Katy Perry, widely known in China as Shui Guo Jie (水果姐, Fruit Sister), returned to the country for the first time in a decade. Her The Lifetimes Tour brought sold-out shows to Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Haikou over the past week.
Her trip began even before the China leg officially kicked off. Fans posted sightings of her around West Lake, and she was photographed at Lingyin Temple—a famous site visited for “accurate wishes” related to career and romance. Holding incense sticks like a local, she followed the rituals, prompting fans to joke that she was hoping to “revive her career,” a playful nod to the term huichun (回春), meaning “returning to spring” or revitalization.
During the concerts, the biggest meme came when a fan tossed a Labubu toy onstage. Perry initially prepared to throw it aside—as she had done in Australia five months earlier, sparking mild controversy—but stopped when she realized the toy had her own face on it. Fans quickly nicknamed it “Katy-bubu,” or “La Guo Guo,” a pun on her “Fruit Sister” moniker.
Emotional moments surfaced as well. While performing “Bandaids” in the same outfit from the music video, she received teddy bears symbolizing the support her KatyCats have shown throughout her career—from the underperforming 143 era to the more divisive tour she has embarked on now. But she still slipped humor into the night: After a foreign fan posted on Twitter showing fans serenading Perry with “Woman’s World” in a “random store,” Chinese fans immediately pointed out that the “random store” was MINISO, the Chinese mainland’s largest retail chain—and one for which Perry happens to be an official ambassador.
But one thing that a foreign fan said was true: Chinese fans always show her especially pure affection. They kept tossing custom Katy-faced Labubu dolls onstage even after she flung the previous one away with her mic, understanding it as part of her dramatic stage persona and an inside joke.
One fan ran into her returning a shared bike after visiting a tourist site and showed her merchandise he had designed based on her albums—Perry later posted him on Instagram. She ended her Haikou show with a surprise performance of “Unconditionally” and a sky full of fireworks, thanking her Chinese fans with a bright “God bless China.” It was a sweet, playful gesture—one of the warmest a major American pop star has offered her Chinese audience in recent memory.
Cover Image via X.
