{"id":1462,"date":"2023-10-24T03:59:23","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/2023\/10\/24\/does-the-goodbye-emoji-mean-screw-off-in-china%ef%bc%9f\/"},"modified":"2024-06-03T19:29:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T11:29:29","slug":"does-the-goodbye-emoji-mean-screw-off-in-china%ef%bc%9f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/does-the-goodbye-emoji-mean-screw-off-in-china%ef%bc%9f\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the “Goodbye” Emoji Mean “Screw off” in China\uff1f"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emoji<\/a> first emerged in Japan in the 1990s as a way for people to quickly communicate through visual information. They\u2019ve become mainstream around the world thanks in part to the rise of smartphones and social media platforms.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Emoji first emerged in Japan in the 1990s as a way for people to quickly communicate through visual information. They\u2019ve become mainstream around the world thanks in part to the rise of smartphones and social media platforms.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But while emoji are familiar to many, the same symbols can have different meanings in different cultures.<\/p>\n

China is a case in point. The country is known for generating creative, peculiar internet memes\u2014ones sometimes deployed to subtly mock authorities. People there have also developed a system for using emoji subversively so that a smiley face can actually convey contempt.The Chinese use emoji primarily on the nation\u2019s two biggest social media platforms: Weibo, with its 313 million monthly users, and WeChat, with its 700 million. The emoji keyboards in these services offer symbols and a style different than what you\u2019d find in, say, WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quick guide:<\/p>\n

Smiley Face<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

On the surface: Happiness.<\/p>\n

Chinese Meaning: A despising, mocking, and even obnoxious attitude.<\/p>\n

Background: The upper \u201cmuscle movements\u201d here could explain why the face is considered less friendly and more hostile. \u201cIf you take a closer look at the eyes, the orbicularis oculi (the muscle near that upper eye corner) does not move, and the orbicularis oris (the one near the mouth) tightens, which is a sign of suppressing a smile,\u201d notes An Yong, a user on Zhihu, China\u2019s answer to Quora. The answer has garnered some\u00a016,000 likes since last June.<\/p>\n

Guidance: Don\u2019t use it as an expression to say you\u2019re happy about something. Maybe use these instead, since the muscle movements seem to be smiling genuinely:<\/p>\n

Smiley Face With a Waving Hand<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

On the surface: Goodbye with a smiley face.<\/p>\n

Chinese Meaning: \u201cI despise you and really don\u2019t want to talk with you. Please go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Background: Thanks to the smiley face, this is not a simple goodbye, but rather a mocking expression used to respond negatively to whatever one objects to.<\/p>\n

Guidance: If you see this emoji, you might want to change the topic, or just keep your mouth shut. If you wish to retaliate sarcastically, consider sending back two waving hands. Or just deploy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emoji first emerged in Japan in the 1990s as a way for people to quickly communicate through visual information. They\u2019ve become mainstream around the world thanks in part to the …","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[60,353,636,306,29,34,559,27,214],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funny","tag-china","tag-e-china-cities","tag-emoji","tag-hiredchina","tag-jobs","tag-jobs-in-china","tag-marketing","tag-news","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9855,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/9855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}