One day when my friend Ellie and I were messaging each other about a tweak in our meeting time, I sent “Ok, ^_^” showing I agreed to the time change with a happy face. Meanwhile, Ellie took it as a symbol of anger and quickly messaged me back asking “wait, are you mad at me, Wenxi?” Both of us realized there was a big difference of the use of emo-icon in Eastern and Western countries. As we began to explore the richness and complexity of Eastern emo-icons, and shared about cultural nuances that come along with these symbols, we realized we had to share this story with others.