Stella Huang bought her first Jellycat plush toy when she lost her job during the pandemic.
A school friend was a fan of the British-designed toys and told her all about them. But she only fell in love with the brand when she saw a gingerbread house plushie on the Chinese social media app RedNote.
Christmas is not widely celebrated in China and is more of a commercial event than anything more traditional. “The festival doesn’t mean a lot to me… But I always like the sight of gingerbread houses,” she says. It was then that she asked her friend in their hometown Guangzhou to buy it for her.
That was in 2021, just as Jellycat was about to make it big in China and around the world.
“Everyone felt jittery, and no-one knew what would happen,” says Stella, who has developed a habit of petting and squeezing her plushies since Covid. She had to spend a lot of time at her home, in Beijing, which had some of the strictest lockdowns in China, if not the world.
Now 32, Stella has a new job, as a sales manager in the tourism industry, but is still buying Jellycats. Her collection has grown to 120 toys, costing a total of about 36,000 yuan ($5,145; £3,815).
“At my age, there are many things you can’t share with others… and the troubles we face are a lot more complicated than before,” she says with a sigh. “The plushies help me regulate my emotions.”
Originally aimed at children, the squishy toys have become a global hit, especially in China where a disenchanted youth has been turning to them for comfort.