Explores the origins and meanings of East Asian character emojis (🈁️, 🈶️, 🈯️, etc.) in Unicode. Traces emoji history from Japanese telecom companies in the late 1990s through Unicode standardization in 2010. Explains why specific Chinese/Japanese characters became emojis—most originated from Japanese TV broadcast symbols proposed by ARIB. Provides detailed breakdowns of 17 CJK character emojis, including their readings in Japanese and Chinese, cultural contexts, and original purposes. Highlights the Dumpling Emoji Project's successful campaign to democratize emoji proposals and add underrepresented food symbols to Unicode.
Table of contents
Some background (context is important)The Dumpling Emoji ProjectHere’s the good stuff 💃Wrapping upEmoji resources 🤓Sort: