Jiong () is a once obscure

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the Written Chinese, writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are k ...

meaning a "patterned window". Since 2008, it has become an internet phenomenon and widely used to express

embarrassment Embarrassment or awkwardness is an emotional state that is associated with mild to severe levels of discomfort, and which is usually experienced when someone commits (or thinks of) a socially unacceptable or frowned-upon act that is witnessed ...

and

gloom Gloom is a low level of light which is so dim that there are physiological and psychological effects. Human vision at this level becomes monochrome and has lessened clarity. Optical and psychological effects Light conditions may be considered g ...

, because of the character's resemblance to a sad facial expression.

Original meanings

# Window, according to

Xu Shen Xu Shen ( CE) was a Chinese calligrapher, philologist, politician, and writer of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-189). He was born in the Zhaoling district of Run'an prefecture (today known as Luohe in Henan Province). During his own lifetime, ...

's 2nd-century dictionary ''

Shuowen Jiezi ''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the '' Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give ...

'': “窻牖麗廔闓明” (an open and light window). # Granary. 米囧 means “put the new rice into a granary”. # Sacrificial place. Based on Chouli. # Toponym.

Internet emoticon

The character for ''jiong'' is nowadays more widely used on the Internet as an ideographic emoticon representing a range of moods, as it resembles a person's face. It is commonly used to express ideas or feelings such as annoyance, shock, embarrassment, awkwardness, etc. The use of ''jiong'' as an emoticon can be traced to 2005 or earlier; it was referenced on 20 January 2005 in a Chinese-language article on orz. The character is sometimes used in conjunction with orz, OTZ or its other variants to form "囧rz", representing a person on their hands and knees (''jiong'' forming the face, while r and z represent arms and legs respectively) and symbolising despair or failure.

Encoding

The character is included in Unicode at ( 囧). Unicode also includes U+518F ( 冏), which is considered a

variant Variant may refer to: In arts and entertainment * ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine * Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art * ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells * " The Variant", 2021 e ...

References

Bibliography

* * *{{cite book , last1=Ru , first1=Xin , last2=Lu , first2=Xueyi , last3=Li , first3=Peilin , title=The China Society Yearbook , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ecJc4PhmqUC&pg=PA311 , date=25 March 2010 , publisher=BRILL , isbn=978-90-04-18221-9 Emoticons Chinese words and phrases