Chinese Fashion Industry - Essay Example

The government of the People's Republic of China plays a major role in the country's media industry. Most of the largest media houses in this country are owned by the government. This includes the China Central Television (CCTV), xinhua and the People's Daily. There are certain topics that the media in China is not supposed to touch on (Jintao, 2005). This includes such issues as the legitimacy of the ruling party in this country, the Communist Party of China. Other issues include that of Tibet and the religion of China, Falun Gong. The government censors the media heavily, with foreign materials and literature screened thoroughly before they are consumed by the Chinese. This not withstanding, the media of the people's republic of china is one of the vibrant one around the world. Due to the fact that the government no longer subsidizes the state media houses, they have been affected by a shortage of fund (Evans, 2004). This means that they cannot function fully. This has given them a motivation to move away from being the government mouth pieces to produce items that can be consumed by the public. This has meant even going overboard and starting to import foreign programs to broadcast to the local audience. However, the foreign content is still tightly censored by the government. This phenomenon can be found both in print and electronic media. The number of newspapers and magazines circulating in the country has more than tripled in the last three decades. In 2004, the number of magazines circulating in china was approximately 9700. More than a quarter of these titles were commercial magazines. It is a fact that the government has relaxed its regulation on both local and foreign literature, albeit at a small measure. This, coupled with the increased wealth of the Chinese citizens, has attracted a lot of foreign media. Introduction The twenty first century has seen an influx of international and foreign media in this country. This includes print media and electronic media. The people of china can now watch foreign program, albeit loosely censored, via the pay channels. They are able now to read publications from the international media houses like the New York Times. Foreign fashion magazines have not been left behind (Xing, 2009). A lot of fashion magazines are now available to Chinese people from foreign publishers. The September of the year 2005 saw such one magazine been launched in china. Conde Nast, the publishers of best selling fashion magazines, launched a local version of one of their best selling magazine. This was Vogue, which they labelled Vogue China (Gareth, 2008). The magazine had some local content with a dash of foreign fashion literature. The first issue was a thick, 430 pages of fashion (Gareth, 2008). It sold very first. In fact, the first 300,000 copies were literally scrambled for by the local fashionistas. The cover model was Australian Gemma Ward. But there was also a dash of local models like Wang Wenqin, Tong Chenjie among others (Miss Zhang, personal communication, 2008). This was the case with other foreign magazines that were making their debut in the Chinese market. However, this success was short lived. Three years down the line, vogue china seems to have grounded to a halt as far as influencing the Chinese fashion culture is concerned (Xing, 2009). It has been left for the few people in the society who are in the elite segment and who have western and foreign orientations. Vogue china can be described as having failed on its mission to change the Chinese. However, local fashion magazines have succeeded in these areas that high end and foreign magazines have failed. The above scenario is not restricted to Vogue China only. Others international magazines which had enjoyed some measure of success after their launching have fizzled out (Latham, 2007). This paper will look at the reason why this is so. Could it be the change in consumer taste, competition or other factors which have led to this scenario The writer, having been an intern at Vogue China offices, will try to look at this issue both from the layman's point of view and the insider point of view. To capture the views of the insiders in this industry, the writer will quote interviews that he conducted with the industry players. He interviewed fashion editors at Vogue China and from other fashion houses. The content of this magazine, together with that of other magazines like ELLE China, Women's Friend and other magazines in the Chinese society were analysed. He integrated his views as an intern in a fashion media house. Statistics on the circulation of the magazines and customer satisfaction will be analysed. The writer will be guide by some media theories that will try to explain this phenomenon. He will try to explain why local fashion magazines succeed where the foreign ones fail. Objectives of the Research The writer carried out the research on the field. He spent one year serving as an intern to a fashion magazine. He was Editorial Assistant Intern at VOGUE China. His study was guided by one broad objective, that of finding out why the international fashion magazines lose their social power in the Chinese society. He took as his case study the magazine "vogue China". In order to capture well this phenomenon, the writer was however guided by some specific objectives. These specific objectives are outlined below: What is the current situation of the Chinese media today in relation to global fashion industry What is the current status of fashion magazines in Chinese society today What are the characteristics of the targeted market of international and local fashion magazines What are the possible factors that make international fashion magazines, like Vogue China, lose social power in the Chinese society What are the major differences between the local Chinese fashion magazines and the international ones that make the former succeed while the latter fails How do the readers receive and react to these differences and what impact do they have on the international magazines Which are the major theories on media can help explain this phenomenon Chinese Media Industry As explained before in this paper, the government of this country plays a major role in shaping thee content and conduct of the Chinese media. Majority of the media houses were owned, and are still owned, by the government of china (Garth, 2008). Thee media houses acts as mouth pieces and propaganda machines for the Chinese government. However, the twenty first century saw the reduction of government subsidies and financing of the state media houses. Some media houses, like the CCTV, found it hard to survive in this new environment. This called for adjustments within the media houses to ensure that they survived the financial strain (Montgomery, 2007). The alternative was the closure of these media houses due to lack of funds. New strategies were to be devised if the media houses were to remain afloat (Chang, 2006). Most media houses get their revenue from the commercial that they carry in their papers or transmissions. In an economy controlled by forces of demand and supply, companies will only advertise their products in the media houses that they feel have the wider coverage to reach the targeted market. It is up to the executives in the media houses to make sure that their content is much more attractive to recruit more readers and hence more revenue from the advertisers (Stokes, 2002). A state owned media house does not have to go through all this since the government will meet its financial needs. The hitherto state owned media houses had to change tact to attract more clients. The only way they had to do this was to change their content. This saw many newspapers and tabloids owned by the state start to alter their content (Montgomery, 2007). They started to take a critical stand against the state and its policies. This was aimed at recruiting more clients who were averse to government propaganda (Garth, 2008). The media and communications industry in this country is still controlled by the government. This is via various agencies and regulators owned by the state. These include state administration of radio and television, ministry of information technology ministry of public security (Chang, 2006). The print media in china is regulated by General Administration of Press and Publications (Chang, 2006). This controls the content of both the magazines and newspapers. The media of the Chinese society has undergone major liberations in the twenty first century. The government had to cede some of the control on the media to be accommodated into the global community (Chang, 2006). This is because; the media control that it had was seen as oppression of the Chinese people which could not be tolerated by the western countries. To assume a global look, it had to do loosen some of the regulations. This was especially in the sector of foreign content in the local media as well as the actual penetration of local media into the Chinese industry. Foreign media have grown in China. Foreign media houses have correspondents in China as well as bringing in their materials to china (Latham, 2007). This was especially so after the current president, Hu Jintao, ascended to power. It was very evident during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This saw the influx of foreign publications in china. These foreign publications included fashion magazines like Vogue, Elle amongst others. These fashion magazines had the option of publishing editions that were specifically aimed at china market or to distribute their international magazines in China (Latham, 2007). Vogue opted for publishing an edition specifically for China. It called this VOGUE CHINA. Fashion Magazines in China Fashion magazines are very important in a society that embraces fashion. Lingxu, a fashion editor at Vogue China, is of the view that "fashion becomes an integral part of the society as a result of the fashion magazines" (interviewed August 10th, 2008). Today's society cannot do without fashion magazines (Xing, 2009). These fashion magazines include Fengyun, Fengqing and hongkong fengqing amongst others. Fashion magazines have a long history in China. In the late 1980's, magazines like Jiating and Nyvou were very famous (Lin, 2007). Elle, a French fashion magazine, introduced the Chinese version in 1987. The owner of Elle, Hachette Pilipacchi, was so successful that he bought other fashion magazines in China and integrated them to his publication (Lin, 2007). He even acquired local publications like Jiaren as the years progressed (Lin, 2007). Other magazines that came to the Chinese market were Fashion She, which was a copyright of Cosmopolitan. Most of the fashion magazines to be found in the Chinese market are copyrights of foreign magazines (Moeran, 2006). These include Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue and Xiwei. Local fashion magazines have been eclipsed by these foreign publications. But some local magazines operate with a measure of success. These include Big World for Women, Shanghai Dress amongst others (Moeran, 2006). Vogue, the Chinese version, hit the market on August of 2005 before formal launch a month later. It sold very successfully and made substantial revenue. Top brands were lining to advertise in this much hyped magazine. The slogan that it used told it all, "VOGUE: ultimate fashion in China". The aims of Chinese fashion magazines are varied. When Vogue China was launched, Angelica Cheung, the editor at that time, captured the aim of this magazine very succinctly. She said that its aim was to "teach Chinese how to shop and dress" (Xeung, editor Vogue China, 2008). She was of the view that the Chinese market was ripe for fashion magazines of Vogue status. Few years prior to the launch, she said, the Chinese were not ready for such publications. Two years down the road, she said, "would have been definitely too late" (Xeung, 2008). One can only wonder what went wrong. The fashion magazine did exemplary well for the first few months, only for the sales to plummet. Perhaps Cheung was right all along, Chinese society does change at a very fast pace. The international fashion magazines do make substantial revenue in their virgin circulation. Consider Vogue China's 300,000 initial copies. They sold, all of them, very fast. The major source of revenue for these magazines is from advertising. Advertisers, both local and international, advertise their products in the magazines that they deem to be fast moving and read by their target population (Evans, 2004). The higher the circulation of the magazine, the higher the revenue collected. In 2004 alone, the magazines had combined revenue of approximately 240 million US Dollars. Publication revenue is another source of revenue. In 2003, they had a total of approximately 60 million US dollars (Evans, 2004). All these were publication revenues. Advertisers include car makers, medical product makers and fashion designers. Target Market for Chinese Fashion Magazines The target population of many fashion magazines have distinct characteristics (Stearns, 1961). These include age, language, income, sex amongst others (Johansson, 2001). Let us look at some of these traits of the fashion magazine consumers. Age Conde Nast, the publisher of Vogue magazine, gives the average age of his readers. He puts it at an average of 35.5 years (Xing, 2009). But this magazine has been known to target even younger population. It is true that every magazine has a target population at its heart. The content of the magazine are considered with this population in mind. When Vogue features models as young as twenty years, one is left wondering if this is not the target population. The median age has continued to drop as the years progresses (Latham, 2007), and as the society becomes more liberalised (Montgomery, 2007). In the past, vogue had made use of older models to target their readers of 35.5, but this seems to have changed in the case of China (Jackson, 2006). More and more young people continue to read this magazine. At its launch, the editors said that the target audience "were in their late 20's and early 30's" (Xing, 2009). Some fashion magazines even target the teens (Moeran, 2006). This is the case with such magazines as Elle Girl and Cosmo Teen. Their content is tailored for the teen. They avoid nudity and language that is considered unfit for the teen. Income On income, most fashion magazines target those people who have an income that is above average (Lin, 2007). This is because these are the people who can afford the products that are advertised in the magazines. The writer, as an intern editorial assistant, realised that most of the products advertised in the magazine Vogue China were luxury goods and services. These included designer cars, designer wardrobe, expensive holidays and other products for the so-called elite. Ling Zou, a fashion editor at Elle, told the writer, during an interview that "if the reader can not afford the products, then he has no business reading the magazine in the first place" (October, 2008). Other Traits The writer wanted to find out other traits that were common to people who bought Vogue China. As he interviewed Cheungzou, a public relations officer at Vogue China, he came about another finding that perhaps explains well the mindset of the fashion magazines' editors. Cheungzou said that "we do not so mind about the age or financial status of the reader. What is important is his attitude" (October, 2008). This is an important aspect in the magazine industry, the writer found out. The attitude of the reader is what matters. The attitude should be "good taste and style" (Cheungzou, interview). Cheungzou was of the view that if the reader cannot afford the good life at the moment, they will try to cultivate that desire in him. They will do this by shaping the dreams and refining the style of the reader, such that when the time comes that he could afford the luxurious life, he would be well informed. International Fashion Magazines' Loss of Social Power in China The performance of international fashion magazines in the Chinese society have continued to plummet. It is true that Vogue China performed exemplary in the first few months after its launch. But the trends of growth have been going down ever since, instead of going upwards. Many reasons have been given for this lacklustre performance. The writer, as an intern in this fashion media house, noted that the magazine have failed to make an impact on the local fashion scene. Instead, it has to make do with the readership of a small clique of people amongst the elite. The writer, on interviewing several players in this field, amongst them fashion editors from Elle, Women's friend amongst others, realised that this was not a unique phenomenon to Vogue China only. It was an effect that was felt by almost every fashion magazine in the market. Revenues from advertisements and publications have continued to plummet (Xing, 2009). This is because, as the circulation off the magazine falls, advertisers are reluctant to place adverts on these magazines. They are of the view that "the magazines do not provide an appropriate advertising platform" (Xung, fashion editor Cosmo Teen, October 2008). What is even more baffling is the fact that local fashion magazines seem to be doing well. Top brand advertisers are now flocking to the local fashion magazines. The writer isolated some few factors that could be leading to this development. Content of the International Fashion Magazine The writer was convinced that one of the major reasons that the international fashion magazines like Vogue China, Vogue UK, Elle and others are failing is because of their content. Content is a very important component of a fashion magazine (Anna, 2002). The readers should identify with the content. There will be a disconnection between the reader and the content if the latter is either too sophisticated or too simple for the reader (Stearns, 1961). The editors should strive to learn the needs of the target reader and tailor the content accordingly (Stearns, 1961). At its launch, the editors noted the importance of integrating local and international fashion to bring out a unique product for the Chinese market. Cheung, the editor at the time, was quoted as saying that ".magazine will feature what is happening in China.through an extremely international approach" (Chang, 2006). But this magazine has been accused of having too much foreign content and so little local content. The writer, as an intern in this media house, noted that the editors of this magazine went as far as duplicating content and features of Vogue international magazine and putting them directly into the local edition. This is because there was a felt need of having foreign fashion shoots and features that were done abroad and reflected in the magazine. But the costs of doing an international photo shoot was prohibitive, it will cost the magazine a whooping 30,000 CNY per page. That was why it was easier to lift international pages and paste them in the local issue. But a problem seems to have occurred some where. Could Vogue China have overdone the foreign content at the expense of the local one This seems possible. When the writer interviewed the editor of Elle magazine, she was of the view that "fashion is an international language.local contents should not be different from foreign trends.we should present both local and international content at the same level" (Lingzei, interviewed November 2008). This captures the attitude of the foreign international fashion magazines in China. The writer noted that even the adverts carried in the China edition of Vogue magazine were very foreign. This included adverts for overseas holidays, high end and designer clothes in Paris and Mumbai amongst others. Local adverts were very few. This is not a phenomenon unique to Vogue China only. One only needs to pick a copy of any fashion magazine in china today and you will be taken "promptly to Paris fashion corridors and Japanese car showrooms, while sitting on their lounge" (Jackson, 2006). Elle, Vogue UK, Women's Friend all have a lot of foreign content. As such, alienation seemed to have occurred between the magazines and the local readers. They could not identify with the contents of the magazines. Even local features were predominantly foreign. The readers viewed the magazine as a foreign phenomenon amongst them. The only people who could read were those who were able to travel abroad and see, buy and experience the content of the magazine (Montgomery, 2007). These were the elite in the cities of Guangzhou and Beijing. Contrast the above scenario with the content of local fashion magazines. The writer, on his duties as a fashion editor intern, came into contact with the contents and features of the local fashion magazines. He realised that these magazines had enough local content, as much as they had foreign content amongst them. This was a very important feature as far as readers were concerned. They could identify with these magazines and hence bought them. They were not alienated. Advertisers are motivated by reaching as many target population as possible (Garth, 2008). They will then move to those forums that will expose their products. The writer noted how the sales agents for Vogue China experienced difficulties convincing advertisers to buy spaces in the magazine. This is as opposed to those of local fashion magazines, who were able to convince producers of household items and local fashion stores to advertise in their magazines. Competition It is a fact that there is an influx in the Chinese market of international fashion magazine. Many glossy magazines exist in the Chinese market, all screaming for the attention of the readers. Not forgetting the competition from local fashion magazines. Some of the international fashion magazines have been in the market far much longer. As such, they have established themselves. They have loyal subscribers, not mentioning that they are well known and are house hold names. The writer noted that Elle China, which came in the market in 1989, was well established and threatened the existence of Vogue China. Cosmopolitan came in 1998 while Hearst's Harper's Bazaar came at the start of the year 2000 (Xing, 2009). Vogue China had to beat these brands and others. This can be a reason why foreign magazines fail to make an impact on the Chinese society. They are too many and compete amongst themselves. Could it be that the readers are confused by the many glossy magazines clamouring for their attention But perhaps the biggest and fiercest competition facing Vogue China is local fashion magazines. These magazines enjoy loyalty and wide readership from the local community. The local readers can identify with these magazines and hence will opt to but them. Political Environment Another reason that the writer found could be impacting on the loss of social power of the international fashion magazines in china could emanate from the political environment of the country. The government maintains a tight leash on the foreign media houses as far as penetration of china is concerned (Moeran, 2006). In early 2000, reporting from china to the outside world required a licence from the foreign affairs desk (Lin, 2007). This frustrated the foreign journalist as the permits took long to come out. As such, an issue will be irrelevant to report after the licence comes out, as it will be overtaken by events (Lin, 2007). Foreign media is so restricted as far as reporting China affairs is concerned. It was hard to interview local officials since they were afraid of saying something to the foreign journalist that could compromise them. Reporting from Tibet requires a licence from the government (Xing, 2009). These rules were only temporarily lifted during the Beijing Olympics. As far as fashion magazine is concerned, it is vital for information to flow freely between the local editors and the foreign correspondents (Chang, 2006). The writer experienced situations where the editors of this magazine were afraid to publish a feature that to them was important, but was bound to infuriate the authorities. As such, they had to do with features that they considered safe but which never rhymed with the expectations of the readers. They could not publish foreign content that was against the dictates of the state. This included features touching on the fashion of the Tibet community. Differences between the local Fashion magazines and the foreign Magazines The writer was convinced that the reason why the foreign magazines are losing their social power on the culture of the Chinese fashion could be found in the differences between the two magazines. Johansson (2001) captures the mechanisms of a fashion magazine vividly. He says that it is a product of commercial and cultural forces in the society (2001). It acts as a bridge between the different players in the fashion arena. These players include the designers of the products, consumers and retailers (Johansson, 2001). It also acts to connect the ideals of the fashion world with the reality of the current fashion. The function described above is the most important aspect of a fashion magazine. The way that every fashion magazine goes about it is what sets it apart from other fashion magazines in the industry (Stokes, 2002). The way that Vogue China connects the readers with the fashion workers and designers is what makes it different from Elle and Cosmopolitan (Montgomery, 2007). The way that a fashion magazine goes about this role can make or break it. The writer will look at the difference between the foreign magazines and the local ones from this angle. This is because thee connection of the several facets of the fashion world is what determines the grip that the magazine has on the social life of thee society (Chang, 2006). The writer noted how Vogue China went about this process as an intern there. As noted earlier, the content of the magazine is predominantly foreign and aimed at the elite in the society. The magazine tried to connect the local reader and retailer of clothes with the fashion designer in Paris. This was via the clothes that the models in the magazine wore (Stokes, 2002). The readers of the magazine, both consumers and retailers, were aware of a product designed in Paris or Milan. It connected the local reader with the retailer of the fashion by indicating the price and store that the photographed clothe was from. Contrast this with the local fashion magazine. The models were local, the clothes local and designers predominantly local. The connection between fashion ideals and every day clothes was also there. Vogue China sometimes modelled clothes that were prototypes and not available to the local consumer. The so-called "fantasies of the designers" (Moeran, 2006). The readers were able to compare the clothes that they currently had with what was available out there. The reader in china was able to compare the clothes that she wore with those available in Paris. As a result, she developed a desire to get that cloth item, forming an "ideal for her fashion" (Jintao, 2005). The local magazines did not provide such a big fantasy or ideal. This is because the items been local, the reader was able to easily access them, thus could well identify with the magazine as projecting some form of "attainable ideal" (Evans, 2004). Theories of Media Globalisation This theory will help the reader to put into context the interviews and literature reviews in this paper. Globalisation has turned out to be a very important issue in today's society. This is because the society today is moving away from localisation towards globalisation (Evans, 2004). Globalisation is the process whereby local phenomena assumes and takes on a global appearance (Stearns, 1961) the media is not left behind in this globalisation thing. Globalisation espouses a global village with no borders (Moeran, 2006). This is as opposed to localisation. The latter assumes a posture whereby everything focuses on the local situation, than on the international situation. It can be said to be "looking inside" while globalisation is "looking outside" (Moeran, 2006). Let us look at globalisation and media. We have seen that globalisation is where local phenomena assume a global outlook. In media, the content and features of the magazine will have to be read comfortably by anybody across the globe for it to be called universal magazine (Lin, 2007). The contents transcend borders and cultures to assume a global cultural outlook. This is what Vogue China was trying to achieve. The contents and features reflected global fashion trends. The fact that it was a foreign magazine in the local market brings out the globalisation issue out more clearly. The editors strived to reflect the global trends in the magazine such that even someone from outside china could read and identify with the contents. Contrast this with media localisation. The contents and features of the magazine have to reflect the local situation for it to be localised. It can be a foreign magazine that has been adapted to the local situation and became "localised" (Stearns, 1961). This could be what Vogue China was trying to balance with globalisation when it tried to feature local items from an international point of view. But the ones that achieved localisation with success are the local fashion magazines. They were able to report things local in a local situation, making them more real and plausible to the reader (Evans, 2004). Conclusion The Chinese fashion industry has seen an influx of foreign fashion magazine, with the relaxation of the grip on media by the government. These fashion magazines include Elle, from France, Vogue amongst others. These magazines had a bit of success as far as influencing the local fashion industry is concerned. But somewhere down the road, the social power over the Chinese slowly went down. The writer set out to find out what brought this occurrence. He contrasted the foreign fashion magazine with the local ones and realised that some significance differences exists between the two. While the local fashion magazines are localised, the foreign ones assume a global appearance. This has alienated the local readers. As such, the sales and influence of these magazines declined. This is just one reason that the writer identified. References Anna, G. Y. (2002). Understanding the fashion of today's woman. Ruttledge. California. Chang, G. A. (2006). The Chinese media industry. Quangsu. Beijing. Evans, D. F. (2004). Realities of fashion magazine editing. Ruttledge. California. Garth, M. L. (2008). Globalisation and the media. Prentice Hall. New Jersey. Jackson, D. P. (2006). The Chinese fashion industry. Grench Books. London. Johansson, H. J. (2001). Media theories. Conches Publishers. Houston. Jintao, L. O. (2005). Fashion magazines in china. Xengque Books. Beijing. Latham, F. J. (2007). Challenges of fashion magazine editing. Cengen Publishers. Houston. Lin, X, H. (2007). Globalisation of the Chinese fashion industry. Beijing University Press. Beijing. Moeran, S. L. (2006). Media in the contemporary society. Ruttledge. California. Montgomery, H. O. (2007). Fashion magazine and pop culture in china. Ruttledge. California. Stearns, G. K. (1961). Realities of the media industry in a globalisation environment. Oxford University Press. Oxford. Stokes, R. P. (2002). Chinese media and democratisation. London University. London. Xing, X. H. (2009). Vogue China magazine and the fashion industry. Cheungzou. Hong Kong. Read More