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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  _This content was paid for and prepared by China Daily, an official publication of the People's Republic of China. The TIME editorial and advertising departments were not involved in the creation of this content._ Hu Jie planes a wooden frame at a workshop in Beijing’s Miyun district last year. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY By YANG FEIYUE At the end of his workday at a consulting company, 34-year-old Hu Jie has a novel way of unwinding in his small apartment in Beijing’s Chaoyang district — he makes furniture. One corner of the apartment is cluttered with drills, saws and wood oil, while half-finished planks are scattered across the floor. His hobby began in 2023\. Hu and his wife, an interior designer, were renting a compact 430-square-feet apartment, where clutter had piled up in one corner measuring barely 12 by 24 inches. Hu’s wife wondered whether the space could accommodate both a fish tank stand and a temporary dining table. “Stores offered no such solution, so I figured I’d build something myself,” Hu recalled. The result was a clever modular system featuring two wooden boxes stacked to form a cabinet that could hold the fish tank. These boxes could also be pulled out, placed side by side, and topped with a custom-fitted wooden tabletop to create a large dining table — a perfect solution for hosting friends in their small apartment. When not in use, the tabletop slides neatly under their sofa. “It was simple but multifunctional. And it felt amazing to see an idea turn into something real and useful,” Hu said. Hu is among a rising number of young people who are becoming engrossed with the Chinese custom of individuals making objects with their own hands. They’re not craftsmen in the traditional sense, yet on social media they eagerly share photos of themselves using saws and sharpening tools, styling themselves as modern-day versions of the legendary carpenter Lu Ban. Wu Xiaoyu, from Hefei, Anhui province, has attracted more than 300,000 followers on social media platforms since she started sharing her craft projects about five years ago.Her first DIY inspiration came from an unlikely source: discarded milk tea bags. “It was such a nice material — thick, waterproof. I couldn’t bear to throw it away,” Wu recalled. Wu cleaned one bag and stitched it into a small pouch for storing cables. That small act of reuse led to more experiments, including turning empty beer bottles into vases, crafting storage bins from food packaging, and even making candles in repurposed glass jars. She then started sharing these small projects online. To her surprise, her tutorials struck a chord with viewers. “People would message me saying, ‘I want to do this too, but I don’t know how to start.’ That’s when I realized there’s this quiet yearning in many of us to create with our hands,” she said. Wu took her hobby up a notch after she bought her own apartment and faced a dilemma. The developer’s decor felt cold and generic, and design companies’ quotes for customization work were astronomical. “I wanted a home that felt like me, not something copied out of a catalog. So I decided to make it with my own hands.” Wu began frequenting hardware stores and construction sites, peppering carpenters and experts with questions about tools and techniques. She signed up for woodworking workshops, learned to operate power tools and watched hours of online tutorials about joinery. Her first major project — a dining table — took her three months of trial and error to build. “I remember staring at the planks of wood and thinking, ‘what am I doing?’” she said. “But once I assembled it and sat down to eat my first meal on it, it felt like a victory.” With each project, her confidence grew. Now, her apartment looks like it was curated by a high-end interior design studio, characterized by sleek wooden furniture, clean lines, and warm, earthy tones that evoke calm. With many enthusiasts seeking professional training, carpentry workshops have sprung up across a number of cities. In Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Chen Dawei has become a mentor for many urbanites seeking to upgrade their skills. Chen said he believes his trainees are fulfilling a yearning to work with their hands and find moments of calm “amid the scent of pine and the scatter of wood chips.” Chen and his team have focused on teaching adults since 2022\. They designed an intensive program, where within eight days, students progress from sawing lumber and sharpening tools to reading diagrams, and ultimately completing three items: a practice joint, a stool and a dovetail box. His students come from all walks of life, including designers eager to bring ideas to life, new mothers searching for identity beyond child care, and people considering a career shift. Most are absolute beginners, but share a powerful sense of purpose, he has noticed. “Many say woodworking heals them,” Chen said, adding he too once relied on honing his craft to make it through difficult times. “With every chip you carve away, some of your worries also peel away.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/amateur-artisans-find-their-groove-with-woodwork/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/amateur-artisans-find-their-groove-with-woodwork/"},"headline":"Amateur artisans find their groove with woodwork","datePublished":"2026-06-18T14:28:16.292Z","dateModified":"2026-06-09T07:28:05.499Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/amateur-artisans-find-their-groove-with-woodwork/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"Paid Content","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/amateur-artisans-find-their-groove-with-woodwork/","name":"Amateur artisans find their groove with woodwork"}}]}] ```