He contacted Bai Chunyu, a provincial-level inheritor of dough sculpture in Jilin province and spent 20 days learning skills from him. He soon mastered the skills of facial sculpting.

In 2019, Kang got the chance to learn with Xiao Zhanhang, a national-level inheritor.

"To save money and learn more skills during 40 days in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, I practiced every day from 6 am to late at night," he said. "When I went to sleep, I had to put my hands into hot water to relieve the pain in my joints."