The small blurred and noisy sharp teeth, the dolls of Labu monsters of Chinese Toyaker Pop Mart have taken over the world, attracting excited crowds in international stores and adorning celebrity handbags such as Rihanna and Cher.
Pop Mart based in Beijing is part of an increasing tide of Chinese cultural exports which gain ground abroad, ambassadors at fur of a “cool” China, even in associated places more with the negative public opinion of Beijing like Europe and North America.
Labus, which generally sells about $ 40, are released in limited quantities and sold in “blind boxes”, which means that buyers do not know the exact model they will receive.
The dolls are “a little eccentric and ugly and very inclusive, so people can tell themselves,” said interior designer Lucy Shitova AFP In a Pop Mart store in London, where sales in person of Labubus have been suspended to fear that fans can become violent in their quest for toys.
“Now everything becomes viral … because of social media. And yes, it’s cool. It’s different.”
While the neighboring countries of East Asia, South Korea and Japan are worldwide recognized for their fashion, cinema and high-end pop songs, the highly censored China’s cinema and music industry has struggled to attract the international public, and the country’s best known clothing exporter is the Fast-Fashion Shein website.
There have been few Chinese business success stories selling high -end goods under their own brands, faced with cheap and poor quality products stereotypes.
“It was difficult for consumers in the world to perceive China as a brand creative nation,” said the fan of the University of Maryland, Yang AFP.
Pop Mart has shaken up the trend, generating copies nicknamed by social media users like “Lafufus” and detailed YouTube videos on how to check the authenticity of a doll.
Brands such as the Label of women’s designer’s designer clothing for women, Marchen, based in Shanghai and the handbag manufacturer based in Beijing, Songmont have also been recognized abroad in recent years.
“It could be a matter of time before the even more Chinese brands become generally recognizable,” said Yang.
Tiktok effect
Thanks to viral exports like Labu, China “undergoes a smooth change in power where its products and its image are more and more cool among young Westerners,” said Allison Malmsten, analyst of Daxue Consulting, based in China.
Malmsten said she thought that social media could stimulate the global image of China “similar to that of Japan in the 80s to 2010 with Pokemon and Nintendo”.
The Tiktok video application – designed by Bytedance in China – paved the way for the ascent of Labu when it became the first Chinese brand product to be essential for young people internationally.
Joshua Kurlantzick of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) said AFP This “Tiktok has probably played a role in the change of mind of consumers on China”.
Tiktok, which is officially blocked in China but still accessible with VPN software, has more than a billion users, including what the company says it is almost half of the American population.
The application has become an objective of the fears of national security in the United States, with a proposed ban on seeing American users of Tiktok flock to another Chinese application, Rednote, where they were welcomed as digital “refugees”.
Led for the Chinese memes of social media and fashion trends, Tiktok welcomes more than 1.7 million videos on Labu.
LABUBUMANIA
Cultural exports can “improve the image of China as a place that has companies that can produce global attractive goods or services,” said Kurlantzick de CFR AFP.
“I do not know how, if not at all, it has an impact on the images of the Chinese state or government,” he said, stressing how the undeniable soft power in South Korea has not resulted in similar political power levels.
While plush toys alone may not translate into real power, the chaotic world image of the United States under the Trump presidency could benefit the perceptions of China, said the Yang of the University of Maryland.
“The connection that many establish between the apparent decline of the American soft power and the potential increase in the world image of China can reflect how deeply the two countries are linked in the minds of people whose life is affected by both,” she said AFP.
At the very least, the charms of Labu seem to promote interest in China among the young generation.
“It’s like a virus. Everyone just wants it,” said Kazakhstani’s mother of three children AFP At the Pop Mart theme park in Beijing.
Qatari Maryam Hammadi, 11, posed for photos in front of a giant Labu statue.
“In our country, they love Labu,” she said.
“So when they realize that the origin of Labu is in China, they would like to come and see the different types of labu in China
