How British Plush Jellycat Conquered China

Stella Huang bought her first Jellycat plush toy when she lost her job due to the pandemic.

One of my friends at school loved the toys designed by England, so I told her all about them. But it wasn’t until she saw their gingerbread house dolls on Chinese social media app RedNote that she fell in love with the brand.

Christmas is not widely celebrated in China and is more of a commercial event than a traditional one. “Festivals don’t mean much to me, but I always love seeing gingerbread houses,” she says. At that time, she asked a friend in her hometown Guangzhou to buy it for her.

It was 2021, when Jellycat was set to achieve great success in China and around the world.

“Everyone was anxious, and no one knew what was going to happen,” said Stella, who developed a habit of stroking and squeezing the doll after the coronavirus. She has had to spend a lot of time at home in Beijing, which has one of the strictest lockdown measures in China, if not the world.

Now 32, Stella has a new job as a sales manager in the tourism industry, but she still buys Jellycats. Her collection has grown to 120 toys, with a total price tag of around 36,000 yuan ($5,145, £3,815).

“At my age, there are many things I can’t share with others… and the problems we face are much more complex than before,” she sighs. “Dolls help me regulate my emotions.”

Originally aimed at children, these squishy toys have become popular around the world, especially in China, where disillusioned teenagers have turned to them in search of comfort.

Stella’s Gingerbread House Dolls are a “fun” line of small-faced toys modeled after inanimate objects, from trash cans to hard-boiled eggs. Kasia Davies of global analytics firm Statista says the plush toy is a “breakthrough product” that “appeals to a broad Gen Z and millennial audience” around the world.

Isabel Galleymore of the University of Birmingham, UK, says the popularity of these toys “may have something to do with the desire to feel camaraderie.”

It’s hard to say for sure whether Jellycat launched its now-iconic Amuseable line, which launched in 2018, to tap into the young adult market. But toy manufacturers need to find new markets as birth rates fall around the world, Mr Davis adds.

And in early 2015, Jellycat entered the Chinese market.

Kathryn Read, a business consultant with 15 years of experience in China, says that after completing the “groundwork”, the toymaker was able to capture the “mood of the pandemic” as people sought comfort amid heightened uncertainty and built on its success in China.

Jellycat’s popularity was further fueled by pop-up experiences. In-store events feature limited-edition “food” menus. Many fans film themselves receiving the service and post the clips on social media.

Localization was also a key strategy for the Jellycat experience. Fans can buy plush versions of items such as fish, chips and peas at a temporary shop in London’s Selfridges department store.

Meanwhile, teapots and teacup dolls were sold in special stores in Beijing and Shanghai last year.

The U.K.-based company’s revenue in 2024 rose by two-thirds to 333 million pounds ($459 million), according to its most recent Companies House accounts. About $117 million worth of toys were sold to Chinese consumers through major e-commerce platforms during the same period, according to estimates by Beijing-based Moojing Market Intelligence.

The company’s growing popularity reflects the growing boom in China’s collectible toy market among young adults seeking emotional comfort and connection.

Total sales of collectible toys in China are expected to exceed 110 billion yuan this year, according to a 2024 report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the China Animation Association.

The huge success of Labubu, a fairy-shaped doll made by Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, highlights China’s growing appetite for collectible toys, especially among young people.

Professor Erica Kanesaka, a cultural expert at Emory University in the US, says this “kidult” trend is not limited to China. Because young adults around the world are questioning “outdated understandings of adulthood.”

Global toy sales fell less than 1% in 2024, but collectible toy sales rose nearly 5% to an all-time high, according to market research firm Circana.

The entertainment, especially the eggplant that Chinese fans refer to as ‘Boss’, has also spawned memes, with many sharing their frustrations with adult life.

“Eggplant Boss” is a hashtag on RedNote where fans draw various facial expressions on the doll. In this meme, Eggplant appears in a variety of moods, from drinking alcohol to putting on a fake smile.

For example, Hong Kong’s Wendy Hui transformed the eggplant Amuseable by drawing dark circles around the eyes and putting glasses on top of them. She then posted the photo to the thread with the caption: “Mental state of a Monday worker.”

A marketing expert in his 30s said, “I continued to work at home even when I was supposed to be resting.” “I just wanted to express how exhausted I am.”

Jellycat has become an unexpected, light-hearted outlet for young Chinese people to express their frustration with the economic slowdown, where hard work does not guarantee commensurate rewards. Despite strong censorship, the Internet remains an important, if not the only, space for such conversations.

Brands also often release limited edition products and retire designs. This strategy, which many in China call ‘starvation marketing’, has also helped Jellycat toys become popular on Chinese social media.

Collecting can feel like a treasure hunt, with fans traveling internationally scouring department stores and independent stores for Jellycats. Some use “daigou,” shopping agencies based overseas. And rare Jellycats, considered status symbols among some fans, have changed hands for more than $1,400.

But most are a cheap option amid a recession caused by a real estate crisis and high local government debt. China’s youth unemployment rate has eased somewhat since hitting a record high in August, but still remains above 17%, according to official statistics.

“You have to think long and hard before buying a luxury bag,” said Jessie Chen, a 34-year-old medical sales representative. “But you don’t have to do that with Jellycat.

“Jellycat also sells bags, which cost only a few hundred yuan (tens of dollars). They are practical and can hold a lot of things, so it may change your opinion about luxury goods.”

But China may already have reached Jellycat’s peak, with fans seeing less discussion of the toy on social media.

Mr. Hui has turned the “blind box” of toys like Teletubbies, where customers only know what they bought when they open the package, into a more interesting and affordable alternative. She even considered “quitting the pit,” which is Chinese slang for quitting a hobby.

“It’s so hard to buy,” says Stella. “Our daily lives are already not easy, so why should we make things more difficult for ourselves?”