{"id":74531,"date":"2025-08-29T14:05:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T14:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=74531"},"modified":"2025-08-29T14:05:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T14:05:36","slug":"chinas-labubu-craze-fans-snap-up-new-mini-dolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/29\/chinas-labubu-craze-fans-snap-up-new-mini-dolls\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Labubu Craze: Fans Snap Up New Mini Dolls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onilede Titi Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Outside a bustling Pop Mart store in Beijing, fan Maki Li proudly posed with a dozen furry Labubu dolls strung around his neck.<\/p>\n<p>The latest palm-sized creations from Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, priced at about $11 each, sold out online almost instantly after their release Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>The quirky, fanged \u201cugly-cute\u201d dolls already spotted on celebrities like Rihanna and Dua Lipa have become a global craze.<\/p>\n<p>Li was among the lucky few to secure a full box of 14. \u201cI\u2019ll hang them everywhere I can,\u201d the 32-year-old said after unboxing.<\/p>\n<p>At the store, another shopper, Li Jianuo, filmed her children unwrapping their new toys after she spent more than 1,000 yuan ($140) as a back-to-school gift. \u201cIt\u2019s so cute!\u201d her 12-year-old daughter squealed. The mother said she wouldn\u2019t sell them even if the children lost interest: \u201cWhen they grow up, they\u2019ll remember how we scrambled to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Labubus are typically sold in limited \u201cblind boxes,\u201d where buyers only discover which model they\u2019ve purchased after opening. The scarcity fuels demand, turning the dolls into prized collectibles.<\/p>\n<p>The craze has even drawn official attention. Commerce Minister Wang Wentao recently hailed Labubus as a symbol of \u201cnew forms of consumption\u201d that could boost China\u2019s slowing economy.<\/p>\n<p>For young fans, the dolls\u2019 appeal lies in their affordability and emotional comfort. \u201cPeople can\u2019t afford the big-ticket items anymore, they can\u2019t buy Balenciaga, so they buy Pop Mart instead,\u201d Li said. \u201cWearing them feels healing. They can keep you company for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onilede Titi Faith &nbsp; Outside a bustling Pop Mart store in Beijing, fan Maki Li proudly posed with a dozen furry Labubu dolls strung around his neck. The latest palm-sized creations from Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, priced at about $11 each, sold out online almost instantly after their release Thursday night. The quirky, fanged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":74532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1754],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74533,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74531\/revisions\/74533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}