Inside China's Silicone Doll Factory: How a $15,000 Companion Is Made
By 2ddolls.com Editorial Team | Published: July 31, 2026
Key Facts at a Glance
- Manufacturer: DS Doll, Dalian, China
- Founder: Yang Dongyue, studied in Japan
- Price range: ¥3,980–¥24,198
- Monthly output: ~1,000 dolls
- Customization: 10 body types, 22 head sculpts, 3 skin tones, 52,800+ combinations
- Skeleton: 32 articulated joints; AI models feature 16 facial motors
- Latest development: AI voice recognition and emotional interaction
- Community: 220,000+ registered forum members
A Lonely Exit: What These Dolls Really Mean to People
In Dalian, China, there is a bar called "Thirteen Relationships" — named after a play by Lai Shengchuan that explores love, deception, and the desperate human need to be wanted. The bar is not open to the public. A cold metal door bears the sign: Do Not Enter Without Invitation.
Inside, past heavy red curtains, three young figures occupy the dim space: a doll in a green-and-white bikini near the stage, one reclining nude on a sofa, and one suspended from the ceiling in office attire, wrists bound. The bar's owner, Yang Dongyue, also owns the factory where these figures were made.
I Know Every Curve: The Design Process
Inside DS Doll's R&D center — a 60-square-meter room about 15 kilometers from the bar — a man in a white lab coat stares at a 3D model on his screen. Technical director Qiao Wu leans in: "Keep the curve. That's a beautiful shape."
"The first priority is beauty," says Wu Xingliang, the company's sales director. Designers reference professional models — not their faces, but their body ratios: torso to leg length, head to body proportion.
"The human body has over 100 joints. Our dolls have 32," says Qiao Wu. The head alone contains up to 16 motors to simulate facial muscle movement — blinking, opening the mouth, extending the tongue. Getting the right parts firm, the right parts soft, the right parts load-bearing involves mechanical engineering, bionics, materials science, and silicone pressure tolerance.
52,800 Possible Combinations
DS Doll offers: 10 body types, 22 head sculpts, 3 skin tones, 4 eye colors, 2 skeleton types, 5 hair styles, and 2 finger bone options — theoretically 52,800 distinct combinations. In 2013, they invited a Japanese actress as a live reference model. Over eight months, designers cast molds of her hands, feet, chest, and face. The resulting doll became one of their most internationally successful models.
"When Are You Making a Male Doll?"
DS Doll's forum has over 220,000 registered members (65% male, 35% female). Among buyers, men account for over 90%, aged 22–55. But the audience is shifting — more women are buying dolls to dress and care for like a companion. Last year, DS Doll launched a male silicone doll.
Taobao and Sweet Cat: A Real Relationship
One customer — a voice actress in Beijing known online as Taobao — bought a doll, named it Sweet Cat, and registered it a Weibo account. They share the same long black hair and sleep together. On Weibo, Taobao refers to Sweet Cat as her daughter.
"Sweet Cat isn't a lifeless toy. She's a companion with feelings." The doll stands 1.45 meters tall and weighs nearly 50 kilograms. Dressing her takes half an hour. "Even just talking to her relieves so much stress. Knowing she's always there — I don't feel so alone."
"It Looks Like It Has a Soul"
In 2016, a 70-year-old man in Chongzhou whose wife had died spent over ¥10,000 on a silicone doll and dressed it in his wife's clothes. When the story went viral and DS Doll was incorrectly blamed, they contacted the man and made him a custom doll — modeled on his wife as she looked in her forties. Two months later, the doll arrived. The old man dressed it in his wife's clothes. It was as if she had never left.
"This world has no one who truly belongs to you. But this doll is yours. You own it completely. Many people need that feeling." — Yang Dongyue
It All Starts With Taking One Apart
In 2009, at 26, Yang Dongyue was walking through Akihabara in Tokyo when he discovered silicone dolls. He spent ¥100,000 on two, brought them back to China, then took out a utility knife and dismantled one completely. He assumed he could source the parts and manufacture his own. He was wrong — China had no industry for this. He couldn't find a single matching screw. His father, a veteran police officer, chased him out of the house with a slipper.
He started from scratch: fabricating screws, building skeletons, designing molds. The first full-body silicone pour was a disaster. By 2011, after nearly three years, they produced their first doll that genuinely resembled a human being.
Hello, Goddess: The AI Frontier
Today, DS Doll's rejects cannot simply be thrown away. "We have to chop them up first. Otherwise someone might find them and think it's a real body."
The next frontier is intelligence. Qiao Wu's team is developing a head that can move its mouth, eyes, and eyebrows — and hold a real conversation through an AI voice system. During the interview, a voice suddenly came from the table. Qiao Wu found the source: a head with small ears, long black lashes, pale pink lips, and a bare white skull with an AI chip inside.
Half-joking, he leaned toward it: "Hello, Goddess." In a cold, synthesized voice, it replied: "Hello."
Sources & References
- Vista Story (Vista看天下) — Original Chinese reportage on DS Doll (vistaweek.com)
- Statista — China Adult Products Market Revenue 2024 (statista.com)
- DS Doll Official — Product Catalog & Community Forum (dsdoll.com)
