China chic: Soft power of DeepSeek, C-wave spreads

From cars to AI and music, the Chinese footprint is everywhere. Should we really be surprised?

- Lee Siew Hua

The cars look like Stormtroopers in a sleepy Katong mall, my friend told me. Mystified, I stopped by the shopping centre on a recent Saturday and faced off against a silent army of all-white BYD T3 electric vans "perma-parked" on an obscure upper deck.

My imaginative friend got it right. The BYD vans had the vibe of elite shock troops from the Star Wars blockbuster movies. But why were they incongruously parked there?

I still don't have the answer. But the sight of these sleek four-wheelers set me thinking about China, the people from China, and our evolving experiences with Chinese goods and services — of which BYD is among those making the headlines.

For sure, these vehicles are in demand. China's BYD was the top-selling car brand in Singapore in 2024, outgunning Japan's Toyota and Germany's BMW.

BYD will now join forces with China's AI phenomenon DeepSeek. Plans were announced in February to integrate DeepSeek's software into 21 of BYD's affordable models.

Reflecting on the growing market share of BYD and other Chinese car brands such as XPeng and Zeekr, I recalled my first ride in a mass-market maroon Dongnan a dozen years ago.

AN EPIC ROAD TRIP

The car seemed unremarkable, though it could whizz us on a 1,000km road trip in the Himalayan foothills of China. I was then a travel writer, accompanied by young English-speaking guide Echo Gao and his childhood friend, driver Wang Xiao Cong.

The workhorse-car may not have left an impression, but our trip inside China's wild, wild west proved to be epic.

Leaving the leisurely metropolis of Chengdu, we drove into the vast spaces within Sichuan province where aristocratic Tibetans strode the grasslands and mountains soared above clouds.

But the splendour was also thoroughly mixed with rigour. It was not an easy journey. The idyll was often washed out by rain and road works.