I investigate the different types of emotions commonly depicted in Baozou comics, and tactics to craft such illustrations. I use the Baozou comic phenomenon in China as a lens to explore the potential socio-economic factors behind the indulgence in emotion expression in the form of a parody. This paper aims to address these questions. However, not much work has looked into (1) why are Chinese people who have the tradition of making and keeping “face” (miànzĭ 面子 in Chinese) willing to depict themselves in ugly drawings? (2) What kinds of emotions do Chinese people intend to express through these comics, given that their culture is rich in affects but encourages emotion restraint ? And (3) why and how can the emoticon engineering practices be widely adopted? There has been some research on the spread of Internet memes globally. More and more Chinese Internet users are involved in the creation and dissemination of static images as well as animated GIFs of facial expressions, many of which are in the style of Baozou comics. The popularity of Baozou comic is a reflection of an emerging fad of emoticon (particularly digital stickers in IM) engineering in China. Left: WeChat Cute Pets stickers in conventional Internet meme style right: WeChat Bubbly Chatter stickers in Baozou style. Analysis on miscommunication over Baozou emoticons reveal some related issues such as the need to balance ambiguity and emotional depth in expressions. The grassroots emoticon engineering process, including easy production, replication, and customization, also contributes to the growing popularity of Baozou comic in China. Its ugly aesthetics reflects the self-perception of a new generation of Chinese Internet users. Baozou comic is a unique combination of cuteness and parody, and can serve as a vehicle to convey out-of-control, subtle, complicated, or hidden emotions. This paper discusses the potential socio-economic context of the Baozou comic phenomenon in China. In particular, Chinese netizens have converted this type of Internet memes into emoticons and use them extensively in Instant Messaging applications. rage comic internationally, has been widely used as a form of visual communication of emotions in social media, advertisement, entertainment, and many other domains in China.