Emoji and memes are a new way to present one's emotion, are popular among young people. It is vital nowadays because almost everyone today largely relies on social networks and sends emojis and memes. Lots of research about emoji and memes have been conducted. Here, this paper summarizes new trends brought by their appearance in China. The article is written using the method of literature review. Based on the research, this paper reveals three typical trends of selfexpression in China society:

more »

... moji and memes create new ways to shape one's self-image because of their characteristics and the "looking glass self" effect; emojis and memes cause generation gaps due to physical difference and different growth background; emoji and memes lead to obscure boundaries between diverse social circles. The research about emojis and memes enables us to know more about why people can easily use emojis and memes to shape a persona and why there are differences between elderly groups and young groups when they use emojis and memes, and why the use of emoji blurs the social sphere. By doing that, this paper, from a micro perspective, examines the trend of each case and examples as individual trends. Also, from a macro perspective, this paper shows that emojis bring infinite possibilities to society, enrich people's social channels, and ultimately affect the structural changes of social circles.