Introduction

Fashion and lifestyle magazines emerged in post-Maoist China in the context of economic reform and opening to the outside world, which had far-reaching effects not only in the economical, but also the social and cultural spheres. They were also the outcome of an official initiative that began in the late 1980s and gained impetus during the 1990s, aimed at reducing state funding and marketization of the media. Chinese bestselling fashion magazines are not subsidized by the state, and their success is built upon effective marketing strategies. They present their target readership – the newly affluent middle class – with images of modernity and world fashion.

The 1990s also saw the emergence of cultural studies in China. Chinese scholars enthusiastically took up research into new local cultural phenomena, especially those perceived as cultural imports from the broadly understood West, as they offered an opportunity for discussions on globalization and Western cultural imperialism. Fashion magazines, especially Chinese editions of well-known Western magazines, became a popular subject of analysis conducted within the trendy methodological framework of critical studies. As such, they were also frequent targets of more or less harsh criticism for promoting Western consumerism, transforming women into objects of the male gaze and indiscriminate copying of Western models (Zhang, 2002; Guo, 2003; Meng, 2004; Liu & Qi, 2006, and others).