Toying with fresh ideas

In one of his renovation works, he remodeled a figure holding a kite into one tied by a rope, thus becoming a kite itself — he wants his audience to make a choice between drifting with the flow or beating a path of their choice when being tied to the rope of fate.

Zhao has also turned to his followers for stories. Once he was inspired by a fan who shared how she tackled minor childhood depression thanks to art.

"I figured many art students must know (Pablo) Picasso, and the horse is the theme of one of his paintings," he recalls.

Therefore, he was inspired to turn a doll's lower body into a horse, which was stuck in a painting, and half of the doll's face was painted gray.

"It was to show duality of humanity," Zhao explains, adding that people have to face the complex world on the outside and look at themselves from the inside to draw strength for personal growth.

Zhao says creative ideas in doll renovation are of the utmost importance. "The idea has to come first, and technology and appearance can be optimized later," he says.

Zhao used to chair the university's games community and was a die-hard player of Honor of Kings, or Arena of Valor as it's known internationally.

Those experiences have not just predisposed him to collect the figurines, but helped him develop an active imagination and a commitment to his interest in remodeling them. To date, he has delivered more than 100 renovated dolls, most of which have been displayed on his Xiaohongshu social media account and received rave reviews from his 480,000 followers.