In China’s campaign to win over hearts and minds worldwide, its latest weapon is a fanged, bunny-eared, arguably quite ugly plushie.

在这场赢得全球人的心的行动中，中国的最新武器是一个长着獠牙和兔子耳朵、可以说相当丑陋的毛绒玩具。

The grinning fuzzy toy, called Labubu, is made by a Chinese company and has become a global craze. It has in recent months been toted by celebrities including Rihanna and David Beckham; set off brawls among competing shoppers in England; and prompted overnight stakeouts in Los Angeles. It has even shaped the travel itineraries of some devotees, who have planned trips to China around hopes of buying one there. Resale prices for the roughly $30 figurine have run into the hundreds of dollars.

这种露齿而笑的毛绒玩具名叫Labubu，由一家中国公司制造，已经在全球范围内掀起热潮。最近几个月，蕾哈娜和大卫·贝克汉姆等名人都把它带在身边；在英格兰，它引发购物者之间的争抢打斗；在洛杉矶，有人通宵排队等待。它甚至影响了一些拥趸的旅行行程，他们计划去中国旅行，希望在那里购买一个。大约30美元的小玩偶的转售价格已经达到了数百美元。

“I flew all the way to China just to visit the BIGGEST POP MART STORE IN THE WORLD,” read the caption on a TikTok video by one vlogger from the Philippines, Lianna Patricia Guillermo, referring to the company that makes Labubu. (Ms. Guillermo clarified in an interview that she had visited the store during a long layover in Shanghai.)

菲律宾视频博主莉安娜·帕特里夏·吉列尔莫在TikTok视频文案中写道：“我大老远飞到中国，就是为了参观世界上最大的泡泡玛特店。”泡泡玛特是生产Labubu的公司。（吉列尔莫在接受采访时澄清说，她是在一次长时间逗留上海期间参观那家店的。）

The enthusiasm over Labubu may pass like any other viral trend. But it could also be another sign that China, which has struggled to build cultural cachet overseas amid longstanding concerns about its authoritarian politics, is starting to claim some victories.

对Labubu的热情可能会像其他热潮一样过去。但长期以来，由于外界对其威权政治的担忧，中国一直在努力在海外建立文化声望，Labubu的走红也可能是中国开始取得一些胜利的迹象。

Chinese state media outlets have sought to frame it that way. “The furry, nine-toothed elf created by Chinese toymaker Pop Mart has become a benchmark for China’s pop culture making inroads overseas,” said an article in People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece.

中国官方媒体一直试图用这种基调来描述它。中共喉舌《人民日报》的一篇文章称：“中国玩具制造商泡泡玛特创造的毛茸茸的九颗牙小怪兽已经成为中国流行文化进军海外的基准。”

Other Chinese products to find global followings include video games such as Black Myth: Wukong and affordable, well-made electric cars by BYD and other brands. DeepSeek, the Chinese AI model, has been adopted by tech companies overseas, including in the United States and Europe. Foreign travel bloggers have posted videos of themselves gushing about Shanghai’s skyline and Chengdu’s pandas.

其他在全球受到追捧的中国产品包括《黑神话：悟空》等视频游戏，以及比亚迪等品牌生产的物美价廉的电动汽车。中国的人工智能模型DeepSeek已被包括美国和欧洲在内的海外科技公司采用。国外旅游博主纷纷发布视频，对上海的天际线和成都的熊猫赞不绝口。

More niche offerings, like soapy Chinese period dramas, are finding audiences too. Patti Smith, the punk rock legend, has apparently left admiring comments on the Instagram account of a relatively unknown actor in one that recently debuted on Netflix.

中国古装肥皂剧等更小众的产品也得到了观众。朋克摇滚传奇人物帕蒂·史密斯在一位相对不知名的演员的Instagram账号下留言称赞他，后者出现在Netflix前不久首播的一部古装剧集中。

Polls also show changes in public opinion. An analysis published in May by Morning Consult showed that for the first time China’s global standing surpassed that of the United States, including among American allies. Even in the United States, where views of China remain overwhelmingly negative, the share of Americans with an unfavorable opinion of China fell for the first time in five years in March, according to Pew. Younger Americans in particular are less hostile to China.

民意调查也显示了公众意见的变化。晨间咨询公司今年5月发表的一份分析报告显示，中国的全球地位首次超过了美国，包括在美国盟友中的地位。皮尤研究中心的数据显示，即便是在对中国持压倒性负面看法的美国，3月份对中国持负面看法的美国人比例也出现了五年来的首次下降。尤其是年轻美国人对中国的敌意更少。

The shift may be in large part because global views of the United States have taken such a nosedive since President Trump’s second term began. Morning Consult said that American favorability had fallen far faster than enthusiasm for China had risen in that period.

这种转变可能在很大程度上是因为自特朗普总统第二任期开始以来全球对美国的看法急剧下降。晨间咨询公司表示，在此期间，美国好感度的下降速度远远快于对中国好感度的上升速度。

Given the “alarmingly isolationist turn of the U.S.,” said Ying Zhu, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University who studies American and Chinese soft power, China looked “stable and steady in comparison.”

香港浸会大学研究美国和中国软实力的教授朱影说，鉴于“美国惊人的孤立主义转向”，中国“相比之下坚实稳定”。

But China has also been trying to build its soft power in its own right, alongside its economic and military might. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has said that the country should work to “reshape” the international conversation in China’s favor. Broader appeal in pop culture, or as a travel destination, would bolster its claim to being an alternative to the United States for global leadership.

但是，中国也一直在经济和军事实力之外，努力打造自己的软实力。中国领导人习近平曾表示，中国应努力“重构”有利于中国的国际对话。在流行文化中更广泛的吸引力，或者作为一个旅游目的地，将支持它成为美国之外全球领导者的替代选择。

Within China, that effort has been successful. Many Chinese now turn to homegrown brands and stars instead of the Western ones they once idolized. Labubu dolls have sold out so quickly that some Chinese have taken to smuggling in dolls bought overseas to resell them. On Tuesday, a human-size Labubu sculpture sold at an auction in Beijing for $150,000.

在中国，这种努力是成功的。许多中国人现在转向本土品牌和明星，而不是他们曾经崇拜的西方品牌和明星。Labubu很快售罄，以至于一些中国人开始走私从海外购买的娃娃并转手出售。周二，一个真人大小的Labubu雕塑在北京的一场拍卖会上以108万元的价格售出。

本月，顾客在上海的泡泡玛特商店挑选Labubu。

There are signs some overseas fans of Labubu are engaging more with other Chinese products. On Reddit, users swap tips for ordering dolls or outfits on AliExpress and other Chinese e-commerce platforms. They express concern about American tariffs on Chinese imports.

有迹象表明，一些海外的Labubu粉丝正在更多地接触其他中国产品。在Reddit上，用户们交换了在全球速卖通和其他中国电子商务平台上订购玩偶或服装的技巧。他们对美国对中国进口商品征收关税表示担忧。

After Sue Aw, 30, visited Shanghai last year from Australia in part to find Labubu dolls (they were sold out), she now wants to visit China again later this year. She wanted to see other cities, and to buy more of Chinese clothing brands she had discovered.

去年，30岁的苏·奥从澳大利亚来到上海，部分原因是为了寻找Labubu娃娃（它们已经售罄），如今，她想在今年晚些时候再次前往中国。她想看看其他城市，购买更多她发现的中国服装品牌。

Her friends in Australia have also “definitely seen China in a more positive light after the level of craze” around Labubu, she said.

她说，她在澳大利亚的朋友们也是这样，“在(Labubu)热潮后，肯定是对中国有了更正面的看法”。

But for other Labubu lovers, the doll’s Chinese origins seem unimportant, or even pass unnoticed. (In fact, while Pop Mart is a Chinese company, the character itself was designed by a Hong Kong-born artist raised in the Netherlands.) In Western markets, Pop Mart has collaborated with Disney and Marvel.

但对其他喜爱Labubu的人来说，这个玩偶的中国血统似乎并不重要，甚至被忽视了。（事实上，虽然泡泡玛特是一家中国公司，但这个角色本身是由一位在荷兰长大的香港艺术家设计的。）在西方市场，泡泡玛特与迪士尼和漫威合作。

Some Chinese social media users have joked that the doll is so popular in the United States — where wraparound lines have developed at malls — because people there don’t know it is Chinese. For many Americans, the appeal of Labubu seems to be just as much, or perhaps more, about its ingenious marketing: its scarcity, its frequent use of “blind box” packaging, in which buyers don’t know which of several elves they will receive.

一些中国社交媒体用户开玩笑说，这个玩偶在美国如此受欢迎——人们在商场里排起长龙——是因为那里的人不知道它是中国的。对许多美国人来说，同Labubu本身的魅力同样重要、甚至更重要的，似乎是它巧妙的营销方式：它的稀缺性，它经常使用“盲盒”包装——买家不知道他们收到的是几个精灵中的哪一个。

Even so, the growing presence of Chinese companies worldwide is itself a form of soft power, said Huang Rihan, a professor at Huaqiao University in Fujian Province who has studied China’s messaging overseas. He pointed to how companies like Pop Mart, Tencent or Alibaba have hired employees of different nationalities, in offices all around the world.

即便如此，福建省华侨大学研究中国海外信息的教授黄日涵说，中国公司在世界范围内日益增长的存在本身就是一种软实力。他指出，泡泡玛特、腾讯或阿里巴巴等公司在世界各地的办公室雇佣了不同国籍的员工。

Professor Huang said that China’s biggest soft-power successes had come from young Chinese entrepreneurs having the freedom to engage globally and experiment. Pop Mart’s chief executive, Wang Ning, is just 33, and has said that he wants the brand to work with artists from around the world.

黄日涵说，中国最大的软实力成功来自于年轻的中国企业家拥有参与全球和试验的自由。泡泡玛特的首席执行官王宁只有33岁，他说他希望该品牌能与世界各地的艺术家合作。

本月，中国浙江省杭州市的一家泡泡玛特商店。

“In the realm of culture, I think the government should loosen its grip,” Professor Huang said.

“我是认为，政府在文化产品或领域的创造上，更多的是应该给他么一些松绑，”黄日涵说。

Indeed, a bigger challenge for China’s soft power efforts may be how eager the Chinese authorities are to claim them. Repeated official calls to boost soft power suggest a belief that trendiness can be manufactured if the government just tries hard enough.

的确，中国软实力工作面临的一个更大的挑战可能是，中国当局是多么迫切地想要得到这样的实力。官方一再呼吁提升软实力，这表明他们相信，只要政府足够努力，潮流是可以制造出来的。

Sometimes that eagerness can be merely cringe-worthy (a recent People’s Daily article called “What Makes China ‘Cool’” declared: “‘Cool’ is a term rooted in youth culture, typically associated with what is fashionable”) or propagandistic (China’s cool, another article said, came from “building a community with a shared future for mankind” — a slogan of Mr. Xi).

有时，这种急切的态度可能只会令人生厌（《人民日报》最近一篇名为《何以“酷中国”》的文章宣称：“‘酷’，年轻人爱用，表达先锋、前卫、新潮的意思”）；或者带有宣传色彩（另一篇文章称，中国的“酷”来自于“构建人类命运共同体”——这是习近平的口号）。

Government involvement, whether real or perceived, can also be more directly off-putting. When a Chinese company promoted Wukong, the blockbuster video game, last year to overseas streamers, it instructed them to avoid topics such as “feminist propaganda” or the coronavirus pandemic — terms that the government censors heavily.

政府的参与，无论是真实存在还是给人留下了这种印象，也可能更直接地引起反感。去年，一家中国公司在向海外流媒体推广大热门视频游戏《黑神话：悟空》时，指示他们避开“女权主义宣传”或新冠病毒流行等话题——这些都是被政府严格审查的词汇。