“New Man” and “New Lad” with Chinese Characteristics? Cosmopolitanism, Cultural Hybridity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines in China

Abstract

In China, although “general interest” magazines can be said to have existed during the Maoist and early post-Maoist eras, Western-style magazines that promote a consumerist lifestyle came into being and gained widespread popularity only in the past two decades. Among them, an entire group of titles consists of localised Chinese editions of internationally popular lifestyle magazines. This paper explores the interaction of global trends and influences with local cultures and realities in men's lifestyle magazines published in China. In particular, it discusses the Chinese “variations” of the Western “new man” and “new lad” types of male image. Despite the superficial similarities with Western images, critical readings and quantitative studies of the verbal and visual content of these magazines reveal some distinctive “Chinese” features. As a form of popular culture, the men's lifestyle magazine lends expression to the fantasies, desires and needs of “new rich” men in China. With consumerism and aspirationalism at the centre of its ideological construction, it serves as an interesting site of negotiation between what Lisa Rofel calls the two aspects of “cosmopolitanism with Chinese characteristics” – namely, a self-conscious transcendence of locality and a domestication of cosmopolitanism by way of renegotiating China's place in the world.

Keywords:

• China
• men's magazines
• masculinity
• gender
• popular culture
• cosmopolitanism
• cultural hybridity
• consumerism

Acknowledgments

Part of an earlier version of this article was presented at the Chinese Studies Association of Australia (CSAA) 2011 Conference in Canberra. The authors wish to thank Tamara Jacka, Gaik Cheng Khoo, Shirley Shi and two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. In Britain, the men's magazine originated with the rise of Playboy, which was launched in 1953. In the USA, Esquire and GQ were launched in the 1930s. Men's interest magazines, including titles on motoring, hobbies and pornography, generally have a far longer history (Osgerby, 2001; Benwell, 2003).

2. The first Western-style women's lifestyle magazine, a Chinese edition of Elle, appeared in 1988. See Karan and Feng (2009, pp. 161–63) for a brief discussion of women's magazines in China before 1988. As for men's magazines, Shishang xiansheng (Esquire), the first men's lifestyle magazine in mainland China, was launched in 1999; see Lee, 2008; Hird, 2009; Song and Lee, 2010; and McDonald, 2011. For a general discussion of Western magazines in China, see Rohn, 2010, pp. 218–26.

3. For detailed discussions of the dialectical relationship between cosmopolitanism and nationalism, see Cheah and Robbins, 1998; especially Part One.

4. Interviews were conducted during fieldwork trips to Beijing in January 2008 and November 2010. In total, we conducted 14 interviews with magazine publishers, editors and readers, including Liu Jiang, president of Trends Group; Wang Feng, the former editor-in-chief of Shishang xiansheng (Esquire); and Shouma, editor of Nanren zhuang (FHM). In addition, two telephone interviews were conducted with Zhou Song, editor of Shishang jiankang (Men’s Health) and Yu Huiming, executive editor of Daren zhi (Men's Uno) in April 2011.

5. According to Shuang Li (2010), “magazines in China can be classified as circulation-driven or advertisement-driven. Circulation-driven models aim for low-income readers, while those that rely on advertising target higher-income readers” (p. 4).

6. This is a pet phrase of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. He used this metaphor on a variety of occasions to talk about the need to strike a balance between economic reform and maintaining social control or between “spiritual civilisation” and “material civilisation”. See http://wenda.tianya.cn/wenda/thread?tid = 19e48cf114172cfd, accessed 7 June 2012.

7. See, for instance, the i70s website: http://www.i70s.com/, accessed 14 April 2010.

8. The localisation of international men's magazines has proceeded at an accelerating rate in recent years, which presumably reflects both the increasingly keen competition in the market and the rise of China's “soft power” in the arena of culture. During the first six years of its publication (1999–2005), for instance, Shishang xiansheng (Esquire) looked very much like its British partner, with the faces of Western men dominating the front covers and most visual and textual content directly borrowed or translated from its “mother edition”. However, after March 2005, when Wang Feng became the executive editor-in-chief and more and more competitors began to emerge in the market, they gradually changed the style of the magazine and increasingly focused on local elements. Today, more Chinese faces appear on the covers and localised content is growing rapidly. This increasing process of localisation has also occurred in Shishang jiankang (Men's Health). A study of its cover pictures reveals a discernible trend (since the beginning of its second year of publication) to replace European and American faces with Chinese stars, such as the “hot […] young, but not particularly muscular” actor Liu Ye, national football players Zhen Zhi and Liu Yunfei, model Hu Bing, and entrepreneur Zhang Chaoyang (McDonald, 2011, pp. 169–70).

9. See http://www.trendsmag.com/trendsmag/FHM/project/20080620/, accessed 2 May 2011, and http://pic.women.sohu.com/group-207377.shtml#g = 207377&p = 1795405, accessed 2 May 2011 for details of art exhibitions, beauty pageants, and other activities organised by Nanren zhuang on the theme of “Chinese-style sexy”.

10. The advertisements were selected from 12 issues of Shishang xiansheng and Nanren zhuang (sample copies from April 2004 to December 2007). All full-page, half-page and one-third page advertisements have been content-analysed, comprising 803 advertisements in total. Of the 803 advertisements, 625 were from Shishang xiansheng and 178 from Nanren zhuang.

11. This is based on a questionnaire on the readership of Chinese men's magazines conducted through the website my3q.com. Over a six-month period (from 12 February 2010 to 11 August 2010), a total of 170 valid answers was collected.

12. The data is based on the 12 issues of FHM (Australia) (1, 468 pages in total) and Nanren zhuang (2,016 pages in total) in 2010, excluding advertisements, editor's notes and readers' letters.