By+Catherine+McNiff

Not to be confused with the comparatively "ancient" emoticon1）， the emoji—from the Japanese： "e" （"picture"） and "moji" （"character"）—is a modern phenomenon.

Emoji这个词源自日语，“e”指“图形”，“moji”指“字符”。千万不要把表情符（emoji）和较为“古老”的表情符号（emoticon）混为一谈，它可是现代才有的现象。

Gifts from the East

Born in the late 1990s， the smiling， happy face first began popping up around the turn of the 21st century with the launch of the i-mode2） mobile internet platform in Japan. The proud father was Shigetaka Kurita， who had only a month to come up with 180 of the visual references. He went out into the city to observe how people interacted with each other， expressed emotion， and responded to existing miniature pictorial3） representations such as simplistic weather icons. According to Kurita， inspiration for the first emojis came from two sources. The first was manga4）， a Japanese comic book or graphic novel， and more specifically， manpu， the symbols used to express certain situations， expressions or emotions only in manga. The second was the pictogram5）， a set of universal symbols used to convey information or alert the public.

Instant Gratification6）

Being able to express oneself—including real-time emotion—quickly and efficiently in digital text could be described as a basic human need of our modern world. Emojis help satisfy this fundamental requirement in a fun and quirky7） way. It is no surprise that the Japanese， with their historical foundation of ideograms8）， took to the new communication tool quickly. Due to differences in hardware development， it took more than a decade for the emoji to make serious inroads into9） the rest of the world， but it would appear that these diminutives10） are here to stay11）. When asked to comment on the emoji&apos；s increasing use and popularity， Kurita expressed his enthusiasm： "I wish everyone around the world would enjoy using emoji！"

对很多人来说，表情符是一个熟悉的陌生人。虽然我们经常使用，虽然我们爱不释手，但对于这些席卷全球的符号，很多人可能都是一知半解甚至一无所知。是谁创造了它们？它们又是如何火遍全球的？让我们一起走近这些会哭会笑的表情符，

去听听它们的故事。

来自东方的礼物

这个快乐的笑脸诞生于20世纪90年代末，随着日本i-mode移动互联网平台的发布，在跨入21世纪之际首次跃入大众的眼帘。而创造这个表情符的正是以之为傲的栗田穰崇，他只用了一个月的时间就设计出了180个栩栩如生的图形符号。他走出家门在城里观察人们如何相互沟通、表达情感，以及他们在看到已有的诸如简化的天气图标这样的微小图像时会有什么反应。据穰崇说，首批表情符的设计灵感来源于两样东西。第一个是漫画，就是日本的那種连环画或者漫画小说，更确切地说是来自于漫画标记，就是那种只在漫画中使用的表示特定场景、表情或情绪的符号。第二个是象形图画，这是一套用于传递信息或引起公众注意的全球通用符号。

即时满足

能够用数字信息迅速且有效地表达自己（包括实时的情感），可谓我们当今世界人们的基本需求。表情符以一种有趣且独特的方式满足了人们的这种基本需求。难怪日本这个有着表意符号历史底蕴的国家会迅速投入到对这种新兴交流工具的开发中。……