Who Moved Disney’s Cheese?

Last Friday, super cute @保保熊, a US-born vlogger in China famous for his once-viral catchy phrase “city 不 City,” showed up at the Founder’s Breakfast talk in a T-shirt with a panda in a butt-up position, instantly catching my attention, since I have a tote bag with a similar panda in the same position. We both realized that this panda has been in hype for a while and can now be spotted everywhere, on bags, T-shirts, or cups.

Credit: @保保熊’s panda T-shirt, photographed by the author

Cuteness is a huge business in China, hardwired in East Asian cultural DNA, with a long-standing affection for all things adorable, from Doraemon, Hello Kitty, Pikachu, and Totoro to LinaBell, and now Labubu. The hype may come and go, but cuteness endures as a prime force driving a powerful engine of business: the “emotional economy”, a term born out of the global success of Pop Mart and Labubu as its symbolic exemplar, stalwartly supported by brands like Jellycat.

Accompanied by Pop Mart’s meteoric rise as a new global IP engine, the once-dominant IP empire, like Disney, might start to feel a chill down its back. More and more smart and savvy brands have spotted IP as the goose that lays golden eggs, as K-pop Demon Hunter offers a classic lesson to the once Goliath-like Sony, a case of giving away IP control to Netflix. No brand can afford to make the same mistake again.

But how to best turn IP into profit on the ride of this fast-moving emotional economy locomotive? The answer might catch many off guard, emerging from somewhere seemingly out of nowhere. But there are early signals beginning to surface.

The bag charm.

It is the starting point where Labubu rewrites the brand hierarchy of the pyramid, turning a Hermès bag into the backdrop for a hype-driven charm.

A bag charm serves as a cultural signal, offering a glimpse into a world where people are unconsciously motivated to choose objects that express an attitude, as an extension of individuality and unique personality, with a strong emotional connection to their favourite IP characters. Over the past week, I became so obsessed with bag charms that I even developed a temporary paranoia, chasing them on various bags while riding in Shanghai’s packed metro carriages, making some amazing discoveries that are so easy to go unnoticed and neglected.

Discovery 1: Everybody is hanging something on the bag, with men rushing in

Bag charms in Shanghai’s metro, photographed by the author, April 2026

Nowadays, a bare bag is like a naked man walking in public. It is “forbidden” in the culture and social environment. You’ve got to have something dangling from the bag, no matter whether it is a designer bag or just a plain tote bag. This used to be the girls’ playground, but more and more men are joining this game, and they cannot stop.

They are the new fandom embracing bag charm culture, and their love is passionate, strong, and equal. Normally, they don’t choose one fave but two, three, or even five together, and dangle them all on one bag in a daring way.

I am wondering how often they change or rotate their charms. For me, I am always drawn to the latest bag charm fashion and heavily influenced by what others are dangling from their bags whenever I move through the city. I have a minor collection of bag charms in my cupboard and still make purchases all the time. Why not? It costs less than 100 RMB (around USD 14) at most, with some costing only as much as a cup of tea or coffee, for a bundle of joy and happiness that can last for months.

Discovery 2: Cute, or “Meng” (culturally interpreted as harmless cute), is gradually being replaced by cute with an attitude and personality

Credit: Twinkle Twinkle (星星人), official account on RedNote

There is no better place to demonstrate your love, hate, or whatever emotions you want to project to the world in a small but harmless way than through your bag charm. Most charm characters dangling from bags carry a very interesting message: maybe a crying face, a daydreaming expression, sarcastically twisted lips, or other expressive facial cues.

They tell you that their owners are lying flat, or “do not care,” or want to save the world, be funny, or just daydream all day. They tell a personal story and reflect the emotional shifts of a certain period in their lives, maybe a new love, a new job, a new city, or a breakup.

It is fascinating if you dive deeper and invite them to share their stories and why they selected this character for their bag charm. It would become a collection of city stories.

Discovery 3: IP characters for charms are diversified, but Pop Mart’s darlings are leading the trend

Gone is the sole dominance of IP characters from Disney. Their “super idols”, like LinaBell or StellaLou from Duffy and Friends, can still be spotted, but not as many as four or five years ago.

Bag charm choices have been hugely diversified since then. It represents a chaotic maximum style of trend shifting. Yes, anything can show up on a bag, and the choices seem infinite. But still, it is Pop Mart that helps decide what you are going after for your bag, holding a slight lead in bag charm fashion.

After the Labubu fever stole the spotlight from Hermès, Pop Mart spared no effort in creating the next blockbuster IP to continue the hype. Now, it is Twinkle Twinkle’s time, a little fellow with starry eyes, the new fave dangling on bags.

As I count on the metro and do the math, Twinkle Twinkle, in all sizes and colours, keeps popping up, at least one in five. Aside from Twinkle Twinkle, other IP characters like Crybaby and mini Labubu from Pop Mart are sharing this wave of popularity in bag charms.

The real question

To wrap up this piece of city observation, I throw out the big question. It is a hugely profitable business with enormous potential, so why is nobody except Pop Mart taking it seriously?

Think about it, all brands are created to bring happiness and joy to us.

Don’t miss the cash flowing in — again.