朗读版：裂开的“笑脸”，是成长冲破的茧 | CGTN周末随笔

有首叫《笑脸》的老歌这样唱：常常地想/现在的你/就在我身边露出笑脸，可是（可是）我/却搞不清/你离我是近还是远。

几年前，当这个表情符刚刚发生内涵突变的时候，再收到别人发来的笑脸，就开始有了歌中所唱的感觉。表情还是那个表情，但收发双方的内心戏曲折了。

这个平静的笑脸是不是也能表达“呵呵”——曲径通幽般传递出来的轻视。可能只有在情绪到位的时候，鼻腔口腔才能合作自然而然地哼出“呵呵”，刻意尝试就觉得别扭。

仿佛一道闪电划过两个“呵”字中间，笑脸裂开了。一瞬间迸发的愤懑冲破了嘴唇曲线的封锁，把自己变成了一对情绪爆发后的渣渣——。

关于新晋网红表情符“裂开”的起源，大体还是沿着热门标签的诞生套路。重点在于，成功晋级表情包的标签往往已在网络群体记忆中留存很长时间。因为语境和个人理解差异很大，如何给这个表情符定义无法求全责备：崩溃路上？有限郁闷？再痛也要笑着把自己缝上然后走下去？

定义越难，给歪果仁解释起来就越麻烦。办公室里的外籍同事对“呵呵”与的理解至今也只停留在“切记不要轻易使用”的层面。不仅仅是中外文化差异的标签，表情符还给“代沟”代言。据说国内有学校专门开设了面向教师的“社交网络表情”补习班，让老师们体验了一回提炼中心思想的纠结。

成千上万的表情符、表情包，恨不得每一条背后都有各自剪不断、理还乱的故事线，弄懂这些细节的同时还要应用自如，对于一般社交网络玩家而言确实有点强人所难。况且，这些嬉笑怒骂的标签更新换代速率太快，好不容易理解了，突然又来了个，说无所适从也不过分。

一个圆圆的黄球，加上简单的设计，就可以表示越来越复杂的内心戏，一方面说明网友的想象力愈加丰富，一方面也说明自我表达的需求越发细腻。从就是微笑的时代，到解读可以写成一篇论文的今天，社交网络的群体心理变化仿佛一个不断长大的孩子终于意识到了社会的复杂程度：哪怕真的气到分裂，也必须保持僵硬的微笑。

不同的时代，成长的过程都会有类似的阵痛。只不过几百年前的自我表达需要写一本《少年维持之烦恼》来完成，今天只需要点点手机屏幕。被动辄几亿用户的社交网络放大之后，这种破茧成蝶的声音也就有了值得人们大惊小怪的理由。

冒着过度解读的风险——这张裂开但依然保持微笑的脸是否也可视为一种提示？社交网络的“回声室效应”让用户对不同议题的看法更易走向非黑即白的极端，争论也常常从求同存异滑向你死我活。在这种时刻 ，倾听显得尤为重要。如果能够抑制住内心百转千回的白眼并保持哪怕只是样的微笑，或许也不失为理解彼此的开始？

啊……“突然想看看你曾经纯真的笑脸”。

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Sidelines | Growing up with Emojis

Sidelines is a column by CGTN’s Social Media Desk

The Chinese messaging app WeChat introduced several emojis into its official stock on Thursday, and the old flat smiley face has suddenly split up.

Take the simplest of all emojis, the round smiley face, cut it in half along the axis, and there you have it. 

Despite some discrepancies over details, different accounts of the emoji's provenance found online all boiled down to some social media cliché: a viral moment when an internet celebrity accidentally said "I'm about to explode," reportedly in frustration during a video game livestream, and somehow sticking to social media's collective memory in the form of a hashtag long enough for the WeChat's coders to notice and visualize it. 

Upon seeing it, one would guess it stands for a schizophrenic kind of mindset. But what it's intended to denote can be a little more elusive, more so if explained in English: somewhere between "exploding with annoyance" and "grin and bear it," probably closer to the former, as agreed by the emoji gurus from CGTN's Social Media Desk.

Like verbal vocabulary, emojis can be a culturally exclusive currency that makes little sense to people outside its territory of circulation. Many emojis popular with Chinese youngsters today have features and usages that puzzle not only non-native speakers but also local users that are less social media savvy. Amusing reports have surfaced across China that befuddled schoolteachers are offered training sessions on the subtleties of the emojis their students take for granted.

Whether the teachers will ever succeed in catching up is in doubt. The bank of emojis is multiplying with completely new designs as well as mutants of the old ones that could go out of currency overnight, not to mention the shifting nuances attached to them, conditioned by the contexts and also subject to individual interpretation. 

The smiley face emoji of which the schizophrenic looking new one is a variation, for example, does not serve to signal nodding in agreement or approval anymore. If you ever receive it from a Chinese friend, beware it's more likely implying "nonsense such as your words are, I'm putting up with them," politely, one step short of a snub.

Now in two halves, the old smiley face's "couldn't-be-bothered" undertone has been enhanced by a notch to suggest "I am seriously bothered now that my smile is broken but still hanging" or "hanging but broken," depending on which sentiment you want to highlight the most with the split face.

With hundreds of millions of users, WeChat can hardly launch any new product without causing fanfare. The booming need for more creative and personalized self-expression also contribute to the multiplication of emojis and digital stickers. Similar sensation comes wave after wave with new ideas and hashtags, but they also dwindle as fast as users get used to the new things.

The interesting phenomenon is that, increasingly, the emojis have started conveying subtle emotions. They are no longer a visual substitute for words, which prioritizes straightforwardness. They have become a capsule of meaning that, if dissolved, would translate into a lengthy explanation. The psychological narrative embedded in the emojis like the smiling split face reflects the inner conflicts characteristic of young people's socialization. Through the emojis, they find many who are sharing their frustration, struggle and confusion. Together their voice has been magnified, and these feelings that usually stop on the tip of one's tongue now find their way out through the tip of the fingers. With more sophisticated emojis, it almost feels as if China's social media psychology is growing out of its puberty – the grown-up world is full of confrontation and even more compromise; a forced smile is exhausting but necessary.

And it could be a positive social trend if this is the rationale behind the youngsters' exchanges of the split face emojis. On this optimistic note, maybe we can force another hopeful spin on the interpretation of the torn smiley face: No matter how annoyed we feel about the people with whom we cannot see eye to eye on crucial issues, let's try to put up a smile and continue to talk with them instead of descending rapidly into a shouting competition. In the digital "echo chamber," where only the voice that agrees with ours tends to get reinforced in our ears, it's all the more important for people of opposing opinions to be patient and polite, quick to listen and cautious to dismiss. And an inviting smile is always a good start.

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