Hands-on hobbies calm young minds

Liang Jie, from Zhejiang province, shares videos of herself putting together miniature scenes on her social media account, Lucia Sticker Channel.

Liang turned to diorama stickers during a transitional period after leaving her job at a large corporation. Before bed, she works on stickers while listening to podcasts, treating the process as a form of meditation — a way to reflect on the day and stop thinking about the future.

The crisp peeling sound and the gradual layering of scenes make each diorama immersive. "It's like a flat version of Lego — more affordable — and also like a puzzle, but more structured and three-dimensional," she said. "Diorama stickers are a way to erase bad moods."

Liang and many of her followers have basically stopped playing online games since discovering diorama stickers. "Compared with the fast pace and intensity of mobile games, we enjoy the slower process of building our own ideal little worlds," she explained.

By early May, the hashtag "diorama stickers" had attracted 730 million views on Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, and nearly 1.43 billion plays on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.