Celine Hsu

With the growth of the Asian market and increasing public awareness of the value of diversity and local culture, it is vital for international brands to approach regional consumers using appropriately tailored communication methods. My research focuses on the representation of Western luxury commodities in Asian fashion media using the “glocalization” concept, analyzing the way Western products are integrated into Asian media identities and Asian cultural environments to adapt to local taste. In this thesis, I examine VOGUE Taiwan’s relaunch strategies in 2020 as a case study, focusing on the issues dating from March 2020 to October 2020, when the magazine introduced a new aesthetic, content structure, and production team and a new emphasis on Taiwanese identity. Combining visual and textual analysis, I dissect the establishment of the magazine’s identity and its mode of symbolic production while exploring VOGUE Taiwan’s approach to representations that combine Asian cultural identity with Western luxury commodities. The thesis illustrates the integration of Western products and Asian production and the balance between global perspectives and local implementation, in which the representation of products is adapted to the cultural situation they inhabit. It also explores how VOGUE Taiwan employs local identity as an instrument with which to promote Western luxury commodities, mediating foreign material through the native mindset and language. I argue that VOGUE Taiwan’s retargeting decision is aimed not only at elevating its status in relation to other Taiwanese fashion magazines but also, along with other VOGUE editions in Asia, at expanding the dialogue to examine the Asian market as a whole. I bring in two other Asian editions of VOGUE—VOGUE Japan and VOGUE China—to serve as the basis for a comparison of the way Western products and Asian representations are coordinated. This part of the thesis illuminates power dynamics in the fashion industry both within Asian countries and between the West and the East. By bringing the two power players’ glocalization strategies into the discussion, I explore the construction of fashion magazines’ identities in a more comprehensive way, taking into consideration the influence of economic strength, cultural advantages, and the historical context that shapes the relationship between Asian media and Western luxury.