What 👲 means
A gua pi mao, the Chinese melon cap. Six stitched fabric panels form a round crown, like a split melon rind. It is one specific garment, not a generic or religious skullcap.
Six-panel caps appear by the early Ming dynasty as liuhe mao (“sixfold-unity cap”), the panels standing for unity of heaven, earth and the four directions. A traditional story credits the first Ming emperor, Hongwu, but that is legend, not a verified origin. By the Qing dynasty it was everyday casual headwear for cool weather.
A historical-costume emoji; fine for the hat or period dress.
Don't use it as a label for a Chinese person — it reads as costume.
Don't confuse it with
1Worth knowing
- 👲 is a single code point, so it survives copying through almost anything — old databases, SMS gateways, printer drivers.
Questions people ask
1Why does 👲 look different on other phones?
Every platform draws its own artwork for the same code point. The character you send is identical; Apple, Google, Samsung and WhatsApp each render it in their own style.
How to type 👲
:man_with_gua_pi_mao:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.👲Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.