An artisan in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has sewn more than 500 "memory bears" from the clothing of departed loved ones over the past seven years, helping families hold onto those they have lost.
Since 2019, Yu Jie has been helping strangers by handsewing the clothing of their departed loved ones into one-of-a-kind memory bears.
"I will always try my best to preserve those distinctive features. This is to create a stronger connection between the memory bear and that person. Visually, when he looks at this little bear, he should be able to connect it with the person in his memory at just a single glance. I'm not afraid of death. The things death leaves behind -- I'm okay with all of that. So the memory bear itself is something born out of love," she said.
Yu said that she remembers the story behind every single memory bear. Her pressure comes less from the work itself than from the weight of what her clients have entrusted her with.
"The clothes people send over are a memento. And they are irreplaceable and can not be replicated. If I fail even once, that would be really terrible for someone else," she said.
Yu has been receiving more and more orders in recent years, yet making a memory bear is no easy task -- each one takes at least six hours from start to finish.
In 2020, she established a company and registered the trademark. She wanted to protect the memory bear from commercial use. Commercialization was never her original intention in creating the memory bear.
"At that time, it really did happen -- some people took the pattern and started using it for commercial purposes. I didn't want the memory bear to become too commercialized," she said.
In 2025, some memory bears were invited to participate in an exhibition planned by Tsinghua University in Chengdu City of southwest China's Sichuan Province titled "Bringing Death Back to Life." Six clients agreed to present their memory bears to the public.
During the exhibition, these memory bears moved many visitors. The exhibition curator specifically invited Yu to the venue to share the stories behind the memory bears with the audience.
"It's something that is very beneficial for the living. I can't conduct this research myself. I don't know how to define this research or its subject matter. But if I can provide them with some material, a little help -- I think that's pretty good too," she said.
Chinese artisan sews 'memory bears' to honor lost loved ones
