Getting creative during quarantine has arguably become an art in itself. Many young Chinese have kept the inspiration flowing.

The “cardboard dog” trend started at the Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology in Henan Province in late October and became an online sensation almost overnight.

At first, a handful of students started creating paper canines from the packaging of their deliveries, a creative pastime inspired by online short videos featuring students in other colleges crafting such animals.

“Our college was under closed-loop management for several months this year as the pandemic situation in Luoyang City was unstable,” Huang Qian, a sophomore at the school, told Beijing Review.

China’s closed-loop management process is akin to a bubble-like arrangement, in which people live and work—or in this case, study—in isolation to prevent virus transmission. A similar system was used at the Beijing Winter Olympics to seal event personnel off from the public.

“Making dogs from cardboard boxes became a new way for us to relax. It’s easy and free, so many students quickly picked up the trend, creating a new craze.”

Show dogs

Huang was among the earliest followers of the fad. She made a dog that looked similar to the pet dog in the Japanese manga and anime series Crayon Shin-Chan.

The first step was to make a cardboard drawing of the dog’s head, then cut it out and paste it onto the dog’s “body” (either a delivery box or a handmade box). Some took things one step further by adding legs and paws. The creator would then make a leash from whatever material they had on hand, attach it to the box bodies and go take their new pet for a walk on campus.

“At first, we only created ‘regular-looking’ dogs,” she said. “But with the number of students getting involved quickly rising, some started looking for ways to stand out—by creating more ‘exclusive’ breeds.”

Soon, Dobermanns and English bulldogs were roaming campus grounds. Along with the new breeds on the block, “owners” began creating doggy accessories—ranging from clothes to snacks to the occasional pair of cardboard sunglasses—to enrich their pet’s “life.”

Walking the dogs on campus simply meant dragging the box by its leash, unless you got yourself a breed with wheels. Needless to say, students and viewers on short video platforms alike reveled in the hilarious scenes.

At night, some pooches would even turn into guard dogs, sitting outside dorm rooms to make sure their owners get a sweet and peaceful sleep. “I would say almost every dorm room here, housing four students, has a dog ‘keeping them safe at night’ at this point,” Huang said.

Students were soon divided into two groups—those with a pooch and those without one. Having a cardboard pet even became a way to make new friends with owners organizing campus meetups.

But the trend didn’t stop there. Students started crafting cardboard cats, pigs, and other not-so-common pets like turtles and snakes. Some even ventured beyond the animal kingdom and created cartoon characters.

In November, the students spontaneously hosted a “cardboard dog competition” handing out two awards: one for best look and the other for fastest “run.”

Numerous dogs and their owners joined in. “It was great fun for us, students,” Huang said. “Although there was the occasional mishap—during the running competition, some cardboard dogs literally fell apart.”

The fab fad has taken over colleges nationwide. Some online sellers sniffed out a good business opportunity and started selling materials, or even finished dogs, online. But Huang said only very few students at her school spent their money on that. “Who would spend extra money on a cardboard dog? It’s more fun for us to craft one ourselves,” she said.

Having fun in style

The cardboard dog trend is the latest college fad since COVID-19 first hit China in early 2020. With many schools under closed-loop management, students have consistently been coming up with new ways to entertain?themselves.

The student fashion show was another hit earlier this year. Imitating the catwalks of, for example, Shanghai Fashion Week in late June, students turned their dorm hallways into runways. Some chose a more ironic take on fashion by using their bed sheets to create cooky outfits, whereas others took matters in a more professional direction.

Among the latter group were students majoring in fashion design at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. Two videos of male and female students respectively stomping down the hallways to the beat of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face both received over 1 million likes on Douyin, China’s TikTok.

“The hallway as a catwalk made the show even cooler. It might even offer brands some inspiration for next season’s shows,” one viewer commented.

In Huang’s college, before the dog trend took off, setting up your own stalls selling items for daily life was all the rage on campus. “You could see stalls at almost every corner on campus,” she said. Most of these were self-service stalls allowing customers to pay for the goods by scanning a printed QR code.

Huang and her peers haven’t exactly had the normal college experience so far. “When COVID-19 first hit China, I was in high school. Now, I’m a sophomore,” she said. “It’s been three years.”

The pandemic has more or less become the common culprit for anything unsatisfactory happening here, according to Huang. “The fad has in a way offered many an emotional outlet,” she said. “But I prefer not to use this outlet and just hope our college life can get back to normal as soon as possible.”

Huang is currently back in her hometown in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for the winter vacation. But before leaving campus, she gifted her cardboard dog to a new student at her school. “And I’m sure next semester, we will see some new fab fads,” she said.