How British Cuddly Toy Jellycat Won Over China

A woman named Stella bought her first Jellycat plush toy during a time of unemployment in the pandemic. Inspired by a friend's passion for these UK-created creatures, her curiosity was truly ignited when she saw an adorable gingerbread house design featured on a major social networking platform.

While The Christmas holiday is not widely celebrated across China, acting more as a retail occasion rather than a religious festival, the imagery of gingerbread houses resonated with her. "The festival doesn't mean a lot for me... But I always like the appearance of gingerbread houses," she explains. This led her to ask an old friend from her hometown to buy it for her.

That purchase took place in 2021, right as the brand was poised of achieving significant popularity in China and beyond. "People were anxious, and no-one knew what exactly was going to happen," recalls Stella, who developed a routine of petting and squeezing her soft toys for comfort during a difficult period. Living in Beijing, which experienced among the most stringent restrictions globally, she spent a great deal of time indoors.

Now aged 32 and working as a sales manager in the tourism industry, Stella still grow her assortment. It has grown to around 120 toys, representing a cost of roughly 36,000 yuan. "As an adult, there are many things you can't share with others... and the troubles we encounter are a lot more complicated than before," she notes reflectively. "The plushies help me regulate my feelings."

Initially created for children, these squishy toys have evolved into an international sensation, especially within China where an increasingly disenchanted youth demographic has been turning to them as a source of emotional support.

The Rise of Kidults

Her gingerbread cottage plushie is part of their "Amuseable" series, a set of toys with tiny expressions modelled after everyday items, ranging from toilet rolls to hard-boiled eggs. These toys have become a key "standout success" that "resonate with a broad younger adult audience" around the world, according to industry analysts.

The surge in popularity "may have a connection to wanting to feel companionship," suggest cultural commentators. While it's difficult to say for sure if the launch of the iconic Amuseable line back in 2018 was an intentional strategy to target the adult consumer, toy manufacturers are under pressure to must find alternative audiences due to declining birth rates across numerous countries.

The brand entered the Chinese market back in 2015. Having laid significant "foundation", the toy maker was well-positioned to tap into "the tone during Covid"—when individuals looked for solace amid widespread anxiety—and built on its early momentum in the country, as explained by business consultants.

Its popularity was further boosted by engaging pop-up experiences. These in-store events sometimes offered a menu of exclusive "culinary" products. Many fans record themselves being served and post the clips on social platforms.

Adaptation to local tastes proved to be a core approach. For instance, fans could purchase stuffed toy versions of traditional British fare like fish and chips at a pop-up in London. Conversely, products including teapot and teacup toys were featured at special stores in Chinese metropolises last year.

Last year, the British company's revenue reportedly increased by two-thirds to a substantial figure. In the same period, sales of an estimated $117 million worth of its products in China on leading online marketplaces, according to market intelligence estimates.

This growth mirrors a wider surge in China's collectible toy sector among young adults seeking emotional support and community. Overall sales of collectable toys nationally are expected to exceed 110 billion yuan annually, according to a recent analysis.

The remarkable success of brands like Labubu, elf-inspired dolls by domestic company Pop Mart, highlights the country's growing appetite towards designer collectibles. The so-called "kidult" phenomenon is not unique to China; young adults worldwide are increasingly re-evaluate "outdated understandings of what it means to be an adult," note cultural experts.

Particularly, items like the eggplant character—nicknamed "the boss" in China—have inspired numerous online jokes, where users expressing frustrations regarding the pressures of adulthood. On social media, the "eggplant boss" hashtag is a space where fans sketch various emotive faces on the plushie, depicting it in different states from drinking to forcing a smile.

As an illustration, one Hong Kong-based, Wendy Hui, personalized her eggplant toy adding bags under its eyes and placing a pair of glasses on it. She shared an image online captioning it: "The mood of employees at the start of the week." "I was working from home even during time off," the 30-something says. "I merely intended to express the level of exhaustion I was."

Thus, Jellycat has become an unexpected, light-hearted outlet for China's youth to air their frustrations over a slowing economy, where hard work doesn't always guarantee commensurate returns. Amid heavy content regulation, the internet remains a crucial, if not the only, space for these types of discussions.

The brand's regular releases of limited-edition designs and the discontinuation of older designs—an approach sometimes referred to as "scarcity marketing" locally—has also driven {