But when it comes to flags, emoji reflect geopolitics too. Many of those decisions, which a small subcommittee votes on, teeter on identity politics: Yes, redheads deserve representation no, marijuana does not. Unicode has been in the business of deciding what symbols merit international exposure since it adopted emoji in the early 2000s. And they’ve heard, according to proposal coauthor Andrew Myors, that they’re out of luck. They’ve petitioned the Unicode Consortium, the standards committee that decides which emoji become real digital icons. A group of activists has been trying to make the Tibetan flag emoji happen for more than a year, shrinking its colorful design down to the size of a thumbnail. It could fly across phones, too, if only it were an emoji. For the Tibetan diaspora, thousands of people flung around the world, it flies as a symbol of hope, and unity, and identity.
Two green lions paw at an orange yin-yang, below a big yellow sun with rays of blue and red. The Tibetan flag is a patchwork quilt of color and spirit.
