Sending a regular emoji to a friend on WeChat in China seems simple enough, but, according to a report published by Techinasia, your friend could respond by sending a strange look emoji.
Billion monthly users
Follow-ups revealed that the WeChat platform, which is the most popular social application in China, has its own etiquette for using emojis, and of course these etiquettes cannot be ignored because the application has more than a billion active users monthly, and the Tencent application also allows people to chat, pay bills, play games, and shop. And access government services without ever leaving the app.
Final severance of the relationship
Also, the hi emoji seems to have a slightly different meaning in the WeChat version. While for many of us, it can simply mean that we are happily waving goodbye, on the Chinese platform it means that the recipient just said something very stupid and the sender has not returned. He wants to talk to him anymore once and for all.
Normal smiley face
As for the regular smiley face, it is not used among friends, because it is usually reserved for bosses at work. Emojis are generally associated with Asian culture. For example, it’s polite for a person to act a little awkward when asking for a favor, so the wide-eyed emoji is perfect to use, for example, when an employee asks their boss for some vacation days.
Uses according to age groups
WeChat’s 2018 annual data report shows that emoji usage varies not only by geographic region, but also by user generation. The report – full of interesting numbers – analyzed user groups that prefer emojis, along with their daily habits.
Chinese school children
For example, people born after 2000 prefer to use a palm emoji. According to the report, this generation gets little sleep. They go to bed late and wake up early – as was expected of overburdened Chinese schoolchildren.
Incidentally, the data also reveals that the post-2000 generation loves sweets. WeChat Pay says the number of young people paying for cold drinks and sweets has risen by 230% since last year.
A classic with tears of joy
As for the generation born in the nineties, their favorite emoji is the classic face with tears of joy. The emoji has so many fans internationally that it was the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2015. WeChat says ’90s are known to wake up very late and use public transport a lot.
Born in the eighties and seventies
Those born in the 1980s read content related to national news, and their favorite emoji is the smiling face with smiling eyes.
It seems that the seventies generation loves to laugh because they usually use the face with the hand over the mouth.
Seniors and exclusive expressions
And come those, over 55 years old, who really like the like which is expressed with the emoji (OK). Some emojis are exclusive to WeChat and have unique meanings. For example, the nose-picking emoji doesn’t mean there’s something in the nose and needs to be taken out, it just means the sender just heard or saw something really stupid.
#Bilad #newspaper #China #emoji #meanings
