When I went to China for the first time in November 2023 with other colleagues, one of my travel companions wanted to take advantage of the few free hours we had to buy a Labubu to give to his daughter. I had no idea what he was talking about. He explained it to me and I stayed the same. A couple of years later, the Labubu are such a mainstream phenomenon that POP MART has opened its first store on Gran Vía and They even appear in ‘South Park’, one of the reference adult series in the West of the last 30 years (with permission from The Simpsons).
The opening of a POP MART on the most iconic street in Spain, where theaters, popular fashion brands and franchises gather (special mention deserves Uniqlo and Miniso), is just the tip of the iceberg of something: the East is no longer just the factory of the world (with China as a prominent head), its weight has transcended from the industrial to the cultural to sneak into the mainstream of the West. It is a true victory for Asian pop culture, until now concentrated in its own borders with few exceptions that transcended the niche to the popular.
The attractive lottery of the closed box. Of David Beckham to Rihanna passing through Dua Lipa either Lisa from Blackpink: They all have their Labubu. Born in 2015 by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung for his illustrated book series “The Monsters”, the Labubu they exploded when POP MART started releasing them as collectibles in surprise boxes back in 2019.
What started as something niche has become a trend that knows no boundaries or classes. They have them to the Thai royal house and when there is stock, it flies: fans crowd at the door in such a way that you don’t know if they are queuing to buy a ticket for a concert or if there is a rare edition. And she can be a millionaire: the human-sized, mint green Labubu has been auctioned for 230,000 Australian dollars.
The Labubu as an expression of identity, status and belonging. You don’t know which one you’re going to get until you open them like it’s the reward mechanism in a video game. Of course, Labubu is not just for boys and girls. It reflects changes in consumer culture reaching millennial and generation Z adults thanks to collecting, nostalgia and the need for comfort.
You buy more than a doll: it is an experience full of emotion, the status that comes with having the most exclusive edition and of course, the profitability of resale. It is the almost ideal intersection between gaming and finance: a supply and demand market where assets are stuffed. And little joke with this: POP MART has had to suspend sales in cities like london due to fights between fans and the counterfeit market It is already a reality. Whether you see it as a toy or a fashion accessory, what is clear is that Labubu has emerged as the spearhead of the soft power Chinese.
China no longer (only) manufactures products, it also manufactures desire
A lot of muscle, a little soft power. China is the second largest economy in the world, but in cultural influence it is quite a few steps below. The Asian giant has a legendary cultural heritage of more than 5,000 years, but for the West it is limited to silk or tea. Naming a movie or a movie star comes down to Bruce Lee (American-Hong Kong born in San Francisco). The reasons? Many and varied: from following content guidelines from the Chinese Government and censorship, but also from considering it as lower quality from a prejudiced perception.
China is no longer exotic, it’s cool. First it was economically, but China is also opening up culturally to Western markets, more products appear on social networks and Western audiovisuals and the West is welcoming them with open arms. China had started promoting its brands, the New Silk Road wave visa-free entry for tourism, but nothing as effective as an innocent stuffed animal that has transcended thanks to fans, TikTok and celebrities.
At a time (actually, it almost doesn’t matter when you read this) when the global perception of China is often shaped by geopolitics and surveillance, Labubu offers something different, adorable, creative and exciting. And they are not alone: the game’Black Myth: Wukong‘ was a global hit in 2024 and more of the same for the ice cream and bubble tea chain Mixueto cite a couple of examples.
It may end up being another fad, but right now they are objects of aspiration and desire. It is proof that Chinese cultural products can do it. That POP MART stores are in the most central streets of large cities is another way to demonstrate this. It has taken Labubu a decade to get here, China will probably have a harder time creating a solid narrative around its cultural products such as Nintendo and its Mario universe. But it’s on its way.
China begins to look closely at Japan and Korea. The country of the rising sun is famous for its exports of anime, fashion and gastronomy and since 2010 it has in its strategy “Cool Japan“a government strategy to promote its creative industries abroad. However, this initiative has had its ups and downsthe weight of the market and fans in hits like Pokémon or ramen being undoubted. South Korea has what is probably Asia’s latest and most effective softpower model. With strong support from the state, the Korean wave has achieved great successes from the film ‘Parasites’ to the K-pop phenomenon. China with Labubu is another third way, with a commercial ecosystem focused on intellectual property, lifestyle and trends.
In Xataka | The Labubu’s half-humanity bags are becoming too small. So its creator already knows how to sell even more
Cover | wu yi and Quique Olivar in Unsplash
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