Luckin Coffee just opened a “luxury study room” in Shanghai’s financial district that looks like an old-money library.

The real statement is upstairs: rows of comfortable chairs with backs and wooden study carrels offering semi-private nooks. For China’s students and professionals, it’s a dignified oasis far removed from the chain’s typical backless stools. Here, your 9.9 RMB latte suddenly feels like a luxury experience.

But the luxury is skin-deep. Look closer, and you’ll find the strategic omission: no power outlets, no free Wi-Fi.

Ultimately, Luckin’s gorgeous new store poses a larger urban question: Why does a basic need, a quiet, comfortable, and free place to sit and work, increasingly require a commercial transaction? It’s the perfect metaphor for the modern cafe, inviting you in, but designed for you to leave.

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So your friend says they have to run home to feed their new pet, and you’re expecting to meet a kitten or a hamster. But no, they’re rushing back to… change the water for a block of rice cake.

Welcome to the latest internet-born lifestyle in China: 养年糕 (yǎng nián gāo), or “raising rice cakes.” Gen Z in China has officially adopted the traditional Lunar New Year food as a zero-commitment companion. There’s no walks, vet bills, or separation anxiety, this pet’s main hobby is just soaking quietly in a ceramic vat.

It started, as all great modern myths do, with a confused gig worker. A hiring post asked someone to “change the water for Nian Gao,” naturally leading the worker to note down contact info for “Nian Gao’s mom.” Upon arrival, they didn’t find a fish or a turtle. They found a glutinous rice cake submerged in water, requiring its weekly refresh. The post went viral, and a trend was born.

But why? On the surface, it’s absurd. Dig a little deeper, and it’s a perfectly logical form of Gen Z self-care. This is a generation navigating “996” work culture, high costs, and immense pressure. The desire for the comforting routine of caring for something is real, but the bandwidth for a living, breathing, demanding creature is not.

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At the CP32 Pre convention in Hangzhou, a character from the mobile game Justice Online appeared in front of players as a life-sized humanoid robot.

The character, Fang Chengyi, reacts to people in ways that feel almost unsettlingly real. He blinks faster when a makeup brush gets close to his eyes, tilts his head away when hair brushes his face, and maintains eye contact using a binocular vision system. Videos from the event quickly went viral, with players joking that they now have a new life goal: stay alive and earn enough money to one day “bring their digital husband home.”

The robot was developed by AheadForm, which collaborated with the game in December 2025 to turn the virtual character into a physical presence. Built with silicone skin, body temperature simulation, and AI-driven facial and head movements, the project was described by the game’s team as an attempt to let players “meet a cherished character in real life.”

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