Besides traditional marketing methods, Barbie Shanghai will also try something new, such as setting up a design center, enabling visitors to create dolls by themselves and take their works back home.

There is also a show area on the fifth floor, where girls can participate in fashion shows accompanied by their parents. Wearing Barbie clothes and being photographed, girls can experience the feeling of being a fashion model.

Collectors can also get Barbie dolls that are specially designed for the Shanghai market and are sold only in the store.

Branding is everything

Mattel has decided to forge Barbie into a new fashion brand. Through cooperation with leading designers around the world, such as Jeremy Scott and Vera Wang, the company plans to provide quality garments for adult Barbie fans.

In addition, to attract young girls, the company will also explore the cosmetic market by launching Barbie make-up products.

All these new products will be sold in the Shanghai flagship store, according to the store's website. The high-quality clothes are not versions of clothes that Barbie wears, but new designs bearing the Barbie logo. These Barbie clothes are targeted at middle- and above-middle-income earners and each of them will sell for around 1,600 yuan ($211), said the website.

Mattel said that the company had no plan to open a Barbie flagship store in Beijing. But if the Shanghai store runs well, they may consider Beijing.

"Choosing Shanghai as the location of our flagship store is because the city represents fashion, culture and art," said Richard Dickson, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Barbie Brand, in an article in the Tianjin Daily.

He said that the popularity of Barbie dolls in China exceeded Mattel's expectations. Young Chinese mothers who grow up with Barbie dolls will be potential consumers of Barbie-brand products, he said.

"We are making Barbie a fashion and lifestyle brand that spans different age groups, which will always be driven by creativity," said Dickson.

But whether such an ambitious market strategy will work in China is still uncertain. Admitting this, Dickson said that his company had worked out a long-term plan directed at the Chinese market, which will ensure that Barbie's market share will increase rapidly in five to 10 years.

Fate of Chinese dolls?

Faced with growing Barbie fever, many Chinese are worried about the increasing influence of Western beauty on Chinese children, in terms of taste and way of life. People say Chinese children should have their own icon dolls with typical Chinese looks.

In fact, such dolls have already been developed. In 2001, Yue-Sai dolls, with yellow skin and black eyes and hair, were created by Chinese-American Yue-Sai Kan, a famous television personality and founder of a cosmetics company.

Kan's idea of developing a Chinese-looking doll stemmed from a true experience. In the past, she found it difficult to find dolls with black hair and Chinese eyes to give as gifts to her American friends.

However, after years of development, the popularity of Yue-Sai dolls still cannot compete with her Western competitor, Barbie.

But Eastern or Western, many Chinese parents believe that if dolls bring happiness to children and even offer them a chance to dream, they are welcomed, no matter what color their skin is.