Why Are Young Adults in China 'Raising Bricks' Instead of Pets?

A moss-covered brick, misted with water a few times a day and left alone otherwise, has become a stand-in for a pet or a child among young adults in China, according to The Guardian. The practice, dubbed "zero-energy companionship" by Chinese commentators, has spread across social media platforms including Weibo and Xiaohongshu as a low-cost alternative to raising cats, dogs or kids.

What does "raising a brick" actually involve?

The mechanism is simple and, by design, requires almost nothing from the owner. A person acquires a brick, sprays it with water a few times a day, and waits for moss spores already present in the air to attach and grow, The Guardian reports. One Chinese media article cited in the piece described the bricks as "practically immortal": if the owner forgets to water the brick, the moss goes dormant; when watering resumes, "the greenery returns." There is no feeding schedule, no vet visit, no litter box and, unlike a houseplant, apparently little risk of the thing actually dying. The entry cost is described as next to nothing.

Why are young adults choosing bricks over pets or children?

The Guardian frames the trend against a stagnant jobs market in China, with many young adults looking for companionship that doesn't demand money, time or emotional labor. One brick owner summed up the appeal on social media: "No cats, no dating, I started raising a brick." Another user, quoted in the piece, wrote that caring for a brick means "no output required, no KPIs to hit, no need to beg it to bloom [and] no comparing its growth with others" — language that borrows directly from workplace performance metrics and reapplies them, in the negative, to a hobby meant to have none. Chinese commentators cited by the Guardian link the trend to a broader search among young people for low-effort routes to a sense of meaning, at a time when traditional markers of adult life — stable jobs, homeownership, children — feel further out of reach.

How big has the trend gotten online?

A hashtag tied to brick-raising had attracted more than 5 million views on Weibo as of the Guardian's reporting. On Xiaohongshu, a platform the Guardian describes as Instagram-like and also known as Rednote, users have been posting photos and updates tracking how their bricks change over time, often under hashtags such as #healing and #stress relief. The volume of posts suggests the hobby has moved beyond a niche joke into something closer to a recognizable subculture, even if it remains, by its nature, a hobby that generates almost no visible activity to document.

What are brick owners saying about the hobby?

The quotes gathered by the Guardian suggest owners frame the hobby as both a joke and a genuine coping mechanism. One brick "parent" told Chinese media that the hobby created "a sense of accomplishment no less than completing a long-term project." A social media post promoting the practice argued that "those seemingly meaningless little things actually make you realise that, besides spending money, you can have a lively, ever-changing corner for free." Another user described friends questioning their sanity: "My friends asked if I'd lost my mind. I said no, I'm just starting to raise a brick," adding that the brick provides a sense [of companionship that the post does not fully elaborate on in the excerpt available]. The common thread across the posts cited is a deliberate contrast with the pressures — financial, professional, romantic — that the hobby is designed to avoid.

By the numbers

• More than 5 million views on the brick-raising hashtag on Weibo, per the Guardian's reporting.
• Care routine: spraying the brick with water a few times a day, relying on ambient moss spores to do the rest.

What to watch next

• Whether brick-raising remains a social media curiosity or gets picked up by Chinese state or commercial media as a marker of youth sentiment on jobs and marriage.
• Whether retailers or platforms begin marketing "starter bricks" or moss kits explicitly tied to the trend.
• Whether similar zero-cost, zero-maintenance companionship hobbies emerge in other markets facing comparable youth unemployment or cost-of-living pressure.
• Whether Chinese commentary connects the trend more explicitly to marriage and birth-rate policy debates, given the Guardian's framing of bricks as an alternative to children.

For the original reporting and full set of quoted social media posts, see The Guardian's coverage.