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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 13h

And I really really enjoyed writing this opening lol

A screenshot of the first two paragraphs of the article, which reads: "The following sentence might make a globalist cry out for joy: A toy that is manufactured by a Chinese company in Vietnamese factories, designed by a Dutch artist in Belgium, inspired by indie toy culture in Hong Kong, and made viral thanks to a Thai K-pop star, has turned into the biggest Gen-Z cultural trend of 2025.

That abomination of a sentence is the story of Labubu, the creepy-cute stuffed monster that swept the world this summer. You must have seen the trend by now, but most people are still unaware of the global, decade-long story that led up to it. Last week, I published a feature story about my journey into the heart of Labubu, how this cultural mania moment was created, and where it may go from here."

Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 13h

This week's newsletter Made in China: How Hong Kong's former glory in manufacturing led to the creation of Labubu, and how Pop Mart turned Hong Kong's indie toy industry into a mass market spectacle.

www.wired.com/story/made-i...

The City That Made the World Fall for a Monster

How Hong Kong gave rise to Labubu and a designer toy movement now shaping global culture.

www.wired.com

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 14h

There'll be a recording posted online afterwards! but it's not streaming live I think

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 14h

On October 22 (Wed), I'll be talking to @patrickmcgee.bsky.social about his book on how Apple became inseparable with the Chinese market and factories. Come see us in person at @asiasociety.org! You can register below 👇🏻

Patrick McGee on Apple in China

Register now to hear Patrick McGee talk about the story of how Apple became dependent on China for its manufacturing, and what that means for China’s technology rivalry with the United States.

asiasociety.org

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Reposted by Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 2d

Monstrous.

"federal agents detained nearly every resident of the 130-unit building—including children and babies—placing them in zip ties and separating them by race into vans for more than two hours early Tuesday morning."

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 2d

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Mark Jaffe, 5 Bridges Law @markjkings.bsky.social · 3d

Temu alleges that Shein sends hundreds of fraudulent DMCA takedown notices against it, including for photos to which it doesn't have rights.

In this opinion, the court allows Temu's DMCA misrepresentation claims to proceed.
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Whaleco v Shein opinion

www.documentcloud.org

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

In college, I'd always walk past an unremarkable store in Beijing that sold a variety of trendy, but tacky, toys. That store has turned into Pop Mart, the $45-billion Chinese toy empire behind Labubu, the biggest global fad of 2025.

This is my big story/pilgrimage trip to explain how they got here

A Journey Into the Heart of Labubu

I made an epic trek across four countries to answer one question: Why is the world going mad for a plushie monster?

www.wired.com

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The Sunday Long Read @thesundaylongread.bsky.social · 4d

Dead cows, foodies, stupidology & more in this week's issue--check it out! Featuring @jayasaxena.com, @zeyiyang.bsky.social, @danwolken.bsky.social + other incredible writers mailchi.mp/sundaylongre...

The Sunday Long Read: Dead Cows, Foodies, Stupidology

The week's best journalism. Every Sunday.

mailchi.mp

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Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 7d

Sorry no my draft still isn't quite done yet. Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown

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Tim Marchman @timmarchman.bsky.social · 7d

NEW: Federal workers had their out-of-office replies changed to an unhinged and probably illegal partisan screed; when they changed them to neutral language, the replies were changed yet again. @leahfeiger.bsky.social and @telliotter.bsky.social have the details:

Government Workers Say Their Out-of-Office Replies Were Forcibly Changed to Blame Democrats for Shutdown

Some employees at the Department of Education changed their responses back to the more neutral language, only to have it changed yet again to the partisan response, multiple sources tell WIRED.

www.wired.com

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 7d

the amount of knowledge you have is terrifying

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 7d

no need. bingo. lol

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 7d

TIRED: The US is purging H-1B workers.
WIRED: China is rolling out its K visa to recruit foreign science and tech talents.
EXPIRED: It's causing a wave of racist and xenophobic backlash inside China as well. 😬

China Rolls Out Its First Talent Visa as the US Retreats on H-1Bs

The Chinese government unveiled a program to woo foreign talent just as the US cracked down on H-1Bs with a $100,000 fee. The move immediately provoked xenophobic backlash.

www.wired.com

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WIRED @wired.com · 8d

WHAT IS HAPPENING????

WIRED's @thiccreese.bsky.social gets into just WTH is going on with OpenAI's new Sora app, what it looks like, and yeah, the slop it creates. Read more here: www.wired.com/story/openai...

Reece @thiccreese.bsky.social · 8d

The “cameo” tool warps a user’s image into different situations using a simple prompt.

In the handful of AI slop videos @wired.com generated to test the release, the outputs were often absurd.

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Vittoria Elliott @telliotter.bsky.social · 8d

SCOOP: Federal workers are being told to blame democrats for the shutdown. At SBA workers got an email suggesting they set out-of-office replies blaming Democrats for the shutdown and at HUD internal systems have a pop-up blaming "the Radical Left."

@wired.com

www.wired.com/story/govern...

Federal Workers Are Being Told to Blame Democrats for the Shutdown

Workers at one agency were given unhinged, partisan language to use when setting out-of-office replies.

www.wired.com

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Daniel Ahmad @zhugeex.com · 8d

My favorite reaction from people online is thinking they were getting a fake Labubu because it would ship from China, lol.

Perceptions take time to change.

Aarian Marshall @aarianmarshall.bsky.social · 8d

"Labubu has become the de facto face of [China's] growing soft power, even if Pop Mart would rather distance itself from geopolitics"

via @zeyiyang.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/labubu...

A Journey Into the Heart of Labubu

I made an epic trek across four countries to answer one question: Why is the world going mad for a plushie monster?

www.wired.com

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

10/ While my interest began as purely journalistic, by the end of my reporting trip I’d spent hundreds of non-reimbursable $ on Labubus of my own, notably with the help of a Chinese queenpin in Bangkok. By putting my skin in the game, I think I finally understood why Labubus have become so popular.

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

9/ But this is the 1st time a Chinese company, outside of software & hardware, is able to have this amount of cultural impact on the world. There's a notable vibe-shift this year, coinciding with political changes in the US and tourism push in China, for people to reassess what Made in China means.

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

8/ Labubus' virality won't last forever, but that's the same with any Disney or Nintendo characters. For companies that create cultural icons, the key to success is to build a conveyor belt of new obsessions for fans. And that's what Pop Mart is trying to doing now with Labubu and other characters.

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

7/ It's undeniable that around the world, reseller interests drive up the Labubu hype, but it also makes it difficult and costly for real fans to buy. Pop Mart, often criticized for executing a FOMO scheme, says that's not what it wants, and it has ramped up production 10x to meet the demand.

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

6/ Having failed again, I travelled to Thailand, where Pop Mart has had a runaway success. There, I found myself in a bizarre scene: every time Labubus were restocked, resellers would pay people considerable premiums to line up and snatch up the supply so they could resell it for even more.

A photo of the mall Terminal 21 in Bangkok, where customers and resellers lined up to buy the newly restocked Labubu plush.

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

5/ Like Disney, Pop Mart has built its first theme park in Beijing. I went there this year to watch human-sized Labubus fight in front of an audience, eat at a cafe with Zimomo (the chief of the Labubu clan), talk to fans from toddlers to Gen-Zs to young parents, and try, again, to buy a Labubu.

A photo of the Pop Mart theme park in Beijing, showing six characters in the Labubu franchise (called The Monsters) in human-size fursuits.

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

4/ I also talked to Kasing Lung, who designed Labubu in 2015, and Howard Lee, who has helped him produce Labubu figurines since, on how the creepy-cute monster came to be. Lung, who immigrated from Hong Kong to the Netherlands at 6, was inspired by European wartime fairytales, Moomins, & the Smurfs.

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

3/ I sat down with 司德/Si De, Pop Mart's long-time COO and classmate of founder 王宁/Wang Ning, about how the company pivoted from distributing Japanese toys to signing indie designers like a record label and mass producing their niche toys. Si hand wrote their first licensing contract back in 2016.

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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 8d

2/ I went back to that store in May, which has been turned into a mini Labubu altar and a Pop Mart museum. There, I tried to buy my first Labubu, and like people around the world, I immediately learned that it's not possible: It's rare. It's hard to get. It's a status symbol. You've got to earn it.

A photo of Pop Mart's first store in Beijing, later remodeled into an exhibit of company history.

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