Fashion Journalism and Cultural Modernity in Shanghai, Singapore
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Thesis Title Looking Modern: Fashion Journalism and Cultural Modernity in Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong Jinna Tay BA Journalism, Media Studies (Hons) Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2006 Keywords Asia, chinese-ness, city, consumption, cosmopolitanism, creative cities, culture, cultural modernity, fashion, fashion journalism, Hong Kong, journalism, looking, magazines, popular culture, sex, Shanghai, Singapore, visual culture. Abstract This thesis examines the development of Asian cultural modernity in the cities of Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai through their fashion magazines. These three cities have positioned themselves as aspirants to global city status, concurrently facilitating their ambitions by relaxing media laws and emphasising cultural production. One outcome is a growth in the production and consumption of fashion magazines. There has been a parallel growth in the consumption of and interest in fashion and self-adornment in these cities, particularly through global brand names. This thesis investigates these cultural transformations by examining the production of fashion texts in the context of their cities. It does this by utilising the concept of fashion journalism (as a product of fashion, journalism and the city) as a means of identifying the contemporary social, cultural and political articulations of these fashion texts. To do so, this research draws together a framework that takes into account different fields (fashion, journalism, modernity, city, Asia) that contribute to the concept of fashion journalism, thereby approaching fashion texts through a multi-disciplinary perspective anchored by establishing the contexts of each city and its specific magazine. The subsequent analyses of Vision (Shanghai), WestEast (Hong Kong) and Harper’s Bazaar Singapore reflect and capture an evolution of these cities coming into their own. With particular emphasis on the cultural assertions of global Chinese identities in WestEast, an escape from national discourses through participating in cosmopolitanism in Harper’s, and the emphasis on popular visual culture as a form of popular literacy and knowledge formation in Vision. These findings contribute firstly, towards an understanding of the issues occurring in the cultural modernisation of these cities and secondly, of fashion journalism as a promoter of the experiences of cultural modernity in Asia. Table of Contents Key Words ii Abstract iii List of Illustrations vi List of Appendices vii Abbreviations viii Acknowledgments x Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: Research Approach 34 Chapter Three: Theoretical Contexts 83 Chapter Four: Shanghai (Vision Magazine) 145 Chapter Five: Singapore (Harper’s Bazaar Singapore) 198 Chapter Six: Hong Kong (WestEast Magazine) 235 Chapter Seven: Fashion Journalism and Cities 277 Chapter Eight: Conclusion 298 Appendix 315 Bibliography 333 List of Illustrations & Tables Illustrations Figure 1. Pentagram ..................................................................................... 34 Figure 2. Cover of Vision, June 2003 …………………………………………..173 Figure 3. Building Inverted Reflection in Water, by Liu Jianhua...….………. 186 Figure 4. Harper’s Bazaar Singapore & Government on Sex and Cosmopolitan ……………………….……………………………………………. 206 Table Table 1. List of Primary Research ……………………………………………… 38 Appendix 1. Covers of Vision, June and March, 2003 2. Cover, April, Vision, 2003; Harry Benson: Celebrity Catcher, March 2003, Vision, p.132 3. Bill & Hilary Clinton, p.147; OJ Simpson, p.134 4. Richard Nixon, p.135; Beatles, p.146 5. Dennis Rodman, p.140; Michael Jackson & son, p.141 6. The Face of Shanghai, June, Vision, 2003, p.78 and p.82 7. The Face of Shanghai, June, Vision, 2003, p.83 and p.84 8. The Face of Shanghai, June, Vision, 2003, p.86 and p.89 9. Covers of Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, February 2004 and June 2005 10. The New Sexy, Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, Feb 2004, p. 46-7 11. Singapore Sexiest Awards, Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, Feb 2004, p. 12. Logo of WestEast, 13. Covers of WestEast 14. Sexual History, Sex: Issue 5, WestEast, 2002, p. 18 15. Chambre Close Shanghai, Sex: Issue 5, WestEast, 2002, p.24-5 16. Opera Men, New China: Issue 8, WestEast, 2003, p. 168-9 17. Cover, Great Magazine 18. Addict Magazine, Great Magazine, p.186 Abbreviations CBD Central Business District CCP Chinese Communist Party FIPP International Federation of the Periodical Press GAPP General Administration for Press and Publication Harper’s Harper’s Bazaar Singapore MITA/MICA Ministry of Information, Communications and The Arts (Singapore) OB Markers Out of Bounds markers PAP People’s Action Party SAR Hong Kong- Special Administrative Region WE WestEast Magazine WMM Worldwide Magazine Marketplace WTO World Trade Organisation Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference in made. Signature __________________________ Date _____________________ Acknowledgements This piece of research seems like a missing puzzle to many of the questions I have asked about Asia, culture and the media, and while not all are answered, it is reassuring to start. From start to finish, it would not have been possible without the brilliance, kindness, support and wisdom of these people. As an intellectual piece of work, my first appreciation goes to my supervisors Professor John Hartley and Dr Ellie Rennie — John for leading me towards this area and then holding the entire picture in his head all along, and Ellie for her humour, clarity and consistent wisdoms. These colleagues and now, friends whom I have met along the way have offered me inspiring ways of looking at and thinking about my work, Alan McKee, Jo Tacchi, Christy Collis, Michelle NorthCoombes, Chua Beng Huat, Terry Flew, Adam Swift, Christine Schmidt, Tripta Chandra, Michael Keane, Sean Maher, Michael Bromley and most of all Callum Gilmour for his support and help in reading proofs. To Chen Yifei, who gave me something to remember him and this research by, I will always treasure it. My gratitude to my family, Pa and Ma, Yong Sing and Jinlu, and especially JinKeng for buying me magazines and collecting media publications for me in whichever city she found herself in. To my granny for always reminding me what is important in life, and finally, the littlest members of my family in Australia: Skimble and RumTum, for sharing my life and being the best cats in the world. CHAPTER ONE: introduction Introduction to Research Context It wasn’t so long ago that pickings were slim on Asia’s newsstands for those in search of a bit of escapism into the world of high spending and fast living. Newspapers, business magazines and a couple of internationally-recognised magazine names have been the staple for years. (2003, Media Hong Kong) A cultural and industrial shift is sweeping across Asian cities like Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It is characterised by a growth in the availability of consumer media products (Wilson 1995; e-Newsletter 2002; Evans 2003). Media has always played an important role in the process of modernisation and the establishment of Western modernity. Along with the rise of the cultural consumption of media and its liberalisation in these cities, other shifts, such as investments in infrastructure for arts and culture and resurgent interest in local talents and designs, evidence a swing towards a cultural revisioning. Yet, what does this cultural revisioning in the city have to do with fashion magazines? What is the relationship between fashion, journalism, modernisation in Asia and the cities of the region? The quotation above indicates that part of this shift is a print revolution occurring at the street level. The key figure (let’s imagine a girl) is part of the increasingly affluent rising middle class (Chua, 2000) who are now able and keen to access a much wider and more diverse range of popular international and local consumer fashion magazines for a combination of reasons from pleasure to escapism, entertainment to information. Local fashion magazines, as a practice of journalism 1 and a cultural product, provide a textual guide to what is exciting and new in the city in terms of what is ‘in fashion’ (clothes, accessories, language, people, places). This thesis looks at the media shift in fashion magazines and its journalism to analyse what is occurring in these cities at their cultural, national and/or regional levels. The modern city, given its width and depth, can never be known in its entirety — so it is experienced through different forms of mediation. Thus, fashion magazine represents one means of negotiating and experiencing the city, a way of accessing the information and understanding its cultures. Fashion magazines inscribe different experiences and capture different representations of the city, its modern life and its dilemmas. To the reader, the ubiquity of fashion magazines and the increased proliferation of titles on the street is evidence of a widening of these modes of experiences occurring in the city. Every fashion magazine targets an ‘ideal’ niche reader, and by doing so defines its own ‘girl’, her taste, style and attitude. The readers of Marie-Claire know that it is expressing a different