate depiction of a medical mask, while the older design had a plainer white rectangle that could represent a simpler fabric mask. It should be noted that in China, unlike in some other countries, only disposable medical masks are recognized as effective against infection and are required as an anti-coronavirus precaution; the new design reflects this view. In this way, many of the tencent emojis are specific to the linguistic and cultural background in which they were designed. One informant of Chinese heritage we spoke to expressed difficulty in finding appropriate equivalents for staple Chinese emojis on Western social media. Indeed, many emojis found on tencent platforms have no simple Unicode equivalent. The expression literally means “I have cracked’, implying ‘I have had a mild breakdown’. Although some Western emojis are somewhat similar in general meaning, there is no direct equivalent emoji to this in Unicode at the time of writing.
Sep 19, 2023 12:59 PM