Singapore is heated to the “Made in China” brand while the stigma shines Business and Economics News

Singapore – On the afternoon of the week in the heart of the central commercial area, the BYD showroom on the Robinson Road is a picture of a future cold.

Inside, elegant electric cars diminish under the bright white lights, as young professionals are drifting across the area.

A short walk away, Diners is mixing in a BYD restaurant on beer and bar bites in an elegant club-like environment-one of many Lifestyle projects carried out by the Chinese electric vehicle giant across Singapore.

It is a scene that reflects a greater shift.

Once it is seen as cheap and practical at best, Chinese brands became desirable – even aspiration – between the middle class in Singapore.

Senzhen -based BYD was the best -selling car maker in the city’s state in the first half of 2025.

The EV maker sold approximately 4,670 cars-about 20 percent of the total vehicle sales-during this period, according to government data, compared to about 3,460 cars sold by Toyota in second place.

Several other Chinese brands have also achieved great invasions, from the Chagee tea series to the Toymaker Pop Mart and Selectonys Xiaomi maker Xiaomi maker, and the formation of how to make Singaporeans, comfort and play.

Singapore and Malaysia had the largest concentration on Chinese food and drink brands in Southeast Asia last year, according to Momentum Works, where 32 China -based companies run 184 outlets in the city of the city as of June 2024.

Meanwhile, Chinese technology companies, including Bytedance, Alibaba Cloud, and Tencent, have chosen Singapore for their regional bases.

The 28 -year -old health care worker said she was cautious about the “Made In China” brand, but turned her point of view after a visit to the country last year.

“They are very self -sufficient. They have their own products and do not need to rely on international brands, and the quality was amazingly reliable,” Silva told Al -Jazeera.

These days, Silva regularly supports Chinese brands for foods, often after seeing certain dishes or snacks that take off on social media.

She said, compared to Japanese or Korean brands, Chinese chains are “innovative and fast in innovation and food trends”, although she admits that she sometimes feels that she “takes” from local brands.

“In some way, I felt that there will be no big difference in visiting China, because many of its brands are already here,” she said.

Samer Lahjar, the chief lecturer at the Marketing Department of the College of Business Administration at the University of Singapore at the Faculty of Marketing at the University of Singapore (NUS), said for the younger Singaporene, the old stigma on the products “made in China” fades.

“Many of these brands are now seen as wonderful, modern and emotional with what young consumers want. They feel that they are local and international at the same time.”

“You can walk in Chegee and feel that you are part of a new type of aesthetic culture: clean design, soft lighting, and soothing music. It does not sell a product. It sells a feeling.”

Eagar said that Chinese companies were designed by the excessive competitive e -commerce scene in China, and they were particularly innovative in the introduction of smart marketing strategies.

“These brands now play the same emotional game that the LEGacy brands master for decades,” he said.

Singapore, where about three quarters of the Chinese ethnic population, is a particularly attractive test for Chinese brands that look forward to expanding abroad, according to analysts.

Doris Ho, who led a brand consulting company in Greater China from 2010 to 2022, said that Chinese brands managed to succeed in Singapore through a bold and creative approach to innovation that appeals to local sensitivities.

Ho said, “The Edge of the New China” appears in the BYD features, such as integrated refrigerators and spacious interiors that can be used for sleep, and the exorbitant Hotpot Haidilao chain, which sees customers who treat live music, checons, and hands.

“When they are invented, they do not follow the same lines that you expect. It is their way of looking at something and going out with a completely surprising answer.”

Elajjar said that for Chinese brands, Singapore offers a “sand box with real risk” as a compressed market, morally varied and globally connected.

He said that Singapore is a sophisticated, effective and aspiration success, in the case of the city “sends a strong message.”

The rise of Chinese brands coincided with Singapore’s increasing dependence on the Chinese economy.

China has been the largest trading partner in Singapore since 2013, with bilateral trade in commodities last year to 170.2 billion dollars.

Alain Chung, a senior fellow at Rajuratnam College for International Studies (RSIS), said that with the expansion of Western companies or expanding temporarily, Chinese brands have moved, as many real estate sector in Singapore and entrenched themselves in the country.

Chung said that the Singapore government had been active in Chinese companies, amid uncertainty that US President Donald Trump arrives at the geopolitical scene.

“You see the positive image of the United States, it is constantly slipping,” Chong told the island of the island.

“The United States has acted dangerously, upset with continuous commercial tariffs, while China remains a world factory – it is seen as an economic donor – so there will be a preacher in terms of looking at China positively.”

Chung said that Singapore has also become a virtual home for some Chinese middle -class citizens, many of whom have property in the country.

Singaporean universities also made concerted efforts to attract Chinese students, even with some programs that are presented in Chinese mandarin.

In a report issued earlier this year by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the China Center and Globalization based in Beijing, Singapore ranked second in the most popular destination for Chinese students after the United Kingdom.

Some analysts have noticed the rise of “Chinese born” (Bac)-a people of Chinese origin outside China, especially in Singapore and Malaysia, who adopt a strong identity supporting religious, despite limited cultural or linguistic relations.

Donald Lu, a lecturer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, defined the so -called Pax that those who adopt an “ideal and romantic” “ideal” “is inevitably” increasing “and” standing heroic against the dominant West. “

The success of Chinese brands in Singapore was not without some retreat.

Elhajjar said that some of the residents of Singapore felt isolated by stores that work mainly in the Chinese Mandarin, given that the city state has one of the largest inhabitants of migrants in the world, as well as large minorities of millions and Indians born in the world.

There were also concerns about the local brands that are priced outside the market through the arrival of large companies with deep pockets.

The height of the rents led to the closure of 3000 F&B companies in 2024, the highest number since 2005, the newsasia channel reported in January.

In a modern white paper, the tenants in Singapore United called for fairness, a cooperation representing more than 700 business owners, to restrictions on “new and foreign players”.

Lyong Chan Hong, head of the RSIS Social cohesion program, warned against blame for Chinese companies for social tensions or high rents, describing the lines provided by some brands as part of the natural cycle of the economy that the market is driving.

“As a global city country, we are always at the forefront of such transformations,” Lyong told Al Jazerera.

In fact, for many population in Singapore, the increasing presence of Chinese brands is simply an improper part of daily life.

Lee Ngwin, 29 -year -old Vietnamese immigrant, said that she started collecting Labubu, Gremlin games that resemble Gremlin that Pop Mart created, after her family was “ugly but fun”.

“Labubu represents an independent creativity and new confidence in Chinese designer souvenirs,” Najwin told Al Jazerera.

For Noguyen, the popularity of Labubu dolls, which were seen with celebrities like Rihanna and BlackPink’s Lisa, indicates that generations have shifted to how Chinese cultural exports.

She said: “The more he becomes the most familiar with these brands, the greater the younger generations will be a new and more convenient conception of China as a cultural power,” she said.