Stress-relief businesses gain momentum in SZ

Using colorful balls of wool, a tufting gun and tufting cloth, a young white-collar worker surnamed Xu spent the whole afternoon hand-crafting her personalized rug at a tufting workshop in Longgang District.

Tufting, a kind of textile weaving originating from old European craftsmanship, has become the latest trend popular among Chinese urban youths to release stress, Shenzhen Evening News reported.

A man uses a tufting gun to make his personalized carpet. Shenzhen Evening News

After drawing an outline on a cloth, people can use a tufting gun to play a coloring game with various balls of wool. In Xu’s eyes, mindful tufting was an approach that emphasized the process, rather than the end product. As she concentrated on her weaving movement for hours, her mind calmed down.

This year, an increasing number of local businesses has tapped into the fad by opening tufting workshops across Shenzhen. Mao Mao, an owner of a 400-square-meter workshop in Futian District, told the News that the city had only a few tufting businesses when he opened his workshop last year, but new ones have sprung up this year.

In Mao’s workshop, the price for making a rug ranged from 200 yuan (US$28.7) to 400 yuan. People can also create their unique tapestries and bags.

Gen-Zers make up most of Mao’s consumers. During peak times, 30 people were tufting together in his shop. “Some customers tufted for fun, some came to relax,” Mao said.

Tufting is just one of the burgeoning stress-relieving businesses in the country. China has had 810 enterprises with “stress relief” in their company names, business scopes, products and services or trademarks, according to the News.

The number of such enterprises that were newly registered in 2021 was 85. So far this year, over 70 new companies have been registered, up 94.59% year on year.

According to the News, these brick-and-mortar stress-relief venues can be categorized into three types, namely DIY handicraft workshops, smash rooms and small-scale funfairs.

Likewise, stress-relieving toys have gone viral. Over 10,000 results can be found on well-known social media platforms when searching for the words “stress toys,” the News said.

Watching videos with tags like hoof trimming, carpet washing, soap cutting and clothes sorting have also been a big draw for urbanites, who find magic in watching them, making them feel relaxed. A collection of hoof trimming videos garnered over 730 million views, with one even getting 804,000 likes on a Chinese short film sharing platform, the News reported.

Guo Wanda, executive vice president of China Development Institute, contended that the booming stress-relief industry reflected the consumers’ high demand to de-stress.

“Stressing out is a common phenomenon among young people and urbanites, and their demand to de-stress is universal. The pandemic has driven the rise in these needs,” he explained.

Chen Ting, a doctor from the Second People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, suggested that taking outdoor sports is the best way to alleviate stress and anxiety, and helps with one’s sleep.