What began as a quirky, toothy little monster doll has now become a global craze. Labubu, created by Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, has taken over store shelves around the world, becoming a prized item for collectors and a favorite accessory among global celebrities like Rihanna and Cher.
Pop Mart, based in Beijing, is quickly emerging as a leading figure in China’s growing cultural influence abroad.
While Chinese exports were once seen as mass-produced and low-quality, brands like Pop Mart are flipping the script, and doing it with flair. In a world where perceptions of China are often complicated, especially in the West, Labubu is helping to rewrite the narrative.
Labubu dolls typically sell for about $40, but fans don’t get to pick their favorite in advance. Sold in “blind boxes,” buyers only discover which design they got after opening the box, adding an exciting element of surprise.
In London, demand for Labubu has become so intense that in-person sales were paused due to safety concerns.
“The dolls are a bit quirky and ugly and very inclusive, so people can relate,” said interior designer Lucy Shitova. “Now everything goes viral… because of social media. And yes, it’s cool. It’s different.”
Unlike South Korea and Japan, which are globally known for entertainment and high fashion, China’s tightly controlled film and music industries have struggled to gain similar international attention.
And its fashion scene is still mostly known through platforms like Shein. So far, only a few Chinese brands have managed to build their own high-end identity globally.
“It has been hard for the world’s consumers to perceive China as a brand-creating nation,” noted Professor Fan Yang from the University of Maryland.
But Pop Mart is proving that it’s possible. The success of Labubu has even led to knockoffs, dubbed “lafufus” online, and YouTube tutorials teaching fans how to spot real ones.
Other rising Chinese brands like Shushu/Tong, Marchen, and Songmont are also beginning to carve out space internationally, which Yang says shows that “it might just be a matter of time before even more Chinese brands become globally recognisable.”
Analysts say Labubu’s breakout moment wouldn’t have happened without the power of social media, especially TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
According to Allison Malmsten of Daxue Consulting, social media is now driving China’s soft power. “China is undergoing a soft-power shift where its products and image are increasingly cool among young Westerners,” she said.
She even compared it to how Japan’s cultural exports like Pokémon and Nintendo transformed its image in earlier decades.
With TikTok being widely used globally, including by nearly half the U.S. population, the platform played a big role in making Labubu a household name. Over 1.7 million videos about Labubu are now posted on the app.
And despite political controversies surrounding TikTok in the U.S., including a proposed ban and national security debates, it has remained a central space where Chinese trends like Labubu thrive.
“TikTok probably played a role in changing consumers’ minds about China,” said Joshua Kurlantzick from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Still, while soft power like this can enhance China’s image in the eyes of young people, it doesn’t necessarily shift views about the government itself. “I don’t know how much, if at all, this impacts images of China’s state or government,” Kurlantzick added.
Interestingly, some experts believe that the rise of China’s cultural appeal is partly helped by the U.S. appearing less stable on the world stage, particularly during the Trump administration.
“The connection many make between the seeming decline of US soft power and the potential rise in China’s global image may reflect how deeply intertwined the two countries are in the minds of people,” Yang explained.
At the very least, Labubu is doing its part in creating curiosity about Chinese culture among younger generations.
At Pop Mart’s theme park in Beijing, 11-year-old Maryam Hammadi from Qatar posed excitedly with a life-size Labubu statue.
“In our country, they love Labubu,” she said. “So, when they realise that the origin of Labubu is in China, they’d like to come to see the different types of Labubu in China.”
And for fans like Anelya Batalova from Kazakhstan, the craze is simple to explain: “It’s like a virus. Everyone just wants it.”