Same magazine but different perspective

If you were a woman who likes to read magazines, you probably will knowa magazine called Women’ weekly. Its origin contributed country is United Kingdom then Bauer Media Group in Australia launched it in Malaysia and Singapore. Now, Women’s weekly has been a popular magazine of trend fashion across both Malaysia and Singapore. 

Both countries of Women’s weekly magazine have the same title and same style of cover page but their content are slightly different. The Singapore Women’s Weekly which trusted by women as friend that entertains and informs about the best of fashion, health, family, self-help, interiors, food and entertaining. The mix is served with a sensible attitude and compelling dose of common sense that readers really appreciate. While the Malaysia’s is broadly targeted family-oriented glamour title covering fashion, “real-life” stories, décor and Hollywood glamour. It mostly entertains and relevant to today’s modern working woman.

Talking about women magazines, we tend to see many Asian or Western female models on the cover page, no matter their targeted audience is modern working women or house wives, even though in Malaysia. Nevertheless, Hijabista, a muslimah magazine from Malaysia, able to break through the stereotype thinking of female muslims. The hijab is a special symbol in the Islamic faith that assigns women to different roles that sets them apart from the opposite sex. Majority of Muslim women use the hijab to cover their heads with Islam as the official religion of Malaysia. Plus, Hijab has become more visible as a Malaysian identity from tourism campaigns presented visuals of Muslimah in covered clothing.

Hijabista was the first female magazine that depicts a more daring and avant garde portrayal of the Muslimah. It is not told that Muslim women should not cover their heads with hijab, but on the contrary, Muslim women show their clothing in a modern and creative way. Hijab was no longer defined as conservative outfits for Muslim women. Compare to another Malaysia muslimah magazine Nur, Hijabista has provided spaces for trendy creation and young tone to the 21 to 35 years old of women.

Above figure is an official website from Hajibista and figure below is an official website from Nur. We can see there is different role in women in different magazines. The role of women in Hajibista mostly represent trendy look of Muslims women while in Nur was much more conservative and focus on career and healthy lifestyle.

Bibliography

BluInc (2011) ‘The Malaysian Women’s Weekly’ [online] http://www.bluinc.com.my/the-malaysian-womens-weekly/#&panel1-1 [Accessed 16 June 2015]

Nurzihan, H. (2014) ‘A Comparative Analysis on Hijab Wearing in Malaysian Muslimah Magazines’. Taylor’s University 6(1). [online] http://search.taylor s.edu.my/journalonline/Vol%206%20Issue%201/Paper%205.pdf [Accessed 16 June 2015]    

SPH magazines (2015) ‘The Women’s Weekly’ [online] http://www.sphmagazines.com.sg/magazines/the-womens-weekly [Accessed 16 June 2015]

References

http://hijabista.karangkraf.com/#

http://nur.karangkraf.com/

Women identity and Traditional Wear- Cheongsam (Qipao)

On the last entry, we discussed about how kebaya represented women’s identity, in this entry let’s discuss about Cheongsam. I know Cheongsam (Qipao) is not being a big hit in Malaysia because of western culture has been influenced us from time to time. Nevertheless, Cheongsam is part of our culture as a Chinese and we can’t avoid it.

 There’s a legend from China about cheongsam (Qipao): a young fisherwoman made a multi-looped-button gown with slits to enable her to tuck in the front piece of her dress, therefore making her job easier. This was called qipao, which replaced her long and loose fitting dress. After she married the young emperor of China, this qipao started to follow by Manchu women and became popular.

Whether this legend is true or not, but qipao was actually came from Manchu. When the Manchu ruled China during the Qing dynasty, their social strata emerged. Among them were the Banners, mostly Manchu, who as a group were called Banner People (QiRen). Why were they called themselves the Banners? Manchus were grown out of ancient Nuzhen tribes. In the early 17^th century, Nurhachi, a great political and military strategist, set up the Eight Banners System for the Nuzhen tribes. Passed many of years, a collarless and tube-shaped gown was developed. Qipao was translated as “banner gown’ for it came from the people who lived under the Banner System.

The original Qipao was wide and loose, plus, it covered most of the woman’s body. At that time, women were not allowed to wear clothes as they wish, not even if they want to wear more revealing clothes. The traditional gender ideology in China is patriarchal in nature, which was women’s ‘natural’ place defined as in the family, provide a stable and supportive for the family and for the male head of household. 

Guangxu Period (1875–1908) Lady Heseri

Qipao in Qing Dynasty was loose and wide.

Stereotype idea on Qipao to women was shifted in Shanghai in the 1920s. The Qipao were tailored to become more slender fitting and revealing as popularity of prostitute arose. But this was not the end of the story. After the War I, Belarus prostitute with their fitting gown and Japanese prostitute with their revealing clothing, started to come over Shanghai. The competitive for the Shanghai prostitute was heavy, thus, a slender and form fitting with a high cut Qipao was designed, to show their body line. 

Two women wearing cheongsam in a 1930s Shanghai advertisement.

Qipao by then had fitting and more revealing designs.

In modern age of China, Qipao was more defined as a political uniform. About 1950s, school girls was wore Qipao designed of uniform, defined as women were no longer uneducated and ready to participate in political issues. Women no longer defined as weakest human being thus they wear Qipao instead of Qi (Males back in the era were wore Pao especially the emperor was wore Huang Pao presented as higher status). 

Bibliography

Hongxia, L.(2009) ‘The Cheongsam- the Treasure of Chinese National Apparel’. Asian Culture and History 1(1) January. [online] http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ach/article/download/371/327 [Accessed 14 June 2015]

My Qipao (2014) Chinese dress Qipao/ Cheongsam| History and legend. [online] http://www.my-qipao.com/qipaofct_engl/qipaofc1.html [Accessed 14 June 2015]

Wang, S.(2006) Explanation on the question of ‘Where Qipao was from and which races’. Baidu Zhidao. [online] http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/147034 48.html [Accessed 14 June 2015]

Xiang Yang, B.(2006) ‘The Origin of popularity in Qipao’. [online] http://tieba.baidu.com/p/127772027 [Accessed 14 June 2015]

Xiaolan, W.(2005) ‘Changing Face: The Evolution of Chinese Women’s Dress and Appearance’ University of Science and Technology Beijing. August. [online] http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07142005-093123/unrestricted/Wangthesis.pdf [Accessed 14 June 2015]