Image Of Male On Magazine Covers Of New Weekly

China New Weekly Magazine,founded on 18 th of August 1996,leads the magazine publication market in China with the focus of being the “sharpest weekly publication on current affairs.”New Weekly,having been developed over the past twenty years,is now commonly regarded by the readers as the keen “supplier of viewpoints” and by other media outlets as the “origin of trendy topics” creatively.It is both the keen observer and documentarian for the social shifts of China.This article selects those New Weekly magazine covers,which contains male subjects,as the object of study.By using textual analysis of twenty-one years of magazine issues,this article aims to uncover the underlying shifts in the Chinese male and its image,sexual value and attitude,and the interaction between the image and social changes.The content of this paper is organized as follows:The first section is the overview of all the magazine covers.It is found,via statistical analysis,that most issues feature people figures on the covers.Of these,most are male.And finally,of these male covers,the trend is that most are in the form of visual illustrations.The next part of section one aims to dissect and interpret the trends behind the male cover figures.This includes mainly photographic and visual illustrative formats.Further analysis is conducted from three angels,namely physically,professionally,and lastly socially.Results suggest that the photographic male figure covers tend mostly to have the characteristics of being young,practical,and positive.The illustrative ones are more diverse.Profession wise,photographic male cover figures tend to be politicians,while the illustrative ones tend to feature people in common jobs.Finally,photographic male cover figures tend to be Asian and often appear in groups.Illustrative ones,on the other hand,are usually race-free and often on their own.The last two sections analyze the evolution of New Weekly male cover figures over time,and its cultural implications.Results suggestthat New Weekly male cover figures are portrayed as masculine in the market economy era.In the globalization era,the external appearance shifts from being uniform to varied;the internal essence becomes rather diversified,but markedly lacking in masculinity.Public mass media is considered,in the many research areas,to have the functions of constructing social knowledge,promoting social order,reflecting social value,and shaping social consensus.Regardless the channel it is being delivered and consumed via news broadcast,advertising,print publications or digital outlets,public mass media is often indicative of social culture and value.The analysis and study of the New Weekly male cover figures is not only a documentation and resurgence of the shifts of the male identity;but also a reflection of the rise of China as a nation and the social movements within.This research is thus the eventuation of keen concern and considerations of the survival and development of the people in the eras of change.