Glocalising voice and style of cosmopolitan in China

This paper attempts to apply and extend the glocalisation perspective proposed by Wu (2008a) to systematically investigate the strategic localisation strategies of Cosmopolitan (the global brand fashion magazine founded and originally based in USA) in China. Content analysis, multimodal discourse analysis and linguistic analysis, in addition to ethnographic observation, have been conducted to compare the construction of the local/Chinese versions of the magazine with their American counterparts. It is found that while both the Chinese and English versions share some common/global generic structures, the Chinese version of the magazine manifests extensive localisation strategies in the choice of local models and voices, in the hybridisation of American and Chinese values, and in the use of local vernacular patterns and expressions. The paper concludes with a discussion on the significance of glocalisation for trans-cultural communication and for teaching and researching translation studies.