What can something as simple as misreading a brand name reveal about cultural blind spots, technology, design philosophies—and maybe even your future love life?
And how do Michelangelo’s paintings, 90s Japanese anime, and China’s robotics labs all point toward the same question: how we are redefining touch, intimacy, and what it means to be human—in ways you might never have imagined?
#AI #China #Robotics #Culture #Tech #MandarinUnpeeled #EmbodiedAI #IntimacyAndTech #Tesla #Optimus #humanoidhand #Wujitech #TechEthics
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🌏 About Mandarin Unpeeled: Bite-sized explainers that unwrap how China really thinks, feels, and evolves, and how it is already impacting you — told by an ex-marketer and linguist who’s lived, studied, and worked across both East and West.
What if your ex didn’t block you... but endorsed you like a LinkedIn referral?
Right now on China’s social apps, women are listing their former boyfriends with full specs — “Emotionally stable, owns an apartment, good with children, breakup due to long-distance, available immediately.”
It sounds like satire — but this trend reveals something deeper about Chinese dating culture, trust in the algorithm, and how societies built on referrals are quietly reinventing modern romance.
In this episode, we peel back the layers of this phenomenon and ask the important question of… WHY?! Is it absurd, or pragmatic? And this trend spark the most honest re-design of modern love?
More deep-dives and show notes here
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🌏 About Mandarin Unpeeled: Bite-sized explainers that unwrap how China really thinks, feels, and evolves, and how it is already impacting you — told by someone who’s lived, studied, and worked across both East and West.
References:
Fei, Xiaotong. From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society. 1947.
Harriet Marsden, “‘Are We Dating the Same Guy?’: Do Facebook Groups Harm or Help?,” The Week, April 9, 2024, https://theweek.com/culture-life/are-we-dating-the-same-guy-facebook-groups.
As we close out this investigative journey into Labubu, we’re left with one lingering question: is this all just a fad?
Because right now, everything about Pop Mart’s rise points in that direction. The founder claims these wide-eyed figures are “empty vessels” designed to hold your emotions— but what does that really mean? And more importantly, can that idea actually protect the brand’s future?
In the finale of our six-part series, we dive into the psychology behind this so-called blank canvas theory, and we take a look at the brand’s sustainability. Is Labubu a fleeting obsession? Or… is it a preview of how modern Chinese creativity is about to reshape global culture—and consumerism—as we know it?
Join me for the final chapter of the Labubu story.
Want more pulp? Here’s how to get it:
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🎙️ Podcast Homepage → www.mandarin-unpeeled.com
🌏 About Mandarin Unpeeled: Bite-sized explainers that unwrap how China really thinks, feels, and evolves, and how it is already impacting you — told by someone who’s lived, studied, and worked across both East and West.
References:
- Buddhist texts (《金刚经》 Heart Sutra on emptiness)
- POP MART’s IP design interviews (Kenny Wong, Labubu’s creator)
- Consumer behavior studies on "emotional blank slate" products (Journal of Marketing, 2021)
- The Popmart bubble: https://m.huxiu.com/article/4467916.html
You might look at Popmart and think: we’ve seen a Chinese brand blow up like this before.
Well — not quite. But I think we’re about to.
Popmart’s rise — powered by its mischievous little mascot, Labubu — isn’t a fluke. It’s the result of a perfect storm: shifting pride at home, a restless diaspora abroad, and a new wave of creators reshaping what “Made in China” really means.
In just a few short years, Popmart’s ambition morphed from China’s Disney to The World’s Popmart.
So what made that shift feel almost inevitable?
In this episode of Mandarin Unpeeled, we dig into how one toy company’s story mirrors something much bigger — China’s journey from factory floor to cultural storyteller.
Was this all part of the plan?And what does Popmart’s global play reveal about the future of Chinese brands built for the world?
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🎙️ Podcast Homepage → www.mandarin-unpeeled.com
🌏 About Mandarin Unpeeled: Bite-sized explainers that unwrap how China really thinks, feels, and evolves, and how it is already impacting you — told by someone who’s lived, studied, and worked across both East and West.
Source:
- How Labubu Catapulted China’s Pop Mart to $1.8B in Revenue | The Economics Of, The Wall Street Journal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X8KvR82-qw
Sound attribution:
- 240224_2644_FR_Children_singing_with_guzheng by kevp888 -- https://freesound.org/s/725171/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
What do Haruki Murakami, burnout, and blind box toys have in common?
Pop Mart’s founder once asked: “If you pulled the head off a doll and found a USB stick inside… would you still buy it?” Strange question, right? But hidden in it is the secret to why millions of people are spending billions on toys that… do absolutely nothing.
This episode takes us from Murakami’s idea of “small but certain happiness” to China’s hyper-stressed youth, to the psychology of glorious uselessness.
And then—Pop Mart’s next big play: going global.
Want more pulp? Here’s how to get it:
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🍊 Instagram → @mandarin_unpeeled
💬 Bluesky → @mandarin-unpeeled.bsky.social
🎙️ Podcast Homepage → www.mandarin-unpeeled.com
🌏 About Mandarin Unpeeled: Bite-sized explainers that unwrap how China really thinks, feels, and evolves, and how it is already impacting you — told by someone who’s lived, studied, and worked across both East and West.
- Tatler Hong Kong, The Value of uselessness, How Popmart’s founder turned blindboxes into billions.
- Zhong, S. (2016, July 20). 完整回顾教科书级营销案例：4 小时后逃离北上广. 数英网 — DIGITALING.
- The Standard. (2025, August 6). Pop Mart’s overseas sales projected to surpass domestic performance in 2025. The Standard.
Sound Attribution:
- London 2012 Olympics womens marathon.wav by KeyKrusher -- https://freesound.org/s/163268/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
- Shenzhen street noise by ohmygod327 -- https://freesound.org/s/264343/ -- License: Attribution 3.0
Last time, we cracked Pop Mart’s blind boxes wide open. But here’s the bigger mystery: why are millions of twenty-somethings hoarding plush toys like they’re Birkin bags?
To find the answer, we have to rewind fifty years. To a sketch of a cat.
In this episode, we travel from Hello Kitty’s birth in 1970s Tokyo, through China’s Gen Z explosion, to a half-a-billion-dollar marketplace for cute. And we end on a cryptic question from Pop Mart’s founder that might just hint at the future of this craze.
Want more pulp? Here’s how to get it:
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🍊 Instagram → @mandarin_unpeeled
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🎙️ Podcast Homepage → www.mandarin-unpeeled.com
🌏 About Mandarin Unpeeled: Bite-sized explainers that unwrap how China really thinks, feels, and evolves, and how it is already impacting you — told by someone who’s lived, studied, and worked across both East and West.
References:
Many say that Pop Mart is “loot-box economics.” Cute toys + gambling mechanics = $$$.
But… if it were that simple, every blind box brand would be a billion-dollar hit, right?
In this episode, we rewind to Pop Mart’s scrappy mall-vendor days and dig into the hidden forces that catapulted them to global stardom.
Spoiler: it wasn’t luck. It was a mash-up of mobile gaming habits, resale hype, and some very clever consumer psychology.
The boxes might be blind—but the strategy? Anything but.
📩 Subscribe on→ Substack
🍊 Instagram → @mandarin_unpeeled
💬 Bluesky → @mandarin-unpeeled.bsky.social
🎙️ Podcast Homepage → www.mandarin-unpeeled.com
🌏 About Mandarin Unpeeled: Bite-sized explainers that unwrap how China really thinks, feels, and evolves, and how it is already impacting you — told by someone who’s lived, studied, and worked across both East and West.
References:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/worlds-most-expensive-labubu-sold-for-eye-watering-price/
Company official websites and financial report
https://marketingtochina.com/china-mobile-games-market-the-cash-machine/
https://www.businessinsider.com/tencent-game-honor-of-kings-what-china-gaming-gets-right-2025-3
Sound attribution:
Cash Register Purchase by mokasza -- https://freesound.org/s/810182/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Retro Vintage Synth Pop Dance Cinematic Music.wav by szegvari -- https://freesound.org/s/614197/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
Pizzicato Orchestral Roll 3 by Soughtaftersounds -- https://freesound.org/s/145454/ -- License: Attribution 3.0
Pizzicato Orchestral Roll 5 by Soughtaftersounds -- https://freesound.org/s/145456/ -- License: Attribution 3.0
Headlines say Pop Mart’s Labubu craze is all about clever marketing, blind boxes, and ‘ugly cute’ design. But that’s just scratching the surface…
The REAL juicy bits? A layered, cultural, and strategic puzzle that turned a humble Chinese toy brand into one of the most fascinating commercial whodunnits in recent memory.
I’m Kelly, a bilingual ex-marketing strategist turned journalist, and I’ve lived through the cultural shifts that made this frenzy possible. Digging deep into both Chinese and English sources, I’m unearthing the fascinating historical, psychological, and cultural forces behind one of modern China’s (and maybe even the world’s?) strangest consumer obsessions.
Follow this six-part series as we peel back the layers to find the real ‘pulp’… it’s time to unpeel this Mandarin.
🍊 Instagram → @mandarin_unpeeled
🎧 Episode 1: Game of Thrones, Chinese Style | The Cycles of Power
Runtime: ~10 minutes
What if the key to understanding China’s long game—its moves in trade, diplomacy, and power—was hidden in a 14th-century epic?
In this premiere of Mandarin Unpeeled, we slice into one of China’s most enduring ideas:
“What is long divided must unite. What is long united must divide.”
It’s not just poetry—it’s a worldview that still guides decision-making at the highest levels.
From Romance of the Three Kingdoms (China’s very own Game of Thrones) to today’s geopolitical chessboard, let's trace how this cyclical philosophy shapes everything from economic “decoupling” to global strategy.
📌 You’ll discover:
0:00 — The quote that explains 1,000+ years of Chinese political rhythm
1:30 — Why Three Kingdoms is more playbook than period piece
4:00 — How “shi” (势) reframes tension as timing
6:30 — East vs. West: When linear progress meets circular wisdom
And more...
🧠 If you're curious about the deeper logic behind China’s strategic moves, grab your metaphorical orange—let’s get unpeeling together.
📚 Resources Mentioned:
– Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong
– The Art of War by Sun Tzu
🎙️ Mandarin Unpeeled
Zesty explainers on China, one bite-sized episode at a time.
🔗 Show Notes & More: www.mandarin-unpeeled.com
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🎵 Music Credits
Smooth Ambient Synths by YellowTree – Freesound – License: Attribution 4.0
Musicbox by grapelemon – Freesound – License: Creative Commons 0
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Ambient battle noise: swords and shouting by pfranzen – Freesound – License: Attribution 4.0