If you like dumplings, get excited.
The Unicode Consortium, which develops and approves emojis, has picked a dumpling, chopsticks, and fortune cookies among others to add to your emoji lexicon. (They’re only candidates, so they could get rejected by the time the new set of emojis roll out in June 2017, but that rarely happens.)
Emojis were created in Japan in the late 90’s, and Asian symbols like pagodas and kimonos have always been a part of the language. But over time, the language has become more Westernized.
Last year, a group called Emojination launched a Kickstarter campaign to get an official dumpling emoji. Dumplings were diverse without alienating anyone, Emojination argued on its funding page:
Dumplings are one of the most universal cross-cultural foods in the world. Poland has pierogi. Nepal has momos. Russia has pelmeni, Japan has gyoza. Italy has ravioli. Georgia has khinkali. Korea has mandoo. Jews have kreplach. Argentina has empanadas, and China has potstickers.
Yet, there is no dumpling emoji.
To get a new emoji in the standard emoji board, you have to fill out a long and tedious application, and then the consortium selects and votes on candidates.
The Unicode Consortium’s board is made up of some of the most powerful tech companies in the world—Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and 6 others. A board seat costs $18,000 annually and comes with full voting rights, but subcommittee members also wield partial voting power.
Emojination raised $11,000 to pay to cover the membership fees required to join the Unicode Consortium. Jenny 8. Lee, one of the leaders of Emojination, told Quartz that the group has recently joined as a subcommittee member.
In April 2015, the consortium added more racially diverse emojis. But there’s still work to be done. Wired notes that when it comes to culture and cuisine from different countries—like foods from African and Middle Eastern nations—emojis are still behind.