 Rojak is a colloquial Malay word for “eclectic mix,” and is the name for a Javanese dish that typically combines sliced fruit and vegetables with a spicy dressing. In this recurring Flagship feature, we highlight the best newsletter writing from and about Asia. Toy story Despite economic gloom in China, a domestic toy store chain has emerged as a global success story. Pop Mart, known for selling trinkets and collectible plastic toys, is now one of China’s best performing stocks — some have called the brand China’s Disney. Its success highlights a “new consumption” trend in China, pulling in luxury-like margins with cheaper goods, Amber Zhang wrote in the Baiguan newsletter. Pop Mart has been especially successful with “blind boxes,” in which the buyer doesn’t know what they’re getting until they open the product. “That Schrödinger mix of surprise and disappointment is the secret that hooks consumers,” Zhang wrote. Most recently, Pop Mart’s biggest star is Labubu, a genderless, expressionless creature that has become a global juggernaut: Celebrities like David Beckham and Rihanna have their own Labubus — serving as a valuable soft power tool for China — and their resale value has skyrocketed. A cottage industry has emerged to sell clothes for the toys. The product’s “ambiguity makes it universally relatable. With no fixed identity, anyone can see themselves in it.” K-pop’s not a genre The K-pop world is fiercely divided over whether the industry has become too “Westernized.” As the genre has achieved global prominence, more acts are releasing songs in English and collaborating with Western artists, leaving some to wonder whether K-pop is “losing its soul” and merely chasing foreign validation. But this discourse ignores that K-pop has always been a hybrid art form, and therefore a global art form, the Idolcast Substack argued. K-pop’s sound has indeed evolved and widened its audience in recent years, bringing in more Western songwriters and producers. Trying to attain universal appeal has inherently diluted artists’ creativity, the newsletter argues, but that doesn’t necessarily make the genre “Western.” The debate has sparked a broader conversation about what “K-pop” even means: Given its mishmash of influences, one could perceive it not as a genre, but a format defined by who the music caters to — just like classic rock is a radio format aimed at a specific demographic. Seoul searching Seoul’s only planned city should be an urbanist’s dream, but it’s turned into a nightmare for residents. Wirye New Town was built starting in 2008 as the first planned development created from scratch within city limits — it features glitzy high rises, car-free promenades, lakeside paths, and ample green space. But more than 10 years after the first move-ins, “homeowners in Wirye are mad as hell,” S.Y. Lee wrote in the transit-focused newsletter S(ubstack)-Bahn. The government has yet to build a direct train connection to Wirye, and while home values initially surged, they have since dropped due to speculative real estate dynamics. Frustrated owners have sued the city and held near-weekly protests. The debacle holds lessons for the rest of the world, as developers from California to Saudi Arabia eye planned cities. It shows how rail transit is especially crucial for new population centers located near big cities — and how speculative real estate markets can leave homeowners vulnerable. |
