Singapore – On an afternoon from Monday to Friday in the heart of the Central Business District, the Byd exhibition hall in Robinson Road is an image of Futuristic Cool.
Inside, elegant electric cars shine under bright white lights as young professionals move away from space.
Only a short walk, diners mix in a restaurant by the Byd brand on craft beer and the bar bites in an elegant environment of members of members, one of the various lifestyle companies that the giant of Chinese electric vehicles has spread by Singapore.
It is a scene that reflects a bigger change.
Once seen as cheap and functional at best, Chinese brands are becoming quickly desirable, even aspirational, among Singapore's middle class.
Byd, based in Shenzhen, was, with much, the best-selling car manufacturer in the city-stated in the first half of 2025.
The EV manufacturer sold almost 4,670 cars, approximately 20 percent of total vehicle sales, during the period, according to government data, compared to approximately 3,460 vehicles sold by Toyota in second place.
Many other Chinese brands have also made great incursions, from the Cheagee tea chain to Tymaker Pop Mart and the Xiaomi electronics manufacturer, shaping the way they work, rest and play Singapurenses.
Singapore and Malaysia had the highest concentration of Chinese food and drink brands in Southeast Asia last year, according to the Momentum Works research firm, with 32 companies based in China that operate 184 points of sale in the city-state as of June 2024.
At the same time, Chinese technology companies, including Bytedance, Alibaba Cloud and Tencent, have chosen Singapore for their regional bases.
The health worker, Thahirah Silva, 28, said she used to distrust the “Made in China” label, but changed her perspective after a visit to the country last year.
“They are very self -sufficient. They have their own products and do not need to trust international brands, and the quality was surprisingly reliable,” Silva told Al Jazeera.
These days, Silva regularly shows Chinese food marks, often after seeing particular dishes or snacks taking off on social networks.
Compared to Japanese or Korean brands, he said, Chinese chains are “creative, fast to innovate and establish food trends”, although he admits that sometimes they seem to “assume” of local brands.
“Somehow, it made me feel that there will be much difference to visit China, since many of its brands are already here,” he said.
For the younger Singapurenses, the old stigmas around the products “made in China” are fading, said Samer Elhajjar, professor of the Business School of the National University of the National University of Singapore (NUS).
“Many of these brands are now perceived as great, modern and emotionally in tune with what young consumers want. They feel local and global at the same time,” Elhajjar told Al Jazeera.
“You can enter a Cheagee and feel that you are part of a new type of aesthetic culture: clean design, soft lighting, soothing music. It is not selling a product. It is selling a sensation.”
Molded by the hypercompetitive e -commerce panorama of China, Chinese companies have been especially experts in implementing marketing strategies with digital knowledge, said Elhajjar.
“These brands are now playing the same emotional game as Western Legacy brands have dominated for decades,” he said.
According to analysts, according to analysts, Singapore, where around three quarters of the population is an ethnic Chinese, is a highly attractive trial bed for Chinese brands seeking to expand abroad.
Doris Ho, who directed a brand consultancy in Greater China from 2010 to 2022, said that Chinese brands have been able to succeed in Singapore with a bold and creative approach to innovation that attracts local sensibilities.
He said that this “new edge of China” appears in BYD characteristics, such as spacious and folding built -in and interior refrigerators that can be used to sleep, and the Hotpot Hotpot's Extravagant Hospitality Hotpot chain, which sees customers treated with live music performances, shoes, hand massages and manicures.
“When they innovate, they do not follow the same lines that you would expect. It is their way of seeing something and going out with a completely surprising response,” Ho to Al Jazeera told.
For Chinese brands, Singapore offers “a box of sand with real bets” as a compact market, ethically diverse and globally connected, said Elhajjar.
Because Singapore is seen as sophisticated, efficient and with a vision of the future, the success in the city-state “sends a powerful message,” he said.
The emergence of Chinese brands has coincided with the growing dependence of Singapore in China's economy.
China has been Singapore's largest shopping partner since 2013, with a bilateral trade of goods last year reaching $ 170.2 billion.
As the Western companies delayed or paused the expansion, the Chinese brands moved, and many effectively underpin the Singapore real estate sector and strengthened in the country, said Alan Chong, a senior member of the Senior S School S Rajaratnam of International Studies (RSI).
The Singapore government has also actively courted Chinese companies amid the uncertainty of the arrival of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to the geopolitical scene, Chong said.
“You see the positive image of the United States that slide quite consistently,” Chong told Al Jazeera.
“The United States has acted in an innocent and resentful way with continuous commercial tariffs, while China remains a factory in the world, seen as an economic benefactor, so there will be a swing in terms of looking at China favorably.”
Chong said Singapore has also become a second virtual home for some middle-class Chinese citizens, many of whom have properties in the city-state.
Singapore universities have also made a concerted effort to attract Chinese students, and some even introduce programs taught in Mandarin Chinese.
In a report published earlier this year by the Ministry of Education of China and the center of China and Globalization based in Beijing, Singapore was classified as the second most popular destination for Chinese students after the United Kingdom.
Some analysts have observed the emergence of “BAC)” BAC), people of Chinese descent outside China, especially in Singapore and Malaysia, who adopt a strong pro-china identity, despite the limited cultural or linguistic ties.
Donald Low, a professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has defined the so -called BAC as those who adopt an “idealized and romantic” idea of a China that is “inevitably increasing” and “remains heroically against a west hegemonic.”
The success of Chinese brands in Singapore has not been without any setback.
Some Singapore residents have felt alienated by stores that operate mainly in Mandarin Chinese, said Elhajjar, since the city-state has one of the world's largest immigrants populations, as well as large minorities of Malays and native Indians.
There have also been concerns raised about local brands that have a price outside the market for the arrival of large companies with deep pockets.
The increase in rentals resulted in the closure of 3,000 F&B companies in 2024, the highest number since 2005, Channel Newsasia reported in January.
In a recent white paper, Singapore tenants joined justice, a cooperative that represents more than 700 business owners, asked for edges of “new and foreign players.”
Leong Chan-Hoong, head of the RSIS Social Cohesion Research Program, warned against the fault of Chinese companies for social tensions or increasing rentals, which describes the incursions made by some brands as part of the natural cycle of an economy promoted by the market.
“As a global city-state, we are always at the forefront of such transitions,” Leong told Al Jazeera.
In fact, for many residents in Singapore, the growing presence of Chinese brands is simply a non -remarkable part of daily life.
Ly Nguyen, a 29 -year -old Vietnamese migrant who works in technological sales, said he began to collect Labubu, globally popular Gremlin type toys created by Pop Mart, after being captivated by his “ugly but fun” aesthetics.
“Labubu represents independent creativity and a new confidence in memories designed by China,” Nguyen told Al Jazeera.
For Nguyen, the popularity of Labubu dolls, which have been seen with celebrities such as Rihanna and Lisa de Blackpink, points to a generational change in the way Chinese cultural exports are seen.
“The more familiar people become with these brands, the more likely the youngest generations will have a new and much more favorable perception towards China as a cultural power,” he said.
