China's Analog Bag Is a Journaling Bag, and Posts Tripled

China's nearest equivalent of the Western analog bag is the journaling bag (手帐包), a pouch for a decorated journal and its materials, and posts about it more than tripled in the year to August 2026, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, while journals and planners sold 5% more units online at an average price 13% lower.

This article covers the third chapter of the full report, China's Analogue Economy, which looks at paper, from journals and planners to handwriting copybooks and printed books, and at the object that turns out to be China's own version of the analog bag.

Key figures

• +5%: growth in journal and planner units sold online, September 2025 to August 2026, like for like
• −13%: change in their average price over the same period
• About 20,700: posts about the journaling bag in the latest year, from about 2,500 the year before
• About 820 a month: journaling-bag posts outside the months of one brand's giveaway, from about 220

Method and scope: observed online sales across three of China's largest marketplaces, September 2025 to August 2026 against the year before, like for like, and social listening across Weibo, RED and Douyin, from Moojing Market Intelligence; sales are not the total market, and social listening counts posts, not purchases.

Are journals selling more in China?#

Journals and planners (手帐), the decorated notebooks that are a craft in their own right in China, sold 5% more units online in the year to August 2026, like for like across three of China's largest marketplaces, at an average price 13% lower, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, so more were sold, but sales fell 9%.

Exhibit 8. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three online marketplaces, September 2025 to August 2026 against the year before, like for like. Average price is sales divided by units. Not the total market.

Handwriting copybooks (字帖), a large category that serves schoolchildren as well as adults practising calligraphy, fell 17%, and printed books grew +5% on a higher average price and slightly fewer units. Fuse beads, too, sell on volume at a low price, about CN¥ 16 a unit, although their price held steady and their sales rose about sixteenfold like for like, and we believe brands selling paper and stationery into China should plan around materials bought in quantity at low prices.

What is China's version of the analog bag?#

China's version of the analog bag is the 手帐包, a pouch or folio that carries a journal with its stickers, stamps, tape and pens so that the journaling can be done away from the desk, and posts about it went from about 2,500 in the year to August 2025 to about 20,700 in the year to August 2026, mostly on RED.

Exhibit 9. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, social listening across Weibo, RED and Douyin, posts mentioning 手帐包, September 2024 to August 2026. Conversation volume, not sales.

Part of that rise came from one brand campaign, in which a tea chain offered a branded journaling bag as a scratch-card prize from late January 2026, and March and April, when posts about the prize peaked, carried three-fifths of the year's posts. Leaving those two months out of both years, posts still more than tripled, from an average of about 220 a month to about 820, and the posts that are not about the giveaway describe the same object the Western coverage does, a bag packed in advance with everything needed for an afternoon off the phone.

How does China's journaling bag compare with the Western analog bag?#

The Western analog bag, as the trend pieces describe it, holds a paperback, a journal, some crochet and perhaps a film camera, while China's journaling bag holds the journal and the materials to decorate it, so we believe the Chinese version is built around one craft, and the Western one around an assortment of things to do instead of scrolling.

That fits what the rest of the report finds, since in China the growth is in crafts and in the materials they use up, from fuse beads and yarn to the stickers and tape that fill a journal, while most of the retro devices that the Western coverage packs into the bag are falling. We believe a brand that sees the analog bag as a product idea should look at the journaling bag as the Chinese brief, with a craft at its centre and materials that are bought again, and RED, where most of the journaling-bag conversation happens, is where that brief is being written by consumers themselves.

What does this mean for brands?#

For brands selling paper, stationery and craft materials into China, we believe the journal figures argue for pricing materials for volume, in small baskets bought often, and the journaling bag suggests, we believe, selling the craft as a kit that goes out of the house, with the refills that keep it going.

The report's fifth chapter sets out four recommendations for brands, the first of which is to sell the materials and projects that are bought again, and our article on four moves for brands summarises them. The chapter before this one, covered in our article on China's online fuse-bead sales, describes the craft and hobby economy as a whole, and the full report has the method and every exhibit.