These emojis created by an art student were downloaded by 4 million users in one day. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Embarrassing moments

Shi Donglin, originator of Freezing Gal, a cartoon image she created in college, says using emojis helps bring light relief at embarrassing moments during communication.

"If I want to ask my boyfriend to buy a bag for me I can use a coquettish emoji instead of having to resort to cold words," says Shi, 23.

Her cartoon figure, with dark skin and a ponytail, is based on her experience in college, she says, and is popular among college students.

Unlike traditional cartoonists who generally have to create an image first, then sell comic stories to magazines or publishing houses and finally go online to win wider acceptance, Shi went straight to Weibo and was surprised at how much attention it gained in such a short time that she turned it into an emoji for messaging apps such as QQ and WeChat, thus giving it much wider currency.

Apart from continuing to produce more emojis based on Freezing Gal, she has started to draw picture books to build on the character's image.