University of Heidelberg

Methodological meta-project

Jennifer May: "Measuring and Visualising Trends"
Research into trends, i.e. popular flows, more often than not entails coping with huge amounts of heterogeneous data. Strategies and techniques are required that will help to operationalise and/or visualise large amounts of complex information efficiently and significantly. Otherwise, lack of time may lead to the neglect of significant information. Also, visualisation may help projects to filter their data and focus on the most interesting. In this subproject, I aim at developing feasible approaches or “best practices” for general problems such as: How can we measure the popularity/trendiness of an object at a certain point in time? How can we visualise linguistic trends? Can we map a trend’s journey onto Google Earth? How can we keep track of trends in images (photographs, paintings, advertisement...) or language? And can we somehow connect all these different sources of input and generate a “flow tracer” that translates words into images, place names into GIS data, or photographs into advertisement? The project would thus be situated right in the Heidelberg Research Architecture and would provide tools to link Linguistic and Audio-Visual Databases.

Unit I “Transcultural popular images of body and beauty”

Annika Jöst: "Global Supermothers and Superfathers: A New Transcultural Trend in the Popular Media?"
The project analyses the depiction of mothers and fathers in popular media, especially in lifestyle magazines, women’s magazines, and on popular websites. It hopes to trace the transcultural travel which constructions and/or deconstructions of global “superparents” have made over the past ten years in selected countries (namely Germany, Great Britain, USA, China, Taiwan and India).
Over the last 10 years media coverage on mothers - especially celebrity mothers, pregnancy and education - has intensified significantly. Discussions if the celebrities are able to make “good parents” are omnipresent and devoured by committed readers. Moreover, discussions, both in society and politics, about families and the status of mothers and fathers can be found more readily than ever before. Parenting and parenthood are “trendy” and popular media around the world have been crucial in the creation, promotion, and reflection of this development.
By comparing both international and home-grown popular media I will ask: Where, when, and why does this trend develop? How do the characteristics of “supermothers” and “superfathers” change over the course of their global journey? Can and should we speak of global trends? Or are those trends we perceive as “global” actually local trends that have been attributed “global” character in order to meet the aspirations and demands of their consumers and followers?

Sun Liying: "In the Name of Beauty and Health: Freikörperkultur (Nudism) as a Trend in China (1920s-1930s)"
From the late 1920s to the middle 1930s, a considerable amount of visual materials (images, films) as well as writings contributed to introducing nudism in China, which was known originally as Freikörperkultur in Germany. Some Chinese celebrities, such as Hong Shen, Tang Ying, practiced nudist swimming and sun bathing, which was reported in pictorials.
This research project will trace the transcultural process of how nudism was widespread as a trend from Germany to China, and explore the historical background of the discourse on nudism in China, why and how nudism was visualized and discussed in media. I will argue that although depicting nudist life (sport, dancing…) initially joined the mega trend of visualizing unclothed bodies in pictorials such as Beiyang huabao (北洋画报), for example, it actually also formed a trend of discussing/popularizing nudism in the public sphere itself. In accordance with original German Freikörperkultur, beauty and health were regarded as the essential values in this discourse.

Xiong Jingjing: "Salomé and Dorian Gray: Trendy Images from 1893 to 1949"
Since Irish writer Oscar Wilde’s works were translated into Chinese at the turn of the twentieth century, the trend of aestheticism had become more and more influential in China. Most of the works of the main writers and artists of aestheticism, such as Théophile Gautier, Junichiro Tanizaki, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, were introduced to China. Many Chinese artists and intellectuals imitated their aesthetic style. Plenty of aesthetic images appeared in various media: books, magazines, pictorials, posters, among others.
Comparing Chinese with the European texts, I will analyze the visual and written forms that the trend of aestheticism took, investigating key figures such as Salomé and Dorian Gray. I will attempt to answer the following questions: How did the trend travel from the "West" to China? How did the Chinese writers and artists interpret or represent the aesthetic images? In the context of deepening national crisis and thriving left-wing activities, why was there still a trend of representing aesthetic images in China, even though it is a common view that aesthetic images are only "art for art's sake" and should thus be condemned? What is the relationship between this trend and Chinese modern public space?

Pallavi Mahajan: "Metrosexuals as a Trend in India and its Customization as Fairness Creams"
Metrosexual is a term coined by British journalist Mark Simpson in 1994 to describe those heterosexual men who have great concern for their looks and who display a lifestyle commonly attributed to gay men. He popularized  the term in 2002 in Western Media by projecting the soccer star David Beckham as a metrosexual par excellence. In Indian Media, over the past few years Metrosexual trend is represented through projection of aesthetically appealing male bodies, fair skin and forms of sexuality which seems to be at variance with the heterosexual normative Indian masculinity.
My research project investigates the key visual themes and representational codes associated with this trend in various Indian magazines, films and ad commercials and how the Indian readers/audience /consumers are engaging with and negotiating the trend in their everyday practices.
Through participant observation at the site of production of the trend and intensive interviews with the ‘trend makers’-the creatives/copywriters, ad makers and filmmakers, I hope to trace the reconfiguration of the media trend as it flowed trans-culturally from the West to India. By going to the people’s side (audience/ readers/consumer) I hope to understand its representational significance in identity formation.

Laila Abu-Er-Rub: "Trends in the Representation of Western Women in Indian Media"
As an answer to colonialist and orientalist discourses, Indian media constructed the “immoral” western woman as a counterpart to the decent “ideal Indian woman (bharatiya nari).” The underlying hypothesis of this project is that since the image of the “ideal Indian woman” was replaced by media representations of the “New Indian women“ in an economically liberalized India, aware of its place inside a globalised world, the image of the western women has undergone significant changes. This assumption rests upon the observation that advertisements in fashion magazines increasingly show western women in Indian clothes as a signifier for India’s new self-confidence as an upward moving force in a global economy.
This venture explores these trends in the depiction of western women and the changing asymmetrical power relations mirrored in media representations of western and Indian female bodies. Changes in those representations will be traced through a historical analysis of different media contents. Therefore, an investigation of images in advertising, women’s magazines in general (e.g. Femina, Vogue India, Cosmopolitan India, Wedding Magazines) and representations in movies is planned. This media analysis is complemented through in-depth interviews of gatekeepers and tastemakers in the Indian media scene, i.e. with photo editors of popular pictorials, model agents, advertising agencies and movie directors. Another issue in this investigation is unraveling the transmedial and transcultural flow of those representations as well as their negotiation in public spheres.

Lisa Caviglia, who works on images of postitution within the auspices of the Graduate Program, and who is member of the Popular Culture Group, will contribute to this unit.

Unit II “Trends in youth culture”

Jennifer Altehenger: "Transplanting Wonderlands: Gatekeepers, Tastemakers, and Consumers in the Making of International Youth-Product Trends"
On the example of three interlinked, international conglomerates – USA’s Disney Worldwide, Denmark’s Egmont, and China’s Children’s Fun Publishing – this project examines transcultural trends convergence as a result of international merchandising and brand-stretching practices. All of the above three firms are linked through complex licensing agreements. They have been and continue to be responsible for the proliferation of well-known, ubiquitous brands such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Barbie, Baby Einstein, W.i.t.c.h., Winnie the Pooh, Thomas the Tank Engine and NaZha. Each of these brands has experienced waves of popularity amongst young audiences in the US, Europe and China. Cumulatively, they represent a cross-section of highly merchandised brand products that successfully paved their way to becoming icons of international, global youth culture – i.e. trends. At the same time, however, each of these products has, in the process of their marketing, been localised to suit regional tastes; a process which should not be considered a side product, but rather a necessary intermediary step in the making of any trend. This project therefore investigates the fuzzy, yet profuse interaction of producers, gatekeepers, tastemakers, and audiences/consumers of the above brands. Ultimately, it seeks to refute Koichi Iwabuchi’s assumption that many international popular culture products are “culturally odourless”, instead suggesting that national product identities are manipulated and negotiated in the process of product placement and consumption.

Nora Frisch: "Coca-Cola’s Chinese Values"
Commercial advertising, which has become a natural constituent in a globalised China, not only constructs cultural identities, but also reflects a target-group’s environment, providing insights into the complexity of everyday life. Focusing on lifestyle ads which due to their lack of informational content revert to emotional devices in order to attract the consumer’s attention, I attempt to trace reflections of public discourses beyond the product message.
Held against discourses going on since 1989, it is quite striking to which extent the behaviour promoted in e.g. beverage ads a decade later contributes to supporting social harmony and national consciousness. How strongly politically charged some seemingly unoffending product ads are, can only be guessed from those contributions which have become victims of censorship.
Particular attention is paid to the role of advertisers: Acting as both consumers and representatives of the official line, they follow trends while creating them at the same time on basis of a culturally pre-assigned understanding – in constant consideration of their confined creative freedom. Even commercial advertising is thus turned into a system of reproducing politically correct cultural values, which makes it an interesting field for investigating various aspects of deliberate constructions of (and thus trends in) cultural identities.

Lena Henningsen: "Textual Branding / Branding Texts: Imagination and Changes in Consumption Culture in Contemporary China"
Over the last decades the People’s Republic of China has experienced unprecedented changes in consumption culture. Today, China’s large cities are populated by countless shopping malls offering the consumer the latest fashion, luxury goods and food stuff, produced by local or international (both “Western” and “Asian”) brands. While it is difficult to observe the amount of actual shopping, window shopping definitely is a trend in Chinese cities: On weekends, these locations are popular sites for individuals from different social background. Who are these people? What does consumption mean to them? What do they consume and why? After all, consumption may serve as a means to define one’s own identity. Therefore, answering these questions will provide a better understanding of consumption patterns and of the actual influence of foreign (and local) brands in China. In this project, I want to analyze the relationship between texts (such as fictional texts, movies, popular songs) in which consumption features prominently and consumption in contemporary China, asking in how far these texts influence how and what Chinese individuals consume. While such texts should not be taken as authentic ethnographic descriptions of the world, they represent a field of imagination of authors and readers. I thus argue that this imaginary landscape represents the fertile soil out which grows contemporary consumer culture. I further argue that this imaginary landscape is essential for the success of consumer trends observable in the ‘real world’. Textual trends thus reinforce a consumer-culture trends – and vice versa. I believe that my study of this interplay between imaginary landscapes and the ‘real world’ will broaden our understanding of trends as a concept.

Petra Thiel: "Trends on the International Children’s Book Market"
Books are usually embedded in the culture and language of their origins. Some works may be considered masterpieces within their own cultural realm, and even if they have the good fortune to be promoted abroad, they would sometimes still not find their place in the literary canon of certain (linguistic) areas. Usually, products which share the same common subsets as the predominant big sellers have good chances to become sales coups as well - of course only as long as the consumer’s saturation level has not yet been filled. The international children’s book market - including both producers and consumers – however, does not categorically follow common sales rules. Children’s literature and children’s publishing operate in a system where cultural values, pedagogical idea(l)s, questions of profitability and cost-effectiveness, and – last but not least – the consumers’ taste(s) coincide and constantly contest both market leadership and the audience favour. In my project I will try to detect and analyse the trajectories of trend flows on the international children’s book market. What are the defining factors that facilitate a children’s book to conquer the world? Which are the driving forces behind the international popularisation of particular children’s books? And finally: Who is setting trends on the international children’s book market?

Unit II will be supported by three members from the project “Creative Dissonances” who work on popular music and its flows West and within Asia from Korea, Japan and India. These three scholars, Patrick Frölicher, Michael Fuhr, and Oliver Seibt, as well as Sridevi Padmanabhan, who will take her perspectives on mobile phone trends in rural South Asia to the trends project, are PhD mentees of Barbara Mittler and members of the Popular Culture Group.

Unit III “Trends in politics”

Sebastian Gehrig: "Manufacturing a Political Trend – How Mao Zedong Became a Political Icon in 1960s and 1970s Europe"
In the initial stage, the project traces the introduction of Mao Zedong and his ideology to European intellectual circles, artist groups, and subcultural milieus in the 1960s and 1970s. The investigation will especially draw attention on the protest methods (i.e. provocative happenings, partially borrowed from avant-garde art theory and advertising concepts) that advertised Mao as a “trendy” new figure in world politics.
After the completion of a case study on West-Germany, the project will be extended to France and Italy to add a comparative perspective. Did left-wing intellectual and subcultural groups use the same methods to advertise Mao and his ideology as the “third way” next to capitalism and Soviet communism? How did the image of the icon Mao differ in these countries?

Huang Xuelei: "'Red' Movies? Trendy Movies? 'Left Wing Cinema' in 1930s China"
The 1930s “Left Wing Cinema Movement” has been a canonized story in Chinese film history. We are told that in this period of deepening national crisis, the Chinese film industry began to produce movies on “serious” themes and with “socially conscious” qualities due to the involvement of “left-wing” intellectuals. My project re-examines the so-called “red” cinema (赤色电影) through the prism of the transcultural flow of trends and popular cultures. I will trace the trend of showing Soviet films in Shanghai in the 1930s and ask how this trend related to the local trend of making the so-called “left-wing” movies. My working hypothesis is that these interlocking trends were a result of cultural flows between China, Soviet Union and Europe and involved an intricate interplay between the political forces, commercial imperatives and intellectual discourses. Specifically, my project addresses the following questions: Through which agents did different forces come into play to forge the trends in question? In which ways did the trends merge politics with aspects of consumption as well as popular visual and print culture? How did the trendy “left-wing” movies impact the popular political opinion in 1930s China?

Cora Jungbluth: "Coming In, Going Out (引进来, 走出去) – Rethinking Trends in China's Foreign Direct Investment Policies"
Until the end of the 1990s, Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) policies focused on the attraction of foreign investment. Based on the formula “market for technology (以市场换技术),” the government tried to make international enterprises transfer their resources and know-how to China. Investments by Chinese enterprises abroad were to the contrary highly restricted and monopolised by governmental institutions. These policies led to an asymmetrical development of the inward and outward FDI flows of the PRC.
With the proclamation of the Going-Global-Strategy (走出去战略) in 2000, trends in Chinese FDI policies have shifted dramatically. After years of restriction, the government started to actively encourages FDI by Chinese enterprises independent of their ownership. In 2001, the Going-Global-Strategy was integrated in the 10. Five-Year-Plan and thus became an official part of the economic policy of the PRC. Since then, Chinese FDI has been rising sharply. According to the statistics compiled by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), annual outward FDI flows have more than tripled between 2001 and 2007. This development may be regarded as a statistical trend. But which factors are hiding behind these numbers? Why did the Chinese government initiate a new policy trend, which seems to influence the investment behavior of Chinese companies? And did the Chinese government really set this trend? Or had it already been there before and, given the insecurities concerning statistics on China, only become visible after it had been sanctioned by the government?
Taking the statistical trend as starting point, my paper tries to track down the qualitative aspects beyond, i.e. the historical and political background of the asymmetrical development in Chinese FDI policies in the last three decades.

Miriam Seeger and Ravi Baghel are working on trends in the political discourses over large dams in India and China. They are part of the Popular Culture Group and will bring their knowledge of this topic to the reading group and workshops.