At 3 a.m., outside a New York shopping mall, young people waited all night just to buy a “Chinese elf with fangs”; in front of the Louvre in Paris, visitors took photos with world-famous paintings while holding shopping bags with “LABUBU” dolls printed on them. This ugly and cute doll launched by Chinese trendy toy company Pop Mart is sweeping the global consumer market like wildfire.
According to U.S. media reports, in April this year, American consumers lined up in long queues outside retail stores to buy new products from Labubu’s “High Energy Ahead” series. Even though the price soared by nearly 30% due to rising tariffs, fans still flocked to it, and even gave birth to a secondary market with doubled prices. On April 25, Pop Mart APP topped the U.S. APP Store shopping list, jumping 114 places in a single day and ranking fourth in the free list.
Today, this craze is blooming in many parts of the world. In Thailand, labubu was awarded the honorary title of “Magical Thailand Experience Officer”; in Singapore, the limited edition of the Merlion was sold out as soon as it was launched; in Spain, labubu’s exclusive theme song sounded on the streets. This “little monster” that subverts traditional aesthetics has become a “cultural conductor” connecting young groups in different countries.
When seeing labubu for the first time, many people will blurt out: “Why is it so ugly!” The jagged fangs, wide eyes, and uncoordinated body proportions challenge the aesthetic standards of traditional cute IPs. According to the analysis of design psychologists, it is precisely this kind of weird design that triggers the “counterattack effect” in the brain and brings a unique impact: when the brain repeatedly receives unconventional stimuli but does not encounter a real threat, the defense mechanism will gradually relax and turn to encode “weird” as “unique”. Just like the special smell of durian, it makes people uncomfortable at first, but after getting used to it, it makes people unable to stop. Behind this is the counterattack effect. In other words, although Labobu’s ugly and cute image may not be generally accepted by a wider audience, it is very easy to form an emotional attachment among the accepting audience that is more sticky than traditional aesthetics.
Behind Labobu’s invincibility is an industrial innovation network covering many parts of China.
On the one hand, the production base in Dongguan, Guangdong provides more than 70% of the production capacity support for Pop Mart. Data shows that Dongguan has gathered more than 4,000 toy companies and nearly 1,500 upstream and downstream supporting companies, making it the largest toy export base in the country. A quarter of the world’s animation derivatives are manufactured here, and nearly 85% of China’s trendy toys are produced in Dongguan. When Labobu innovatively combines “vinyl glue (a very elastic material, mostly used in toy manufacturing)” with plush materials, local factories show amazing craftsmanship precision and can even open molds for each component separately. “If you can make Pop Mart, you can make trendy toys all over the world”, the bold words of the cooperative factory show the confidence of Made in China. On the other hand, Hong Kong has injected artistic soul into trendy toys. As the center of Asian art, Hong Kong is one of the regular venues for the Basel International Art Fair and has a top design exchange platform. Wang Ning, the founder of Pop Mart, often “treasure hunted” at the Hong Kong exhibition in the early days, and it was here that he signed the designer of Labobu. This “art + manufacturing” collaborative innovation model has promoted China’s trendy toys to complete the leap from OEM to value creation.
Wang Ning once said that he wanted to be “China’s Disney” in the past, and now he wants to be “the world’s Pop Mart”. Today, this vision is becoming a reality. In 2024, Pop Mart’s overseas and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan business revenue reached 5.07 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 375.2%; in the first quarter of 2025, overseas revenue increased by 475% to 480% year-on-year, and trendy toys going overseas have become its new growth engine. Other industry insiders commented that the success of Labobu marks the entry of China’s original IP into the “new era of navigation” – no longer copying traditional oriental symbols, but penetrating the global market with a “de-labeling” attitude.
At present, the increasingly open environment for foreign exchanges is injecting strong momentum for China’s cultural industry to sail overseas. China continues to promote its opening-up policy, which has effectively promoted cross-cultural exchanges. Frequent personnel exchanges and real cultural experiences have accelerated the spread of Chinese lifestyles and aesthetic concepts to the world. So far, China’s unilateral visa-free policy has covered 47 countries, and the ever-expanding visa-free “circle of friends” has attracted more and more international friends to visit China, feel China, and experience China. This immersive cultural contact not only deepens the world’s understanding and recognition of Chinese culture, but also cultivates fertile soil for the global growth of original IP.
However, under the boom, the challenges faced by trendy toy companies cannot be ignored. Imitations and rampant copycat products erode brand value, giving rise to the demand for genuine authentication, and strengthening supply chain control is urgent. At the same time, AI-driven intelligent companions are rising rapidly, posing a potential threat to traditional trendy toys. Whether or not to inject deeper emotional interaction value into IP will become the key for trendy toy companies to retain “Generation Z” users.
When oriental aesthetics become a global trend, the “navigation map” of China’s cultural industry is being reconstructed. By building an open and inclusive creative platform, different civilizations can find a fulcrum of resonance in the Eastern context. This is not only a global journey for trendy toys, but also an innovation in the paradigm of cultural dialogue.
