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After the Opium War in 1840, five treaty ports such as Shanghai were opened, and imported cosmetics also entered the Chinese market, gradually replacing traditional Chinese old-fashioned cosmetics based on powder, dai, fat and incense. This paper attempts to explore the relationship between cosmetics and women's consumer culture through women's periodicals in Shanghai during the Republic of China, such as Liangyou Pictorial, Women's Magazine, Linglong, and price-related Huayang Monthly. Imported cosmetics stimulate the rise and development of China's domestic cosmetics industry, so that foreign and domestic cosmetics are in a competitive relationship. The data of the price fluctuations of cosmetics published in Huayang Monthly reflected the price difference between foreign and domestic cosmetics, and after comparing with the salaries of emerging consumer classes, we can clearly understand the consumption positioning of cosmetics. The publicity method of cosmetics advertising can be divided into two parts, namely promotion and celebrity endorsement, and the publicity method of Chinese and Western integration. Among them, the female image in cosmetics advertisements presents the public's cognition of “modern women”, and also projects the public's cognition and imagination of “modern women” into the advertisement. In 1934, the year of women's domestic goods, articles and reports criticizing cosmetics reached a peak. On the one hand, female students are consumers who love foreign cosmetics, and on the other hand, they are advocates of the domestic product movement. Articles contributed by female students in newspapers and magazines show how they have a dialogue with the public on the issue of cosmetics consumption. Examining the development of the cosmetics industry and the interaction of female consumers, this paper argues that the reason why the issue of women's consumption and use of cosmetics has been amplified and discussed is that the patriots tried to correlate the cosmetics with the national economy and reflects their worry and anxieties about the country's economic development.
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