Mainland girls keep cotton dolls as their children.
By Jennifer Liu
To provide a home sweet home for her 16 cotton dolls, Jessica Huang’s family spent about RMB¥200,000 (about US$28887) to buy a 35 square meter flat in Hebei province.
“I want to have a home that’s just for me and my ‘children’,” Huang says, explaining that she treats her dolls like her daughters and sons.
“My parents think I am being childish for keeping and taking care of my dolls. They think I should focus on studying, and collecting dolls is a waste of time and money. They often complain that my dolls take up a lot of space and their reaction makes me feel very stressed,” the 20-year-old university student says.
Huang suffered from depression and anxiety due to pressure from her studies and interpersonal relationships when she was a high school student.
“But thanks to my dolls and new friends I made online to share our experience of taking care of cotton dolls, I am no longer depressed,” she says.
Her parents bought her the flat in 2023 after learning that her daughter’s mental health had improved after she started collecting cotton dolls.
“Taking care of my cotton dolls helps me relax. I don’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing that might upset others. I really enjoy chatting with my dolls,” the Year Three student says.
Huang chats with Cotton Doll about the boy she likes, academic and interpersonal difficulties, disputes with parents, and thoughts on the future: “I need more listeners than responders.”
Huang spends at least five hours a day with her dolls and online friends who share the same hobby. They have conversations online about various topics like doll clothes, finding photographers for their dolls, newly launched dolls and so on.
“It requires lots of effort to take good care of my dolls. I have to dress them up like the way my mother did to me when I was a child, ” she says.
Huang takes two to five of her dolls with her wherever she goes, such as the school library and cafeteria.
“Hanging out with cotton dolls is like being with my friends or children, it gives me a feeling of company. My cotton dolls bring me peace of mind and warmth, even in unfamiliar places like restaurants or libraries where there are many strangers,” she says.
Huang says she does not want to have children in the future.
“Children are noisy and immature. It is very costly to raise a child. If I keep a pet, it will one day pass away and I will be very sad. But cotton dolls will always stay with me,” she says.
Huang goes to concert with her doll and takes photos with it. (photo courtesy of Huang)
The fertility rate among young people in China is continuously decreasing. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s birth rate has been declining from 2014’s 13.8 per cent to a historic low of 6.4 per cent in 2023.
Another cotton doll collector, Emily Lau, 24, has already spent over RMB¥100000 (US$13800) on her 58 cotton dolls.
Lau says she has been “raising” cotton dolls since 2018 because she finds them cute and affordable.
“When I had to renovate my home in 2024, I specially reserved space against a wall to install cabinets for my dolls,” she says.
Lau shares, doll owners are nicknamed “mama” in the cotton doll community, as these cotton dolls are not just decorations and are very important to their owners and their mental wellbeing.
“Mama” usually dresses them up, designs their hairstyles and buys them accessories,” she says.
The 24-year-old worker says each set of clothes for cotton dolls costs her several hundred yuan, even more expensive than her own clothes. She also buys shoulder bags and baby prams for her dolls.
“When I take pictures of the dolls, many people look at me with confusion. I don’t feel embarrassed because I believe I am no different from a mother who takes pictures of her children,” she says.
Just like real children, cotton dolls need to take regular showers. As cotton fillers cannot be washed directly, so “mama” usually spends a long time gently brushing off dust from cotton dolls with a soft-bristled brush or a slightly damped soft cloth.
Lau shares the production of cotton dolls is very complex and usually takes half a year to make one.
“The long waiting time makes ‘mama’ look forward to seeing her baby doll and cherish them even more, just like a mother looks forward to meeting her newborn baby,” she says.
Mama usually uses bags to take the dolls out. (photo courtesy of Lau)
Married for four years, Zhang Li, 33, also enjoys having cotton dolls as her companions.
Zhang lost her job in 2020 during the pandemic. Feeling lonely and anxious, she started raising cotton dolls and made many friends with similar hobbies on online platforms.
She shares that taking photos of her cotton dolls and posting them online is an important moment for nurturing dolls and exchanging tips about taking care of cotton dolls.
Zhang often pictures her dolls in coffee shops, scenic spots, and concerts.
“I really want someone to pay attention to my dolls collection and talk to me about this. I enjoy this feeling. When I see a cotton doll post getting a lot of ‘likes’, I start thinking about how to shoot better,” she says.
Zhang has built a small room on her desk for the dolls, with tables, chairs, computers, recorders, and carpets arranged like a human family.
“I prefer playing with cotton dolls that help me gain many likes and shares on social media platforms. I tend to find them more adorable and buy them more clothes than other dolls,” she says.
Zhang says her husband respects her hobbies very much. “ He always praises the way I dress up my dolls and even helps me imagine the shooting scenes for them. He likes to collect anime figurines. We don’t have any children at the moment, and these ‘useless toys’ in the eyes of others have become our spiritual children.”
“Compared with my husband, my dolls are better companions,” she adds,“Sometimes my husband makes me angry, but the dolls can accompany and listen to me when I am angry. When I am alone at home, it’s the dolls accompanying me. The doll spends much more time with me every day than my husband does.”
On Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform, there are over 59.25 million discussions and 5.37 billion views under the “Cotton Doll” tag as of April 2025. According to Research on the Development Trends and Future Investment Analysis of China’s Cotton Doll Industry (2025-2032) by INSIGHT AND INFO, the market size had reached 11.2 billion yuan in 2023, and it is expected to exceed 15 billion yuan by 2025.
Professor Dai Ying of Journalism and Communication of Shandong University of Finance and Economics points out the popularity of cotton dolls shows girls long for warmth, companionship, and a sense of belonging.
“Dressing up cotton dolls according to their own ideas is actually creating an idealized version of themselves. Creating a “beautiful living space” for dolls is actually projecting one’s own plans and imagination for future life onto them,” Dai says.
Professor Dai also notices that “mamas” take online feedback of ‘like’ and ‘share’ seriously.
“When data becomes a standard for measuring love, it reflects the mentality of East Asian parents who have high expectations of their children,” she says.
The steps needed to bath a doll. (photo courtesy of Zhang)
Edited by Cindy Lee
Sub-edited by Zora Yan
