When she feels angry, she rubs harder, and the gourds become shinier. To Li, those changes are positive feedback — turning something negative into something better.

But for collectors, the real excitement comes from the chase, with 500 people sometimes competing for just 10 items.

Once, Li lost her internet signal in an elevator while trying to buy a rare gourd and assumed she had missed out. Moments later, right after stepping out of the elevator, she found she'd successfully secured the limited piece.

"I just crouched in the hallway in disbelief," she recalled. Over time, the hobby taught her to accept that some things are out of one's own control. "If something is meant to be yours, it will come," she said.

Her hobby has since grown into a small business selling polishing cloths and pouches. In fact, the gourd industry has already become a sizable market. In Dongchangfu district of Liaocheng, Shandong province, gourd cultivation generates annual gross revenues of 2.6 billion yuan, accounting for 75 percent of the national market, according to Liaocheng city authorities.

Tiny worlds heal

Not all stress-relief hobbies rely on touch alone. For some young people, comfort comes from carefully constructing miniature worlds that offer a temporary escape from daily pressures.

Without needing scissors or glue, users can place diorama stickers of characters, buildings, furniture, flowers, and other motifs onto a pre-designed background board to create tiny bedrooms, grand castles, and city streets.