Singapore – On a weekday afternoon in the heart of the Central Business District, the BYD showroom on Robinson Road is a futuristic cool photo.
Inside, a refined electric car shines under bright white light as young professionals waft through the space.
A short walk away, the diners mix with craft beer and bar bitten Bide brand restaurants in a chic member club-like setting.
This scene reflects a bigger change.
Once considered cheap and functional, Chinese brands become rapidly desirable and even ambitious among Singapore’s middle class.
Based in Shenzhen, BYD was the city-state’s top selling automaker in the first half of 2025.
The EV maker sold around 4,670 cars over the period, compared to the approximately 3,460 vehicles sold at Toyota, the second-placed number two, according to government data.
Many other Chinese brands have shaped how Singaporeans work, rest and play, from tea chain changes to toymer pop mart and electronics maker Xiaomi.
Singapore and Malaysia had the most concentration of Chinese food and drink brands in Southeast Asia last year, according to research firm Momentum Works, 32 China-based companies operate 184 outlets in city-states as of June 2024.
At the same time, Chinese tech companies, including the Ordinance, Alibaba Cloud and Tencent, have chosen Singapore as their regional base.
Thahirah Silva, a 28-year-old healthcare worker, said she was on the lookout for the “Made in China” label, but after visiting the country last year, she changed her perspective.
“They are very self-sufficient. They have their own products and don’t have to resort to international brands. The quality was amazingly reliable,” Silva told Al Jazeera.
Recently, Silva regularly sample Chinese food brands. Often after seeing certain dishes or snacks take off on social media.
Compared to Japanese and Korean brands, Chinese chains said they can “be creative, innovate and quickly set food trends,” but admitted they feel they are “taking over” from local brands.
“For some reason, a lot of their brands are already here, so it made me feel like there’s not much difference to visiting China,” she said.
For young Singaporeans, the old stigma regarding products “made in China” is declining, said Summer Elhajar, senior lecturer in marketing at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School.
“Many of these brands are now cool, modern and emotionally recognized to suit what young consumers want.
“You can step into the chant and feel like you’re part of a new kind of aesthetic culture: clean design, soft lighting, calm music. It’s not selling products. It sells senses.”
Shaped by China’s competitive e-commerce landscape, Chinese companies are particularly skilled at developing digitally savvy marketing strategies, El Hajar said.
“These brands are now playing the same emotional games that Legacy Western brands have been learning for decades,” he said.
According to analysts, Singapore, which is about three-quarters of its population, is a particularly attractive testbed for Chinese brands seeking to expand overseas.
Doris Ho, who led China’s leading brand consultants from 2010 to 2022, said that the Chinese brand was able to succeed in Singapore with a bold and creative approach to innovation that appeals to local sensibilities.
Ho said the “new China Edge” will be visible in BYD features, including built-in fridges and spacious folding interiors for sleep use, spacious folding interiors, and the luxurious hospitality of Haidilao.
“When they innovate, they don’t follow the same line as you expect. It’s their way of looking at something and coming out with a completely surprising answer,” Ho told Al Jazeera.
For Chinese brands, Singapore offers “real interest sandboxes” as a compact, ethically diverse and globally connected market, El Hajar said.
Success in the city-state “sends a strong message,” he said, as Singapore is seen as sophisticated, efficient and positive.
The rise of Chinese brands coincides with Singapore’s increasing dependence on the Chinese economy.
China has been Singapore’s largest trading partner since 2013, with property trade reaching $170 billion last year.
As Western companies have expanded or suspended, Chinese brands have come in, and many are effectively supporting Singapore’s real estate sector and entrenching themselves within the country, says Alan Chong, a senior fellow at S Rajaratnam International Studies (RSIS).
The Singapore government also actively courted Chinese companies amid uncertainty after President Donald Trump arrived on a geopolitical scene, Chong said.
“We see a very consistently gliding positive image of the US,” Chong told Al Jazeera.
“The US has acted in a disastrous and resented way with continued trade tariffs, but there is a swing in terms of viewing China favorably, as China is a factory of the world and is seen as an economic benefactor.”
Chung said Singapore has also become the virtual second home of some Chinese people, many of whom own property in the city-state.
The universities in Singapore have worked together to attract Chinese students.
In a report released earlier this year by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Beijing-based China and the Globalization Centre, Singapore ranks as the second most popular destination for Chinese students after the UK.
Some analysts have observed the rise of “reborn Chinese” (BAC). Chinese people, especially in Singapore and Malaysia, embrace a strong Chinese identity despite limited cultural or linguistic connections.
Donald Law, a lecturer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, defined the so-called BAC as those who “inevitably rise” and adopt the “ideal and romantic” Chinese ideas “standing bravely in the hegemonic West.”
The success of Chinese brands in Singapore is not without some kind of pushback.
Some Singaporean residents feel alienated by stores run primarily in Chinese, El Hajar feels that they are alienated given that the city-state has one of the world’s largest immigrant groups and a large portion of native-born Malays and Indians.
There have also been concerns about the arrival of large companies with deep pockets that will remove their country’s brands from the market.
Rent rises caused 3,000 F&B businesses to close in 2024, the highest number since 2005, Channel Newsasia reported in January.
In a recent whitepaper, Singaporean tenants called for curbs for “new and foreign athletes,” a cooperative that represents more than 700 business owners.
Leong Chan-Hoong, head of the RSIS Social Cohesion Research Program, warns Chinese companies against denouncement of social tensions and rising rents, explaining the invasions made by several brands as part of a natural cycle of a market-driven economy.
“As a city-state of the world, we are always at the forefront of such a transition,” Leon told Al Jazeera.
In fact, for many Singaporeans, the presence of Chinese brands is just an inconspicuous part of everyday life.
Ly Nguyen, a 29-year-old Vietnamese immigrant who works in high-tech sales, said he began collecting Lovebu, a gremlin-like toy created by Pop Mart.
“Loveub represents independent creativity and new confidence in China-designed memorials,” Nguyen told Al Jazeera.
For Nguyen, the popularity of Labubu Dolls, discovered by celebrities such as Rihanna and Blackpink’s Lisa, shows a generational change in how Chinese cultural exports are seen.
“The more familiar people there are to these brands, the more likely the younger generation will have a new, far more favorable perception of China as a cultural force,” she said.
