How Emoji Meanings Differ in China

“I think it would be interesting how emoji usage differs from primarily English to Mandarin speakers and how the differences in the language form different meanings for the same emoji.
An extension or rather a bigger umbrella part of this is the difference in slang for each language, some slang might only make sense in Mandarin and vice versa.”

— Grace Simons, Philippines

Emojis have become a universal language for expressing emotions, reactions and ideas in this digital era. However, their meanings can vary apparently across different languages and cultures.

In China, many emojis carry unique meanings based on the language, social norms, and internet culture. In this article, we’re gonna explore some popular emojis and reveal how their meanings differ for Chinese (Mandarin) speakers compared to primarily English speakers.

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1. 🐮🍺: Slang in emoji form

牛niú逼bī is a widely used and understood slang in China. It’s often used to praise someone or something, like:

- You won’t believe it, we WON the game!
- Wow bro you’re so niubi (amazing)!

Niubi can also be used as an interjection, like damn in English:

- Did you know that John won that game?
- Huh? Niubi (damn)! I didn’t expect that!

Then what does 🐮🍺 mean? To understand it, we need to know a bit about the Chinese language. Chinese is made up of over 100k characters. For example, 我wǒ means “I” or “me,” 爱ài means “love,” and 你nǐ means “you.” These characters can be combined into sentences like 我wǒ爱ài你nǐ, which means “I love you.”

Characters can also form words, like 牛逼niú bī that we discussed earlier. It’s made of two characters: 牛niú (cow🐮) and 逼bī. 牛niú means cow🐮. The second character 逼bī sounds similar to 批pī, and 批pī sounds like 啤pí, which means beer🍺.
So together, 🐮🍺 is the emoji form of 牛逼niú bī.

It’s worth noting that “niubi” is sometimes considered a rude or offensive expression. Use it with caution and avoid using it in formal settings.

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2. 😓😅: Speechlessness

The emojis 😓 and 😅 are often used in Chinese online chats to express a feeling of speechlessness or kinda helplessness in response to something awkward, unexpected, or hard to react to. Chinese people call 😅 as 流liú汗hàn黄huáng豆dòu, which means “sweating soybean”. It’s like saying, “Uh… okay…” or “I don’t even know what to say to that.” In some special occasions it can also be used to mock others.

- I told him twice to submit the report, but he still forgot.
- 😅 Someone never learns huh?

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3. 😄🤝😁🌹: The Smiling Roast

Though 😄🤝😁🌹 usually look cheerful, in Chinese online culture they can mean aggressive. Depending on the context, they may be used to express sarcasm, mockery, or even aggressive “humor”. It’s more like a “smiling while roasting you” rather than true happiness.

- I’m definitely gonna win this game, no doubt.
- I forgot who messed up last time, did you remember? 😄

There’s a Chinese idiom 笑xiào里lǐ藏cáng刀dāo, which literally means “to hide a knife behind a smile.” It refers to someone who appears friendly on the outside but harbors harmful intentions. It’s kinda similar to the English saying “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Those two smile emojis are just like that. 😄😁

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4. 🙂: “Death Smile”

People in China may interpret this emoji differently due to the generation gap. On WeChat, China’s most popular messaging app, this emoji looks like this:

Many older users like to use it to express their positive emotions like happiness, appreciation and respect. However, younger people sometimes call it the “Death Smile.” This is because the emoji’s mouth is stretched into a wide smile, but its eyes are wide open with a lot of visible white, sometimes resembling an eyeroll. The overall expression comes off as a forced or fake smile.

But that doesn’t mean “Ah you can’t use the 🙂 emoji in China!” It’s not that absolute. For example, if someone says “thank you,” you can simply reply with “no problem 🙂” without worrying about being misunderstood.

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5. 🥵 Hot… But not because of the weather

The 🥵 emoji in China doesn’t just mean “I’m hot” because of the weather. In certain online contexts, it can also hint at feeling “hot” in another way — maybe it’s about strong emotions or excitement, and not necessarily about the temperature. 😉

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6. 🤗: Murderous hugging face… 🥶

This emoji sticker comes from Chinese TikTok (抖音, Douyin) and is trending on Chinese internet recently. It officially means to “hug you” (抱bào抱bào你nǐ). But because the arm positions look a lot like both characters are grabbing each other’s necks, Chinese netizens quickly turned it into a meme represents to strangle each other with smile.

It’s usually used for joking with friends, and it can also mean speechless (like I don’t know what to say so I just hug you…?)

What a murderous smile… 🥶

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7. ✋😭🤚: Kim Jong-un

We all agree that the world’s most mysterious country is North Korea. In Chinese internet culture, the emoji combo ✋😭🤚 is often linked to Kim Jong-un, the current leader of North Korea.

But why? Because whenever North Korean citizens meet him, state TV shows them crying hysterically with both hands raised high to express their respect and appreciation to their “Friendly Father.” The two raised hand emojis represent the gesture, and the crying face in between represents their intense emotion.

We like to use this emoji combo as a joke, and it’s mostly harmless and not offensive.

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Fun fact

If you know Chinese, you can type emojis much faster than others. That’s because when typing Chinese characters, we use something called an IME (Input Method Editor). For example, if you want to type 👋, you can simply type “nihao” (which means “hello” in Chinese). The waving hand emoji will then automatically show up in your IME suggestions. You’ll find more fun facts about the Chinese language in the next Chinese Spy article: A Detailed Decoding of the Chinese Language. So if you’re interested, stay tuned! ☺️

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Afterword

This is the first article of series Chinese Spy, explained how emojis are taking on new meanings in Chinese online culture.

In the next article, we’ll dig a little deeper. We’re gonna dive into a more detailed breakdown of the Chinese language. Like how can Chinese people type over 100k Chinese characters with only 26 English letters (spoiler: IME we mentioned in Fun Fact part.) Also what pinyin is, how did ancient Chinese create characters and more.

To fully breakdown the Chinese language, the article might be pretty long (but interesting and fruitful!) So stay tuned by submitting your email address with the link below, then you’ll receive an email once new article is out: Subscribe to email notifications

Chinese Spy series wouldn’t even exist without your ideas. Is there anything about China you’ve always been curious about, confused by, or just want a fresh perspective on? I’d really appreciate it if you could share via the link below. I’d love to hear from you guys. 😊
https://forms.gle/jrK9xnogYnhRna5v9

Thanks so much to Grace Simons for the thoughtful ideas and suggestions.

Special Thanks to Eric Wang, Enjou (炎上), LLF (林里逢), Eddy (立体画), Rikki (小齐), Orange (增汁橙), Lina (菠萝), 秋狸 (Ann), qinzizizizi (山芋), Tassel (点苍苔), Heyi (何伊), Xieqing (谢卿), Ciallo Ottersea (夜光海獭), Yuhang Wu (吴宇航), Ma ZJ (麻将机), Nomad (無主者)
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Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas and suggestions.