Margaret Zhang’s Final Issue

Luxury brands and thoughtful fashion writers like AOC are studying this last issue of Vogue China under the signature and vision of departed EIC Margaret Zhang.

The June 2024 issue features supermodel Liu Wen on three covers. The towering-influence Chinese model is styled by Vivienne Sun, with creative direction by Matt Mcdonald and images by Hong Kong based Wing Shya [IG].

The photographer has posted a ‘Death’ artwork visual between a Liu Wen cover and editorial shot from this issue. Pure coincidence, I’m sure. / Hair by Youhua Xu; makeup by Nick He

The Emergence of New China Style

Rumours are that Zhang, considered to be an outsider who grew up in Australia as the daughter of Chinese parents, was aware of these challenges to her editorial vision. Her lack of financial acumen in generating money for Vogue China — especially on its covers — was also under close scrutiny.

What Vogue China watchers are analyzing is how ‘New China Style’ — and AOC adds the ‘thoughtful expression of Chinese government values’ — is expressed by luxury fashion and media going forward.

A trend that was clear in April’s Shanghai Fashion Week 2024 is the expressed preferences of the Chinese government that Chinese fashion designers specifically look inwards to the illustrious history of Chinese national identity and traditions.

Expressing China’s 21st century modern identity through the lens of traditions thousands of years old is key for the next EIC of Vogue China.

AOC believes that this issue has been the door that slammed in the face of more than one luxury brand in recent years, including Gucci most of all.

Male Identity in Chinese Culture

Generally speaking, ‘male identity’ has been under the microscope in China, even more than ‘female identity’ and feminism itself. There is a statistical problem with China’s birth rate created with its old one-child, government policy.

Additionally, the Chinese government has not hesitated for one moment to demand changes and shut down media that projects images of men through the LGBTQAI+ lens. Many readers may not know that the Chinese government banned effiminate men on TV in September 2021.

Broadcasters must "resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics," the TV regulator said in fall 2021, using an insulting slang term for effeminate men — niang pao, or literally, "girlie guns."

The June 2024 issue of Vogue China under Margaret Zhang may represent a last look at feminism and strong-minded women in Vogue China. Or it may be an excellent lesson on how to juggle all of these complex issues simultaneously.

Will Vogue China Follow Vogue Arabia’s Lead?

Vogue Arabia’s EIC Manuel Arnaut has consistently exhibited unusual skills in walking this cultural tightrope of competing values in a 21st century world. AOC has praised his savvy diplomatic and intellectual skills on more than one occasion.

AOC believes that the new editor-in-chief of Vogue China will walk a similar balance bar.

Returning to Zhang’s finale, Vogue China’s IG narrates Liu Wen’s role as a muse not only to photographers and designers, but to fine artists as well. Not only does the IG post reference Zhang’s departure, but it takes a strong stand on feminist values.

Vogue China writes on IG with a carousel of artwork images by Chen Ke:

”I remember [a] time shooting with Margaret [Zhang] in Beijing - she had commissioned some Chinese female artists to create paintings of me and I posed in front of these huge works of my face for the cover story photos!“ Liu Wen tells VOGUE China from set in Shanghai. Among them, celebrated oil-painter, Chen Ke (@chenkexr) - known for her portrayal of women freed from the shackles of societal expectation. ”I’ve read so many stories and seen countless images of Liu Wen. There is a feminine radiance and silent strength about her,“ says Chen Ke. ”I feel that this moment is the balance between Liu Wen‘s persona as a kind of warrior and the way I portray women from a values perspective: having the right of choice, being independently minded, unwaveringly creative. There’s a futurism to her here - a sense of fusion between human and machine; the instantaneous power of an immediately recognisable face on a global stage.“

It makes little sense to AOC that this content highlighted on IG is meant to be a quiet confrontation with the Chinese government.

Although, one never knows, now that Hong Kong is largely under Beijing’s control.

Perhaps the most logical short-term conclusion we can draw is that whatever influence the Chinese government intends to project about Chinese women onto the world stage in the pages of Vogue China, they intend to do it artfully.

As to how male identity is expressed in Chinese media, we will be watching. The most interesting lens is probably Pharrell’s fall 2024 fashion rodeo for Louis Vuitton Men.

There are countless reasons for Pharrell to celebrate cowboys in American culture and project them onto the world stage. From a timing standpoint, though, providence is on his side in this under-reported issue in America and the fashion press generally of China’s crackdown on how masculinity is expressed in Chinese media. To be continued . . . Anne