Shuli Ren, Columnist

Labubu Beats China’s Panda Diplomacy Anytime

These dolls are wildly popular throughout Southeast Asia and offer a more genuine cultural exchange.

January 27, 2025 at 10:00 PM UTC

Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. A former investment banker, she was a markets reporter for Barron’s. She is a CFA charterholder.

Forget the pandas, Labubu is opening up real cultural exchanges.
Photographer: Xinhua News Agency

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This Lunar New Year, a much sought-after gift has been a plush Labubu, an elf-like character with pointy ears and nine serrated teeth made by China’s Pop Mart International Group Ltd.

With a mischievous smile on her face, Labubu is taking Southeast Asia by storm. The craze took off last April, when Blackpink’s superstar Lisa shared her collection on Instagram. In Thailand, where the singer was born, a Labubu-themed store earned more than 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) on its opening day in July, while comments on the character and its maker have exploded on TikTok.