BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Inside a pixel-bead studio tucked away in Beijing's bustling Sanlitun, 25-year-old Chen Yanni picks up her tweezers and slowly assembles a monstera leaf pattern from tiny colored beads.
Pop music plays in the background, yet she becomes fully absorbed in the repetitive motion. The outside world seems to fade away once she starts. "My job requires constant thinking," she said. "Pixel bead art is simple and repetitive, which helps clear my mind and truly relax."
Originally developed in Sweden in the 1970s as a rehabilitation tool, pixel bead art later evolved into a popular children's craft across Europe and North America.
In China, however, it has found a distinctly different audience: young consumers who are actively seeking immersive, experience-driven activities that offer a break from screen time and a sense of accomplishment. And increasingly, they are willing to pay for it.
BUYING THE EXPERIENCE
Chen first encountered bead art by chance while waiting in line at a restaurant, where customers were offered free bead-making activities. Having discovered a studio just around the corner, she now pays for the experience.
The studio, Manxi, opened its first Beijing store in 2023. Today, the brand operates 11 locations across the city.
Dong Sining, manager of Manxi, said customer numbers began rising noticeably in late 2024, with young people making up the majority. At that time, the male lead of a Chinese television drama wore a bead art piece he had made himself, modeled after his character, during a live stream, helping raise awareness of the craft. Social media exposure further pushed the hobby beyond niche circles.
According to data released by Chinese short video platform Douyin, the city of Zhengzhou alone has more than 3,700 bead-art studios, ranking first nationwide.
For many participants, the appeal goes beyond the finished product.
"Compared with entertainment activities that require a lot of thinking, such as board games, this assembly-line style of work is much more relaxing," said a 29-year-old customer surnamed Bai, who spent part of her weekend creating a bead-art lucky bag for a friend's birthday.
The hobby allows people to turn any design they like into a physical object. "Most customers make patterns related to what they love," Dong said.
For 18-year-old Zhou Cheng'ai, her design carried personal meaning. "I designed it myself," she said. "It's my ragdoll cat lying on top of an orange, because 'Cheng' in my name means orange in Chinese."
Fresh out of China's college entrance examination, Zhou visited the studio with three classmates. "We originally planned to have dinner or watch a movie, but that felt a bit boring," she said. "We saw how popular bead art had become online and wanted to try it."
According to Zhang Peili, a professor at the School of Economics of Renmin University of China, bead art is part of a broader wave of experience-driven consumption that also includes pottery, crochet and other hands-on activities.
"In the experience economy, consumers increasingly value the process itself and the emotional satisfaction it provides, rather than simply the final product," Zhang said.
From the rise of immersive experiences such as handicrafts, VR games, and Hanfu photo shoots, to the emergence of "emotional consumption" products like Pop Mart, demand in the experience economy is expected to keep growing, she added.
DRIVING NEW CONSUMPTION
The popularity of pixel beads is translating into real spending.
On the e-commerce platform Taobao, homemade pixel bead products generated more than 100 million yuan (about 14.69 million U.S. dollars) in sales in 2025 and ranked as the platform's second most trending product of the year.
According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the country's experience economy reached 18.4 trillion yuan by the end of November 2025, up 22.6 percent year on year.
"The experience economy offers a new pathway for boosting consumer spending," Zhang said. "As material needs become increasingly satisfied, it becomes harder to stimulate consumption through traditional goods alone. Greater growth potential lies in services and experiences that people can purchase repeatedly."
Chinese policymakers have also taken notice. In January, the General Office of the State Council released a plan calling for the cultivation of new growth drivers in service consumption, including emotion-oriented and experience-based consumption scenarios.
Yet opportunities come with challenges. Consumer preferences can change quickly, just like emotions themselves, Zhang noted. "Although pixel beads have been all the rage in recent years, that doesn't necessarily mean it will remain so indefinitely," she said.
The industry also faces practical concerns. Copyright issues surrounding many bead-art designs remain a gray area, while health and safety considerations regarding the use of low-quality household ironing tools have also drawn growing attention.
"Regulators should strengthen oversight of product quality and ventilation conditions in studios," Zhang said. "Consumers should also pay close attention to both product safety and their own health while making pixel beads." ■
