<p>Technically it isn't a new Chinese character but a Japanese character.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/chowleen/status/1343190637630263297?s=20" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Eileen Chow</a> posted about this on Twitter saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Winner of 2020’s new kanji contest in Japan: the character 座 (seat), ingeniously redesigned as a neologism for “social distance.”</p>
<p>Note the two 人 (person) radicals in the original 座 are now positioned farther away from one another!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You can find a whole list of competition candidates on the official <a href="https://sousaku-kanji.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sousaku Kanji</a> website.</p>
<hr />
<p>On her twitter thread Eileen Chow also shows off some other characters with explanations. Here's another interesting one for the times:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/etygR.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/etygR.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>I like this one because it is a bilingual visual pun - a 76yo entrant transformed the bottom half of the character 会 (meeting) into a “Z” to make...you guessed it, “web conferencing via Zoom”.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p>Seeing as they are all 漢字 - they could be easily adoptable into Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-29T02:29:27.043Z
30 years from now these would be "standard" characters taught in schools.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-29T05:27:22.313Z
it is a coined character, ^_^, it suggests avoid sitting in same table. I don't think this glyph will be adopted, instead it is just for entertainment.
Daniel Yang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-29T10:45:27.230Z
That all depends on how long we need to keep “social distancing” for, I guess.
Mou某
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-31T05:25:24.423Z
I'm so curious what all these new characters describe! Unfortunately, I don't know Japanese.
musialmi
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-27T23:56:35.690Z
2020-12-30T23:05:10.553Z
2020-12-30T23:05:10.553Z
Mou某
<p>I keep seeing this new Chinese character on social media:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/gxJIW.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/gxJIW.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>What is this?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-29T16:54:19.523Z
Someone wanted to edit 座 into the title, but I'm thinking we could put the IDS there instead. Would this be right: ⿸广⿻土人人? Or just describe it: 交错入座的「座」字?
Mou某
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-29T21:35:43.730Z
⿻土人人 is not right, maybe ⿻⿻人土人 is OK. The whole thing should be ⿸广⿻⿻人土人.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-30T23:22:01.690Z
@Mo. I suggested 座 for the title. Please go ahead if you have a better suggestion.
Jonas Stein
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-04T11:16:15.863Z
I'd suggest ⿸广◰人⿷土人 where ◰ is a place-holder for a non-existing IDC (Ideographic Description Character) which I *thought* was added to Unicode at some point but now I can't find it in v13. FWIW personally I only ever use ⿻ as a last resort. I feel unhappy about the missing ◰ as it is also needed to describe characters like 头 and so on.
John Frazer
<characters>
What's this new Chinese character which looks like 座?
# What's this new Chinese character which looks like 座?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-12-27)

I keep seeing this new Chinese character on social media:

> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/gxJIW.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/gxJIW.png)

What is this?

**Tags:** characters

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Someone wanted to edit 座 into the title, but I'm thinking we could put the IDS there instead. Would this be right: ⿸广⿻土人人? Or just describe it: 交错入座的「座」字?  
> **username_1**: ⿻土人人 is not right, maybe ⿻⿻人土人 is OK. The whole thing should be ⿸广⿻⿻人土人.  
> **username_2**: @Mo. I suggested 座 for the title. Please go ahead if you have a better suggestion.  
> **username_3**: I'd suggest ⿸广◰人⿷土人 where ◰ is a place-holder for a non-existing IDC (Ideographic Description Character) which I *thought* was added to Unicode at some point but now I can't find it in v13. FWIW personally I only ever use ⿻ as a last resort. I feel unhappy about the missing ◰ as it is also needed to describe characters like 头 and so on.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2020-12-27. Score: 22 | Accepted answer

Technically it isn't a new Chinese character but a Japanese character.

[Eileen Chow](https://twitter.com/chowleen/status/1343190637630263297?s=20) posted about this on Twitter saying:

> Winner of 2020’s new kanji contest in Japan: the character 座 (seat), ingeniously redesigned as a neologism for “social distance.”
>
> Note the two 人 (person) radicals in the original 座 are now positioned farther away from one another!

You can find a whole list of competition candidates on the official [Sousaku Kanji](https://sousaku-kanji.com/) website.

---

On her twitter thread Eileen Chow also shows off some other characters with explanations. Here's another interesting one for the times:

> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/etygR.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/etygR.png)
>
> I like this one because it is a bilingual visual pun - a 76yo entrant transformed the bottom half of the character 会 (meeting) into a “Z” to make...you guessed it, “web conferencing via Zoom”.

---

Seeing as they are all 漢字 - they could be easily adoptable into Chinese.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: 30 years from now these would be "standard" characters taught in schools.  
> **username_5**: it is a coined character, ^_^, it suggests avoid sitting in same table. I don't think this glyph will be adopted, instead it is just for entertainment.  
> **username_0**: That all depends on how long we need to keep “social distancing” for, I guess.  
> **username_6**: I'm so curious what all these new characters describe! Unfortunately, I don't know Japanese.  

---

