Kasing Lung’s Sharp-Toothed Labubu Debuts at Shanghai Yuyuan Lantern Festival

Labubu, the sharp-toothed, pointy-eared creation of Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung, made its Yuyuan Lantern Festival lantern debut in Shanghai on Feb 1, a high-profile moment for Pop Mart’s Monsters brand as the annual event expands beyond its traditional home. The appearance placed a grinning Labubu among lanterns and commercial pop-ups that are attracting collectors, tourists and local families.

The Yuyuan Lantern Festival itself kicked off on Jan 26 and runs through Mar 3, with installations now spread across Yuyuan Garden Malls, Gucheng Park, Middle Fangbang Road, Fuyou Road and the Bund. This is the first time that the highly anticipated annual lantern celebration extends beyond Yuyuan Garden Malls. At the Bund, the Bund Finance Center launched a Chinese New Year Garden Fair on Feb 1 that runs until Mar 15. The fair’s North Plaza hosts a palace lantern carousel decorated with Pop Mart’s “12 classic IPs,” accompanied by a smaller Labubu lantern installation. A Twinkle Twinkle installation sits at the Bund Finance Center’s Sky Garden, framed against the Huangpu River skyline.

The festival blends traditional folk-culture lanterns at Yuyuan with more contemporary, brand-driven installations in new areas. That mix is part spectacle and part commerce: China Daily reported that “the Monsters brand, which includes Labubu, generated 4.81 billion yuan in sales in the first half of 2025, marking 668 percent year-on-year growth and accounting for nearly 35 percent of Pop Mart’s total revenue.” Pop Mart’s high-visibility activations at the Bund include a pop-up store where visitors can buy blind boxes and new series figures.

International visitors were on hand to sample the mash-up of culture and collectibles. Frans-Jan van Meer, a 50-year-old from the Netherlands, said he discovered the pop-up while exploring the Bund and bought blind boxes for his daughters. “It (Pop Mart) has also been in Europe and my daughter has one (Labubu) at home. When I saw the pop-up store, I said I had to buy something for my kids,” he told Globalpeople. Van Meer added that the new Golden Gallop series felt “more Chinese and exotic” and praised the area as “clean, modern and nicely decorated with lanterns, the skyline and everything. It is really amazing.” Local visitor Tian praised Twinkle Twinkle figures: “Twinkle Twinkle is so cute! Their eyes are tiny and lovely, and I do love them very much,” and noted, “They are so popular now and it is often very hard to get one. So I'm very happy to get one here today!”

Photographers captured Labubu in place: a NurPhoto image by Ying Tang shows a Labubu illuminated in front of Shanghai BFC during the Feb 1 opening; the Bund Finance Center photo set also documented the Pop Mart installations. Organizers and collectors framed the festival as a Chinese New Year celebration that is immersing global visitors in national culture while tapping a contemporary zeitgeist.

For collectors and designers following Pop Mart and Labubu, the practical takeaway is clear: the Yuyuan Lantern Festival runs through Mar 3, while the Bund Finance Center’s Garden Fair and pop-up activities continue through Mar 15, offering multiple chances to see lantern installations, hunt blind boxes and experience how collectible IPs are being folded into public festival programming.