EXCLUSIVE: Shaway Yeh Joins China’s Huasheng Media, Signals Global Ambition

LONDON — What comes after the explosion of social media in China‘s fashion publishing business? The return of a desire for quality content.

The latest example of that swift change in direction is the partnership between Shaway Yeh, one of China’s best known fashion editors and an advocate for green fashion, and Huasheng Media Group, backed by CMC Inc., one of China’s leading media conglomerates. The group publishes the Chinese editions of T Magazine, Wallpaper, Another Man, Fast Company, Food & Wine and Nylon.

A major part of the link-up will see the two jointly develop content-led brand initiatives across Europe and Southeast Asia, with cross-cultural communication and business being the key areas. The partnership will also support the continued development of projects under Yeh’s sustainability agency Yehyehyeh.

Editorially, she joins T Magazine China as editor at large, bringing a global perspective to the title’s content.

“Following years of social media-driven growth, China’s audience is showing a renewed demand for cultural authenticity and editorial authorship that can bestow meaning and perspective on increasingly fragmented experiences,” Yeh told WWD.

“Building on the group’s strong culture-led editorial foundation, my role is to contribute an approach that integrates creativity with purposeful innovation in a globally relevant context, while collaborating on international projects that span media, content and brand-led initiatives,” she continued.

China’s online spectators often describe Yeh as a member of “the original four.” Alongside Angelica Cheung, Xiao Xue and Su Mang, she was among the first generation of top editors who laid the ground for China’s modern fashion publishing industry.

She graduated at the top of her class from the prestigious National Taiwan University. Instead of going into business or politics like her classmates, Yeh studied performing arts at New York University in the early ’90s and launched aRUDE magazine with Iké Udé, a Nigerian American photographer and performance artist.

Upon returning to China, Yeh worked at Condé Nast, Prada, Time Warner and Park Hyatt in Beijing before landing the role of group style editorial director at Modern Media Group, which was then a rising fashion publishing company founded by Thomas Shao.

Under her tenure, Modern Weekly, a mass-market weekly publication, produced some of the more memorable highbrow fashion content in China. She managed to put the magazine on the same level as international titles such as Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. Yeh later also spearheaded Nowness’ China expansion.

In 2017, she turned her attention to sustainability with Yehyehyeh, and used her influence to become an advocate for sustainability practices in the fashion industry, from working with large-scale Chinese manufacturers to hosting forums and workshops with luxury companies such as Kering, Prada and Stella McCartney, speaking at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit and WWD China’s Digital Sustainability Summit, and being a judge at the International Woolmark Prize.

Chuxuan Feng, group editor in chief of Huasheng Media, said onboarding Yeh reflects the group’s strategic direction of “continuously deepening its international footprint and actively participating in shaping the future agenda of the global fashion and creative industries.”