China’s next consumer push is getting more personal.
For years, Beijing’s efforts to revive spending focused on familiar big-ticket categories like cars and appliances. Now officials are signaling something different. A recent policy plan to boost consumption is promoting “interest-based” spending in categories including pets, anime, and trendy toys. It’s part of a broader shift toward building new demand engines as exports and investments lose some of their punch.
That matters because it suggests China is no longer just trying to get households to spend more. It is trying to channel spending into lifestyle categories that are repeatable, emotionally resonant, and easier to scale through branding, intellectual property, and offline experiences.
“The boom in the emotional economy is an inevitable result of the times. It reflects a deep shift in consumption logic from being ‘product-centered’ to ‘people-centered,’ with young consumers moving away from ‘practical necessities’ and toward ‘emotional satisfaction’,” said Yuan Shuai, deputy director of the investment department at the China Urban Development Research Institute.
That shift is already large enough to show up in market research. China’s so-called emotional economy reached about 2.3 trillion yuan ($335 billion) in 2025, and is projected to exceed 4.5 trillion yuan by 2029, according to iiMedia Research. The same report said consumers are increasingly paying not just for function, but for emotional resonance, identity, and psychological comfort.
Chinese consumers haven’t suddenly become obsessed with cute toys or pampered pets. It is that fandom, companionship, self-expression, and immersive experiences are becoming more formalized parts of the consumption story.
In effect, China is trying to industrialize hobby spending. That creates a different kind of consumer winner.
The most obvious example is Pop Mart International Group, whose collectible characters helped turn emotional spending into a listed-equity story. But the bigger opportunity is wider than one company. Businesses that can convert affection into recurring purchases—through character IP, licensing, events, memberships, accessories, and constant product refreshes—could be better positioned than brands still relying on one-off transactions. A November government report on the policy push highlighted official support not only for pets and toys, but also for broader product development tied to consumers’ changing lifestyles.
Pets may be one of the clearest examples. A dog or cat isn’t a one-time purchase. It creates a long chain of spending on food, grooming, healthcare, apparel, toys, boarding, and services. In consumer terms, that is sticky demand. In investor terms, it looks a lot more attractive than hoping for a rebound in discretionary big-ticket spending tied to the property market.
“I’ll cut back on restaurant meals before I stop buying things for my cat,” said Li Wen, a 29-year-old tech worker in Shanghai. “It doesn’t feel like splurging—it feels like making daily life a little better.”
The same logic applies to animation merchandise and trendy toys. These products often look frivolous from the outside, but they sit inside a broader ecosystem of monetizable attachment. A character that works can sell figurines, keychains, apparel, snacks, event tickets, and co-branded goods. That helps explain why Chinese malls and shopping districts increasingly lean on pop-ups, exhibitions, and themed retail to turn online enthusiasm into offline foot traffic.
There is also a deeper strategic reason Beijing may like this trend. Interest-based consumption is less dependent on debt-fueled housing wealth and less politically awkward than conspicuous luxury. It fits the current policy mood: support domestic demand, encourage local brands, develop services, and cultivate new categories of consumption without relying on another old-style property stimulus. Reuters reported that officials want consumption to account for a larger share of GDP over the next five years and said its contribution to economic growth should rise steadily by 2030.
None of that means every hobby-linked theme is a safe bet. Emotional spending can be volatile, faddish, and heavily driven by social media hype. China Daily’s reporting on the emotional economy also included warnings from scholars and commentators that emotional value is hard to measure consistently, creating room for price distortion, impulse buying, and speculative excess.
That is why investors should focus less on whichever collectible is hottest this month and more on which companies can build durable ecosystems around consumer attachment. The key question isn’t whether Chinese shoppers will keep buying things that make them feel good. The evidence increasingly says they will. The question is which businesses can turn that feeling into repeat revenue.
Beijing’s new consumption language offers a clue. China’s consumer future may not be led only by refrigerators and sedans. It may also be shaped by the companies that learn how to sell identity, comfort, fandom, and fun—at scale.
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