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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🌏 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