Lonely S. Korean youth find peace and sanity by keeping stones as pets

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Burned-out and lonely young people in South Korea are finding peace, friendship and sanity by keeping stones as pets. – SCMP composite/Xiaohongshu/Instagram

SEOUL: Burned-out youngsters in South Korea are finding comfort and companionship by grooming “pet stones”.

Half of the country’s population live alone and endure some of the longest working hours in the world, hence there is a constant search to find new ways to relax with company.

Bizarrely, these include the staging of mock funerals by lying in coffins and attending an annual Space-out event in which people compete to be the best at doing nothing.

The latest trend, however, takes strangeness to a new level and involves keeping stones which are given names, talked to and clothed as if they are living creatures.

Some owners even place them on a bed and massage them.

In a viral TikTok video, a pet stone is seen being wrapped in a towel, having foundation gently applied, eyebrows attached and given big eyes and lips.

One stone owner called Lee, a 30-year-old pharmaceutical researcher, identified her pet as a girl, put eyes on it and made it a winter blanket from an old towel.

“I occasionally complain to my rock about what a tiresome day I have had at work,” Lee told the Wall Street Journal.

“There was some sense of serenity, knowing that this natural rock had weathered a lot over the course of time to reach its current state,” a 33-year-old Seoul office worker called Koo said.

She named her stone “Bang-bang-i”, meaning “jumping in happiness”.

Koo tucks it in her pocket and takes it with her on her trips to the gym or when going for walks.

To some, the most appealing aspect of raising stones is that they are not demanding.

“I like having pet stones because I don’t have to worry about feeding or walking them,” another owner told The Korea Herald.

Many Korean pop stars, including members of bands like Seventeen and Enhypen, have posted messages about their unusual companions on social media.

More than 300 are sold every month and buyers are usually women in their 20s and 30s, a retailer said. They are generally priced between US$7.50 and US$11.

“This trend reminds me of when I was a kid, I picked up a pebble from the river. I drew a face on it and dressed it up,” one mainland online observer wrote.

“This is pretty cute. I want to get one too,” said another.

“This shows that there are too many lonely people nowadays,” a third person commented.

Raising a pet stone is the latest fad in an Asia-wide rock-collecting culture, following the popularity of Korea’s Suseok, Japan’s Suiseki, and China’s Gongshi.

Stones are not the only inanimate objects to become fashionable.

Some Chinese youngsters have been raising mango-pits as pets, grooming their sprouting “hair” and keeping journals about them.

That followed a similarly bizarre trend in which university students in China made pets out of cardboard during the Covid-19 pandemic. – SCMP