The author | Zhang Qian
Edit | Lone Pigeon
Xi'an, the city that never sleeps in Datang, An Xiang, a girl who is a senior in college, leisurely walks on the pedestrian street, is a person, not a person.
On her body, she carries several cotton dolls that she has "raised" for two years. The smell of roast meat came from the street, and a doll named "Sweet Rabbit Coco" "popped its head out" from her pocket, and An Xiang covered its mouth with his index finger, "No, you don't want to eat."
The pink light shone on Sweet Rabbit Coco's face, and its comic-like eyes seemed to flicker.
Approaching the Spring Festival, the festive atmosphere is getting stronger and stronger, Anxiang walked along the street for a long time, with the dolls, "feeding" them to eat, talking to them, taking scene baby films, she felt, "it is also very happy to go out and play alone."
Photo courtesy of An Xiang
This is the state of life of many young girls now. In the Douban baby circle group and Weibo cotton beauty doll super talk, there are many "mothers who raise babies" like An Xiang. The average price of cotton dolls is 60-80 yuan, and the average per capita who has been in the circle for a long time is 20-30.
Behind the potential purchasing power is a new form of business at work - the "cute economy". It serves the spiritual needs of young people who want to be accompanied and healed, connects different economic groups on the chain, and even gives birth to "baby sellers" who buy low and sell high.
The hidden world
It all goes back to around 2015.
At that time, fans of the Korean boy group EXO spontaneously launched cartoon love bean dolls, which were sold on Twitter, Weibo and other platforms. Dolls designed with the image of celebrities as a reference are realistic and soft, and the price is less than 100 yuan.
Hui Hui, who has been "raising a baby" for four years, the first doll was bought in 2015, and the attribute is Wu Shixun, named "Xun Fox". Since there was no mature doll shop in China, she made a slip dress out of cloth with curtains tied, and cut two small hearts on red cardboard, which were used as blush and pasted on the face of "Xun Fox".
Hui Hui believes that "the difference between the doll and other peripherals is that you can treat him as a star himself." This is also the reason why many "mothers who raise babies" are in the circle.
Courtesy of Hui Hui
Until 2018, the boy band talent show "Idol Trainees" was broadcast, and the idol-centered industry and culture gradually matured, and there was a group dedicated to selling dolls. For many rice circle girls, cotton dolls have a sense of cuteness, can be dressed up, dressed up, very healing, this feature makes cotton dolls accepted by more and more fans.
"The real fire of the doll circle is in the middle of 2019, after the talent shows "Youth with You" and "Creation Camp" were broadcast, the star-chasing girls in the circle of friends will take a few dolls in their hands." Han, a star-chasing girl who also has four years of "raising a baby", said.
For dolls with their own star attributes, the seller will name them according to the personality of the star himself and the role he has played in the play. For example, before the release of the movie "Send You a Little Red Flower" starring Yi Qianxi, there was a cotton doll named "Hang Cub".
With the development of the rice circle, dolls that are separated from the attributes of stars have also begun to become independent. Sellers will give such dolls a cute name, and occasionally set the background of the story to give them life.
Mayonnaise is a doll without attributes, it is the third cotton doll purchased by Qiqi, 20cm tall, with a light pink fried hair. Qiqi waited for nearly three months before the mayonnaise "arrived home". When the box was opened, the mayonnaise didn't look as cute as it looked in the picture, the light pink fried hairs stood up, and the hair on either side of the ears swelled.
Qiqi decided to give mayonnaise a "facelift".
The first step in a "facelift" is to go to the double chin. Qiqi rua the extra "meat" on the mayonnaise chin with his hand until the contours of the lower face became a round, perfect arc. Then it's time to do the hairstyle, first applying the wig care solution, then braiding the braid at the end of the hair, and finally rolling up an air bangs.
Courtesy of Seven Seven
This set of "plastic surgery" methods emerged soon after, but it became a default rule in the doll circle. Because cotton dolls are mostly shipped in batches by foundries, so there are more or less flaws, a little tidy, adjusted, the dolls will become more beautiful and cute.
On platforms such as salted fish and Weibo, there are many "handmade women" who specially give cotton dolls a facelift. The aesthetic of the real world is also established in the doll circle, to slim the face, shrink the head, elongate the mouth shape, thin eyelashes, and upturn the hips. However, there are also "mothers who raise babies" who like to beep their faces and ask to fill the baby's face with cotton and make their heads rounder.
In addition to plastic surgery, in order to raise dolls, "Mommy" often communicates in the Weibo Super Talk and Douban group: How to bathe dolls? How to make a good baby film? Do you want to start with the new doll clothes? How to raise fried hair dolls?
They used their interests to set boundaries and construct a hidden world. In this world, cotton dolls will never grow up and do not need to face a series of troubles such as exams, lost love, and weight loss. Reality stops here, cute and beautiful, and it doesn't look like it's going to expire.
Cute economy
When interests collide with interests, groups such as baby mothers, doll shop owners, painters, handmade brides, and foundries have formed a relatively stable business system around the doll circle and become an important part of the "cute economy".
"Cute economy" refers to a series of economic behaviors generated by the consumption of cute products, also known as "placing orders for cuteness". In the "Mommy who Raises Babies" interviewed by reporters, they all mentioned that they bought dolls because "dolls are cute" and "they will be cured when they look at them.".
It is precisely because of the capture of this aesthetic trend that the people responsible for opening the group and the owner of the doll shop will improve their own products by observing the aesthetic preferences of the doll circle. In 2019, before graduating from college, Yiyi opened a doll shop with a friend for a while. She was responsible for making accessories, and the other person was responsible for making dolls.
"Mommy who raises babies" will not only change the doll's clothes with the change of seasons, but also give the doll a holiday. You have to wear a "uniform" to go to school, a "bachelor's uniform" after graduation, a Christmas style when christmas arrives, a wedding dress when you "get married", a "kimono" when you go to Japan...
In the micro-shop shop, there are both rat-like shirts suitable for the Spring Festival, checked pleated skirts, picnic baskets, bucket bags, Superme belt bags, and mixed-color scarves specially worn in winter.
Pictured one by one
The highest selling item in the store is an immortal flower top hat, divided into basic and Christmas models. "Larger, full-time baby shop owners, most of whom have original design capabilities, will look at the annual fashion colors, fashion trends, and the sales of the head store can reach one million." One by one.
As a painter, Xiao Lan also observes the aesthetics of the doll circle. At the beginning of 2019, after entering a doll with the attribute of Ding Chengxin, Xiaolan officially entered the circle. Since she had drawn an avatar before, after a "baby mother" asked her to draw a baby manuscript on Weibo, she quickly agreed.
Referring to the photos of Aidou, Xiao Lan wants to draw their charm: Bian Boxian's eye line is down, Ding Chengxin's eyes are cute, and some stars point out the moles on the corners of their mouths. Drawing such a picture, Xiaolan can get a reward of 50-100 yuan. But according to her understanding, "full-time painters, painting a picture and earning hundreds of thousands."
The emergence of full-time shops and full-time painters has gradually matured the industry of the doll circle. More and more exquisite doll patterns, endless new baby clothes, accessories, baby bags, exquisite baby pieces, attracting more and more young people to join the ranks of "raising babies".
They began to buy clothes for the dolls for different seasons, and matched them with the same style of backpacks, headdresses, hats, and took the dolls out to go shopping, watch movies, picnics, and travel to different places.
Courtesy of Zi Han
On the evening of December 31, 2020, when Yi Qianxi's new film "Send You a Little Red Flower" was released, many fans went to see the movie with a doll named "Hang Cub" whose attribute was Yi Qianxi.
All the things that seem childish in the real world have become "so cute" in this business kingdom ruled by the "cute economy". Tired of studying, exams are broken, just hug cotton dolls, talk to them, you will "be cured."
This is how the business kingdom of the "cute economy" was established. Here, cuteness is justice, and represents an indestructible beauty, and an eternal childlike fun, providing an idealized space for young people.
Where the train is headed
No matter how pure the world, once it is involved in business, it will change its taste, and the same is true of the baby circle.
Because it is profitable, many "baby traders" have begun to pour in, breaking the superficial beauty of this circle. Raising babies in captivity has gradually become an uncontrollable thing, and everyone's desires are expanding.
Those who have opened a doll shop still remember the "war" that took place on November 14, 2020.
That day was the sale day of the cotton doll named Nami and the attribute of Park Chanliang, and the seller @ Shortbread Can and @ Park Chanley Bar CHANBAR set the price at 185 yuan, limited to 3200 pieces, and all the profits were used to help Park Chan-yeol's new movie.
But nami's comic-like starry eyes and cute curly bangs also attract a lot of people who don't follow stars. That night, One by one remembered, "At nine o'clock in the evening, 3200 nami were empty in one second." This matter rushed to the hot search on the same day, and in the vote set up by @eight groups of melon girls, 13,000 people chose the option of "did not grab it, sorry".
Photo / Weibo @ eight groups of melon-eating girls
Among the 3200 nami, more than 200 were only grabbed by "baby traders" with a clapper, and they sold them on the salted fish app for 700 yuan + on the salted fish app.
In the doll circle, this kind of scalping behavior is becoming more and more common, but even if it costs more than 3 times + money, some people are willing to h (baby circle terminology, high price) like nami internet celebrity dolls.
The same "heavy money is difficult to find" Internet celebrity dolls also have tongues. Unlike nami, Tonguebey is an attributeless cotton doll, based on a small scorpion with gray-white hair and purple pupils, giving a sense of helpless vulnerability.
In the setting of the seller @ Martley Knife, Tongue Bu was caught in the wild, intimidated, abused, and left a scar on his back. Many people will have a desire to protect after seeing the shape of the tongue.
The desire to protect stimulates the desire to buy, and even becomes a certain paranoia. The original price of the tongue is 75 yuan, and after being shorted by the second, many people turn to salted fish and Weibo to buy at a high price. One buy and one sell, the price was speculated to four figures, becoming one of the most difficult dolls to buy and receive in the cotton doll industry.
Photo/Weibo
Not only nami and tongue, but also "baby mommy" want to buy the cotton doll of their choice, and it is getting more and more difficult. Wang sauce, cici, Hao Qi, milk, Ali, blueberry jam... One by one, the internet celebrity dolls appeared. The drama of limited bags and limited shoes is being staged in the baby circle, and more and more "mommys" cannot live an "ordinary" baby-raising life, but want to have cute and unique Internet celebrity dolls.
In Huihui's view, in addition to the doll sellers, there are many people in the doll circle who deliberately "fry the baby". They will send the message of "high-priced baby" in the Weibo super words of cotton dolls, so as to create the illusion of "a baby is very hot" to raise the price.
These things are intensifying the contradictions within the doll circle. More and more people began to complain about the price of cotton dolls, baby clothes, and the purchase process, and some commercial words emerged, such as h collection and bundling. Limited purchase, slow delivery is also the fuse of emotions, baby mother, painter's Weibo, often receive a variety of complaints of private messages.
The nice, cute side of the doll circle is ruined. There are baby mothers, painters, and baby owners who announce the "withdrawal of the circle" and "withdrawal of the net", and the once stable commercial coordinate system begins to shake, and the originally pure, closed independent world has a rift.
Hui Hui remembers that the early doll circle did not have so many fancy clothes, nor did it have so many Internet celebrity dolls, but everyone had a lot of fun. At that time, the doll circle was like a private island, where everyone was friendly, united, and respectful, and "there were not so many smoky miasma things."
Perhaps this is the fate that all circles cannot escape, from "small and beautiful" to "big and strong", once the rules of business are involved, "raising a baby" is no longer simply a music, but has become a complex matter.
There is a sentence in the introduction of the Douban Baby Circle Group, "This is a train to Springfield Flower Kindergarten.". But after the road encounters a "storm", can this train still smoothly drive to its destination and reach a beautiful finish line? No one can know the answer.