The growth of international women's magazine and media portrayal of women in China

With the trend of media globalization, international women's magazines have extended the Chinese market with Chinese editions that reflected the local situation; while at the same time they inherited some global characteristics from their global editions. In addition, international women's magazines also influenced the Chinese local women's magazines through their reliance on advertising, as well as the presentation of content, style and cultural values. As a media genre, media portrayals of women on the covers reflect the economic, social and cultural development of a society. One purpose of this study was to examine how women were presented through the comparison of popular global and local women's magazine covers in China. The sample for the study included a Western magazine, a Japanese magazine and a Chinese local magazine: Cosmopolitan, Rayli-Fashion and Beauty and City Beauty. Findings in this study suggested women's identities were portrayed with preferred angles, dress styles, beauty ideals and connected to peculiar topics of cover stories and cultural values on the covers. Further, finding also suggested that the local women's magazine presented a hybrid of cultures which were influenced by both global cultural influx through global women's magazine and local cultural traditions of Chinese people.