Although he isn’t the owner of the Unicode emojis, Nicolas Loufrani still considers himself the originator and creator of emojis, as detailed in his 2017 interview with Vice. He took Smiley, the simple yellow smiling face logo developed by his father, Franklin Loufrani, and created a universal language around it. In addition to emotions, Nicolas Loufrani developed a range of exciting new emoticon categories, including animals, occupations, food, fun, countries, flags, sports and more.
As of September 2024, the Unicode Standard comprised 3,790 emojis, including sequences for gender and skin tone. On 17th July every year, Emojipedia hosts the World Emoji Awards, celebrating the world’s most anticipated and popular emojis.
29th January 2025 marked the start of the Chinese New Year, ushering in the annual celebration of the resetting of the lunisolar Chinese calendar. Following a 12-year cycle, the Chinese zodiac is comprised of animal symbols; January 2025 saw the departure of the dragon and the snake’s arrival.
Recognising the importance of astrology in Chinese culture, Unicode Standard incorporates visual representations of all 12 signs, namely the snake, dragon, rabbit, ox, tiger, rat, horse, monkey, goat, rooster, pig and dog. This is a concept that Nicolas Loufrani introduced with his Smileys at the turn of the century, when he designed icons for both Western and Chinese Zodiac signs to incorporate in the Smiley toolbar for instant messaging and emails. The Smiley Company continues to promote new artistic renditions every year in China through marketing campaigns to support its fashion and design business.
Another emoji that is also popular at Chinese New Year is the red envelope. Known as a Hóngbāo or Lai See, the red envelope icon represents gifts of money, the giving of which is commonplace at New Year and other celebrations in China and some other Asian cultures. A relative newcomer to Unicode Standard, the red envelope was integrated in 2018 and is now supported on all mobile phone apps and operating systems
The snake emoji varies in form from one vendor to the next, but it is typically depicted as a yellow-green, fork-tongued, coiled serpent facing left. Though people in the West tend to interpret snakes as having a sinister meaning, in Chinese tradition, this zodiac sign is linked to many positive attributes, denoting wisdom, elegance, resilience, charm, adaptability and transformation. Therefore, the inclusion of snake emojis in text and social media feeds actually has positive connotations in Eastern culture, often signifying positive change and good fortune. Outside of the Chinese zodiac, the serpent is associated with Ophiuchus and has been proposed as the 13th sign of the Western zodiac.
When Unicode standardised the first set of emojis in its 6.0 release in 2010, the Unicode Consortium introduced an emoji for each of the lunar zodiac signs, filling in gaps in the earliest Japanese emoji sets introduced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most Chinese zodiac signs today have two emojis: a full-body version introduced by Unicode and a face-only version originating from the early Japanese set.
Around Chinese New Year, the internet sees a spike in use of other emojis in addition to lunar zodiac signs. As well as red envelopes, other popular emojis include the money bag, firecracker, moon cake, dumpling, red paper lantern, new moon, tangerine, fireworks and Chinese flag emojis. There is also a considerable uptick in use of red circle, red heart and red square emojis due to the colour red’s strong association with Chinese culture.
More than just fun logos, Chinese New Year emojis embody cultural traditions, imparting a sense of celebration in text communications. Emojis like the snake play a vibrant role in modern digital festivities, helping people around the world to connect with each other and Chinese tradition. In today’s digital world, emojis like the snake and firecracker enable revellers to visually express their joy and the cultural depth of Chinese New Year by blending tradition with modern communication.
