China's Labubu 'la-wins' another global accolade

Labubu, one of the biggest global collectible toy phenomena of the past few years, has been crowned as China's most recognizable and influential pop culture intellectual properties in the eyes of the world, according to a newly released report.

The furry forest monster beat out blockbuster movie Dead To Rights, which came in a close second, said the report released by Beijing-based think tank the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies at the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, on Saturday.

The report offers a data-driven assessment of how Chinese cultural IPs and local cultural symbols spread overseas over the past year.

According to its assessment, Labubu, sold by Beijing-based toy maker Pop Mart, led the top 10 Chinese online pop-culture IPs. The blockbuster film Dead To Rights placed second, and Ne Zha 2 ranked third.

Other entries in the top 10 include the breakout film Nobody, ranking seventh, and the Chinese game Where Winds Meet, ranking ninth.

Dead To Rights is set against the backdrop of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), telling the story of a group of civilians who took refuge in a photo studio amid the wartime chaos and risked their lives to expose atrocities committed by the invading Japanese army.

Ne Zha 2 reimagines the classic myth, telling the story of the Chinese mythological character Ne Zha and his family and friends as they overcome hardship and stand up to hostile powers.

Commenting on the findings, Li Yafang, head of the academy, said the globally resonant Chinese IPs "no longer aim to preach, but use high-quality products and compelling stories" to make the world actively understand China.

The report tracked the performance of Chinese cultural symbols across more than 4,000 mainstream media outlets worldwide, multiple international social media platforms and search engines, as well as how they are referenced by leading artificial intelligence models such as DeepSeek and ChatGPT, based on data from November 2024 to September 2025, the think tank said.

Li Wei, deputy dean of Peking University's School of New Media, said the toy Labubu "hit a psychological sweet spot for young people by awakening a childlike joy".

Labubu's design is "cute, odd yet healing", and the blind-box buying experience adds a jolt of excitement, she added.

Chen Gang, deputy dean of the School of Art and Communication at Beijing Normal University, said the reason these Chinese IPs have drawn global attention is that they sparked emotional resonance strong enough to transcend nationality, ethnicity and cultural differences.

For example, Ne Zha 2 is, at heart, a universal, empathetic story, he said. The film reframes Ne Zha as an ordinary person standing up to his destiny, with a narrative rooted in Chinese mythology, Chen said.

Such storytelling, he said, carries universally recognizable values shared with people around the world. "This kind of emotional resonance is more likely to draw worldwide attention because it crosses national borders and cultural differences."

Chen added that two other breakout films this year, Dead To Rights and Nobody, follow the same pattern: ordinary people making choices amid big historical moments.

"They're different from grand, macroscopic perspectives," he said, suggesting that a human-scale perspective is what really travels.

In addition, based on data analysis, the report also identified five local-culture hot spots with international influence in the past 11 months.

The top three were the World Games held in Chengdu; the "cyber city" image that blends tradition and modernity in Chongqing; and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit held in Tianjin.

Li, head of the think tank, said Chongqing has become a top viral travel destination on global social media platforms thanks to its unique urban landscape.

"These authentic, multidimensional local stories have made the image of contemporary China more vivid on the world stage," she said.

jiangchenglong@chinadaily.com.cn