The Labubu of it all
wherein I offer both an explainer and a pop-culture critique
Hello, from the other side of burn out. It’s been a minute (or a year).
What are the signs of burnout recovery? I’m not sure, I’m not a doctor (are doctors even the right people to diagnose burnout and recovery?).
I did notice that I’d been posting more on my Instagram stories, the captions were getting longer, the story count bordering on obnoxious. I may have poor executive function, but I am some level of self aware. Maybe I am ready to write again . . .
My friend Lauren and I exchanged millennial voice notes the other day about my need for a Substack. I sheepishly confessed that I already have one, albeit one much neglected, but I appreciated her encouragement. It motivated me to whip this draft that had been languishing over weeks into shape.
Lauren’s a journalist and a gifted writer, and she’s tasked me with holding her accountable for starting her own newsletter. What better way to pass the baton then to start the relay rolling with my own? Our voice memo exchange was kickstarted by her journalistic curiosity about an obsessively beloved, much-maligned toy-of-the-moment — the Labubu.
NOTE: This is not a Labubu. This is a Lafufu. Rest assured, all will be explained in due time. Photo, mine.
Though I am fresh off, not only my annual Korea trip (always a source of great inspiration), but also a magical first visit to Puerto Rico, a Labubu explainer feels like the right place to start my reentry back into the Substack life. Let us begin our journey together.
A short history of the Labubu. Labubus are characters from a children’s book about monsters inspired by Nordic mythology, written and illustrated by Hong Kong-based artist Kasing Lung. He licensed his creations to a Chinese toy company Pop Mart, who in turn released a series of collectible dolls in their image back in 2019. Their popularity exploded earlier this year in part due to global popstar/actor Lisa from Blackpink while she was on the press tour for season 3 of The White Lotus. See Lisa’s cute exchange with her adorable co-star Tayme Thapthimthong below:
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Part of the draw and addictiveness of Labubus is that they are “blind box” toys. You purchase a box not knowing what doll you are going to get until you open it. The TikTok unboxing videos of Labubus are a genre onto their own.
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To give you a sense of what level of frenzy we are currently at, here’s a blurb from Forbes:
“Videos have been posted of Pop Mart stores overrun with customers brawling and yelling at one another over the toys, and one woman described the scene on a Labubu product release day as "Labubu Hunger Games." Fans have lined up at Pop Mart stores and vending machines for hours, even traveling overseas to get their hands on one, CNBC reported. Pop Mart pulled the dolls from all U.K. stores following reports of customers fighting over them earlier this year and CNN recently reported hundreds of Labubu toys have been confiscated by customs authorities in China as resellers attempt to smuggle them into the country. Owners are reportedly looking into insuring their Labubus when traveling abroad, and reports have popped up on social media of the dolls being stolen off of bags when being worn as a key chain. One woman even started a (so far unsuccessful) GoFundMe to replace a Labubu she says was stolen off of her bag while she was at dinner.”
Korea suspended offline sales of Labubus during my visit due to “safety concerns.” I wandered into the flagship Pop Mart store in the Hongdae neighborhood of Seoul back in June in the hopes of having a blind box experience, but I can attest that there was nary a Labubu in sight. There were hardly any customers either.
Some detractors accuse Labubus of being demonic and based on the Mesopotamian creature Pazuzu. I don’t see a resemblance.
Source: Snopes. The article linked above provides some good, general background info too
A more common refrain is that Labubus are ugly, and therefore not worthy of the hype or it’s zeitgeisty-ness.
The politics of “not getting it” because “Labubus are ugly.” I’ve heard this complaint from both internet strangers and friends. I personally think they’re cute, and part of their appeal — and one of my working theories for why they are so popular in the US — is their resemblance to the monsters from Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. Whether people see it or not, I think that people are at least subconsciously responding to that particular childhood nostalgia. I don’t know if Sendak also based his hungry monsters-looking-for-love on Nordic mythology, but to my pattern-recognition-recognizing-ADHD brain, the similarities are hard to ignore. I also don’t ever recall anyone complaining about how ugly the Wild Things are. They seem to be universally loved by children and adults alike.
Source: my photo
Before I delve into the meat of this newsletter, a disclaimer: I’ve a Labubu of my own (SEE: above, my Labubu out among our hydrangeas). It was a gift from my dear friend, Jamie. She is a casual collector who gave me one of her extras back in the spring. I hung mine off of a travel backpack and was delighted at what a conversation starter it was across multiple airports.
While, I don’t like them enough to enter the aforementioned Labubu Hunger Games, and I don’t possess either the skills or the discipline required to personally acquire one at retail price, I do feel some kind of way at the “confusion” and outright hostility directed at those who are into the Labubu trend.
Meet Bubu, my Labubu, hanging here off of j-hope’s gift to the ARMYs who attended his HOTS Goyang shows. Bubu and I bonded during my recent Korea trip, and now I’m looking into outfits for him, because he deserves. That’s the trending tissue bread in foreground. Photo, mine.
It’s actually not confusing because we’ve been here before. The claims of “I don’t like them because they are ugly” ring hollow to me in a world that has seen these types of trends come and go — across every generation. And few, if any, of these viral toys have been particularly aesthetically pleasing. I present to you:
EXHIBIT A: Troll dolls of the 90s.
Hideously cute. Source: Etsy.
EXHIBIT B: Cabbage Patch Kids of the 80s.
Offered without comment. Source: Wikipedia
EXHIBIT C: Beanie Boos. The bane of my mothering years and the center of my children’s world circa the 2010s. They still lurk and linger in my home to this day.
A side-by-side comparison, Labubu v Beanie Boo. I am not including Beanie Babies among my EXHIBITs because those were objectively cute. This is not up for debate. Photo, my own.
My spidey sense, my female intuition, my bullshit radar told me that the “they are ugly” vitriol points to something more complicated, insidious, and sadly predictable. Here’s my initial response to Lauren’s query about Labubus:
Thank you, Lauren for the proper tone and response.
I can listen to someone critique the rampant consumerism inherent in the Labubu craze all day long. There is plenty to critique, and I love a good take down of late-stage capitalism and it’s attendant ills as much as the next smart lady. Let’s discuss them as a sign of recession/depression economics, as an escape from the current horrors of American fascism and global climate collapse; let’s address the grotesque reality of adults fighting over stuffed dolls as Gaza starves, people are kidnapped from their homes and workplaces, as cities and towns are wiped off the map by disastrous floods. Please. Let’s talk about these things.
What I don’t have much patience for is men (shocker: it’s mostly men on the Labubu-hate train) sneering at women for liking a thing they deem dumb and overpriced while simultaneously surrounded by their Star Wars FunkoPop! collection; while thumbing thru their catalogue of vintage LPs and/or cameras they spent hours ferreting out, excuse me — curating — from thrift stores across the tri-state area over years. Insert whatever it is that men/people collect or know about. Tell me how Labubus are any different?
Because the handmaidens of patriarchy come in all shapes, sizes, and genders, and women are tasked with both cultural reproduction and the policing of other women’s behaviors, there are plenty of women who pile on too. In an attempt to answer Lauren’s (and many other friends’) question about what a Labubu actually is, I came across a lot of explainer content steeped in condescension, including from major journalistic outlets.
Nothing makes patriarchy hate a thing more than if it brings women and girls joy. This is because it reminds the world of both our individual and collective financial prowess — how we could bring this whole damn show to a screeching halt if we harnessed our collective power for good.
The Labubu has it’s haters partly because it is the Stanley Cup all over again. The company saw a $650 million increase in profits over three years after pivoting it’s marketing towards women. In my case, it’s my love of a K-Pop group called BTS who has been widely credited for impacting their country’s GDP. To the tune of $5 billion (yes, billion) ANNUALLY. All thanks to the might of their predominately-female fandom, ARMY.
NOTE: not members of BTS ARMY. These are Minnesota Vikings fans, all men. They happen to share their signature color with ARMY. Make of this what you will. Source: Sporting News.
If the argument is that vintage LPs, designer purses, Star Wars stuff hold value or even appreciate in value, please know that Sotheby’s recently sold a Labubu for close to $30,000. A Chinese auction house sold another for $150,000 (again, the Forbe’s article about why Labubus aren’t going away anytime soon, and thus investing in them might be a good idea).
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that one of my prime hopes for a blind-box Labubu is stumbling across one that could help fund our second child’s college years. It would be impeccable timing as our eldest prepares to enter her first year of undergrad at a school with a close to six-figure price tag. It might just encourage me to enter the Games after all. $100,000 is potentially up for grabs. And all for the low, low prices of $27, some portion of your sanity, and a good chunk of your precious free time. But oh! The rush. The rewards.
Is everything absurd right now? Yes, everything is absurd right now. Best to get your Labubu game sorted.
What you’re looking at is Serenity, a soon-to-be-mine Labubu, thanks to my Labubu dealer. She texted me that “it’s open cuz I got it from my mom who got it from my cousin.” This is how many acquisitions happen in the Labubu world. Source, Pop Mart.
The Lafufu of it all. I promised I would also explain Lafufus too. These are fake Labubus currently flooding the global market, much to the ire of it’s company Pop Mart and the nation of China.
Because, like any sentient human these days, I like a good dopamine rush, I am enamored by the idea of opening a blind box. That part I understand well. And I thought my chance had coming during our recent Puerto Rican family vacation. I stumbled across a store at the Mall of San Juan after our dinner at Bad Bunny’s nearby restaurant. They were selling what looked to be legitimate Labubus. And at retail price! I felt the rush of discovery, promptly had them take my money, and then had my daughter video the unboxing.
Our unboxing video is really quite hilarious, because unlike many of the unboxing videos where ecstatic purchasers tear easily into their Labubus, we had a hell of a time getting the package to open. My eldest had to eventually rip it with her teeth!
That was my first tell that it was a fake. The other tell was the lack of a QR code on the box used to authenticate the real from the not-so-real. I know this from my Labubu dealer (AKA my friend Jin). She’s less a dealer than my Labubu whisperer, because she has yet to score me a blind box but has served as a reliable source of both general and deep intel.
The Labubu craze has gotten so out of hand that even some of the Lafufus are quite valuable. And this embrace of Lafufus is part of a larger Gen Z trend normalizing knock-offs and dupes. Especially in the aftermath of the US-engineered tariff wars. We’ve all seen the TikToks of Chinese manufacturers exposing luxury designer practices and their real costs.
I gave my Lafufu away on a whim to a little girl who shyly approached me at the hotel pool to ask if she could hold my “Labubu.” I’m sad to report that I regret my decision. That Lafufu would have been a great companion to my Bubu.
Jin confirming Lafufu status. It was a fake, but it was a good fake. It was a fake, but it was my fake.
I didn’t expect my Labubu explainer to go on this long. So maybe I’m not as self aware as I thought.
I’ve so much more I’d like to discuss with you (K Pop Demon Hunters, Youngmi Mayer’s memoir, the way I’ve had to check in on friends around the world on a near weekly basis to make sure their homes weren’t decimated by catastrophic flooding), but I’ll end with a quick Schadenfreude/Freudenfreude and will see you in the next installment.
Schadenfreude of the week. What’s bringing me the joy that only schadenfreude can bring this week? It’s the way the American Fascist Party cannot make the Epstein files go away. They’ve lost narrative control, and all people who love democracy and hate sexual abuse of minors, girls, and women, well, we really love to see it.
My Advice? Never shut about it. Evidence bears out that it won’t be genocide, extrajudicial kidnappings, state-sanctioned terror, or concentration camps that will finally bring this Nazi house of cards tumbling down. It will probs be these Epstein files. Because even fundamentalist evangelical Christian nationalists can’t stomach abuse against young white girls and women, even as they remain one of the main perpetrators of abuse against young white girls and women. I’m not including a single image about it, because no one needs to see another photo of either of those men.
Here’s some sage though. To cleanse between this section and the next.
Source: Healthline
Freudenfreude of the week. My friends Grace Lee, Patty Ahn, and Eurie Chung made a documentary about the greatest, most powerful fandom in the world, the BTS ARMY, and it’s having it’s worldwide premiere next week! (Read more about the film here. Read the recent IndieWire review here (was impressed w his knowledge of ARMY).
I can’t tell you how proud I am of them and what a big deal this is. Grace and Eurie are seasoned filmmakers, and Patty is an academic who teaches film and media and is a filmmaker in their own right. And yet, this is the first global theatrical release for all of them. I personally consider Grace a mentor. She is an icon in our industry, a champion for both documentary filmmaking and Asian American filmmakers, a Peabody-award winning director, and yet this will be her first global, commercial, theatrical release!
It’s so rare for documentaries to be screened in cinemas (it’s rare even for massive, animated films these days like K-Pop Demon Hunters).
BTS ARMY: Forever We Are Young playing in theatres around the world is a massive deal. And it’s made more poignant by the fact that all three filmmakers belong to the Korean diaspora. This is a film about us, made by us. ARMY, diasporic Koreans, lovers of Hallyu. Rejoice in it. Support it. And if you are none of these things, don’t let the subject matter deter you. This is the whole point of this week’s newsletter — finding unexpected pockets of joy as we navigate end-times fascism, and telling those who are so opposed to the joy of others to take several seats.
If you love music, love joy, need joy, and also happen to be into supporting independent filmmakers (especially at a time when public media is in peril), please go see this documentary. Pre-purchase your tickets if you can.
Local people watching in the Philly area, slide into my DMs so we can watch together! Eurie will be there too! I’ll be passing out freebies. If you don’t know what I’m talking about by “freebies,” come find out! Check out the trailer below and go be in your joy.
Usually I end with a BTS TikTok. But today, I conclude with a post of their leader RM showing off his own newly-acquired Labubu (current retail price, $80). I think it’s supposed to be tempura shrimp. You’re welcome.
Where to send your latte, Labubu, Dior money. Filmmaker Mohammed El Majdalawi is raising money to help feed and support his family in Gaza. He’s more than halfway to goal. Let’s get him to goal. His GoFundMe here. Lauren’s reflections below.
And remember, all of us or none of us.
Let Gaza live. Free Palestine. Thank you for making it to the end.
Source: @laurenontheroad on IG
Thank you for the explainer and for drawing the lines to and Venn diagrams with bigger subjects. I still think Labubu are ugly. Their smiles are terrifying, unlike The Wild Things, even if the latter do gnash their terrible teeth, etc. However, I too find the shrimp Labubu adorable. And while I suspect Labubu will go the way of other collectibles, eg the ugly troll dolls, the cuter but still overproduced Beanie Babies, those *weird* Beanie Boos that I had never seen before (kind of like the movie Frozen and any Taylor Swift concert), the fact that I'm not hip to it is fully irrelevant to its status for others. I just don't want to lie or blow smoke too near anyone's backside. Lol I'm sure that I'm into things that other people don't like or understand, and that's okay. I'm not that big on fads in general, which meant I almost missed out on Harry Potter, whose author, let's face it, has required canceling of late, am behind on or completely unfamiliar with 99.9% of TV shows and film franchises of the past few decades, and am still baffled as to how I manged to construct and teach a course on pop culture for a decade in the mid-aughts and early teens. I thought I had a point when I began this comment, besides venting my continued distaste for general Labubu grimace for reminding me of something I can't quite put my finger on but find disturbing or at least disquieting, unlike the wonderful Wild Things of Maurice Sendak fame. Mostly I am thrilled that you are writing and posting again and that I get to read more about BTS, the Korean diaspora, your filmmaker friends, pop culture, your family, politics, schadenfreude and freudenfreude, and whatever strikes your fancy. I have deeply and keenly missed your voice, your insights, your curiosity, your wisdom and fire, and your joy.