This article made me think about another one I read in The New Yorker about how Chinese entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the pandemic to sell this type of merch: Peter Hessler's "Manufacturing Diplomacy".

This was an odd article to print in the magazine, I thought. It seemed way more internet-based/clickbait than print-based. That's not to bash on Mull or the article, who I read often, just that it was a weird choice to print instead of letting it stay online for some clicks on social media.