人们的创造力从未停止，社交网络的出现给人际交往带来了便利，为了充分表达自我，人们又创造了表情符号，为单调的文字注入活力。

Icons of expression
网络中的表情符号面面观

Emoji, or emoticons, are the picture-like characters many people find indispensable in their social networking communications. Emoji, which originated in Japan, allow people to liven up their texts with hundreds of colorful images. But if you use emoji like a second language, do you often feel there are still not enough emojis to express yourself?
表情符号是一种图形化文字，是很多社交网络用户不可或缺的交流方式。表情符号源于日本，有了这些成百上千的彩色图像，人们可以增加文字信息的生动性。但如果你把表情符号当成第二种语言来使用，会不会发现这些符号由于数量有限，不足以表达你的情感？

Laura Ustick, manager of a fast-food chain in Illinois, US, found there are emoji for ice-cream, pizza and sushi, but not for the all-American hot dog. That’s why Ustick and other emoji fans are taking action to get more emoji.
美国伊利诺亚州一家快餐连锁店的经理劳拉·尤斯蒂克发现，代表冰激凌、披萨和寿司表情符号很常见，但就是没有最能代表美国的热狗的符号。这也是尤斯蒂克和其他表情符号粉们采取行动，呼吁更多表情符号的原因。

“When we want to write something cute, it’s just not there,” Ustick complained to The Wall Street Journal.
“当我们想用文字卖萌时，却没有合适的表情符号，”尤斯蒂克在接受《华尔街日报》采访时抱怨道。

Other fans are lobbying for symbols like cupcakes, bacon and unicorns, according to the newspaper. The BBC also reported on a petition posted on DoSomething.org calling on Apple to increase the ethnic diversity found within its emoji keyboard. The petition says the keyboard already offers a graphic showing a same-sex couple, and calls on the company to present people with a wider range of skin tones.
据该报报道，其他“表情粉”们正在为诸如纸杯蛋糕、培根和独角兽等表情符号进行游说。英国广播公司BBC同样也报道了一封发布于“有所作为网”（DoSomething.org）的请愿书，文中呼吁苹果公司在输入法增加表情符号的多样性。请愿书中提到，苹果输入法已经存在表达同性情侣的图像，他们呼吁该公司可以提供更多不同肤色的人物表情。

Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech firms design their own versions of how the more than 800 basic emoji characters appear, but they tend to present most human characters as being white. In the Apple keyboard, only two of the symbols seem to be Asian and none are black.
尽管苹果、谷歌、微软以及其它科技公司各自设计出不同版本的800种基本表情符号，但他们设计的人物头像大多数都是白人。在苹果键盘输入法中，只有两个符号看似亚洲人，而黑人符号一个也没有。

In response to the DoSometing.org petition, an Apple spokesperson last month told MTV that “we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set.”
上个月针对“有所作为网”上的请愿书，苹果公司的一名发言人在接受MTV音乐电视网采访时表示：“我们正在与统一码联盟进行紧密合作，努力更新已有标准。表情字符集确实需要多样化。”

Emoji regulator
表情符号调试者

Not everyone can design an emoji symbol. As it turns out, emoji are largely controlled by a nonprofit group called the Unicode Consortium, formed by computer programmers in the 1980s. The consortium designed the Unicode Standard, a coding system to fit worldwide platforms and various languages.
并非所有人都可以设计表情符号。事实上，表情符号主要由非营利性组织统一码联盟掌控。该组织由一批电脑程序员创立于上世纪八十年代，曾设计出适用于世界各地的网络平台以及多种语言的编码系统——统一码标准。

Unicode decided to take on emoji after problems emerged in understanding Japanese e-mails filled with the symbols, Mark Davis, co-founder of the consortium and a software architect for Google, told The Wall Street Journal.
该联盟创始人之一、谷歌软件构架师马克·戴维斯在接受《华尔街日报》采访时表示，当看到一封充满表情符号、难以理解的日文邮件时，统一码联盟决定解决这个难题，为表情符号编码。

Davis says the consortium generally encodes symbols already in existence. So most emoji available today are from the original ones created in Japan.
戴维斯说，联盟一般会对现存表情符号进行编码。因此当前可用的表情符号大部分来自日本最初的原型。

New symbols are added periodically. Once Unicode greenlights an emoji, individual tech companies decide whether to include it in their operating systems, Davis says.
表情符号会定期更新。一旦统一码联盟给某个表情符号开了绿灯，每个科技公司就要考虑是否在其操作系统中添加这一表情符，戴维斯说道。

Bernie Hogan, an Oxford University research fellow, studies the use of emoji as part of his research into how people represent themselves on the Internet.
伯尼·霍根是牛津大学研究员，他的研究领域就包括人们在网络上如何使用表情符号来表达自我。

Emoji may sound like a trivial matter, but “it is a way to augment texts with clear expressive power”, he told the BBC.
表情符号听起来可能微不足道，但“它是一个有效增强文本表达效果的方式”，霍根接受BBC采访时表示。

“If they restrict the sort of people who are used in the images it restricts users’ expressive power — people won’t feel that the emoji speak for them,” he says.
“如果图谱中的人种符号受到限制，那么用户的表达能力也会受到约束——人们会觉得表情符号无法充分表达自己。”他说道。