NARRATOR:
City Magazine is a periodical printed by colour offset printing. The magazines from the 1980s measure 43 centimetres high and 28 centimetres wide, and those from the 1990s measure 38 centimetres high and 29 centimetres wide. They’re printed on gloss paper and have a smooth surface.
Among the magazines, all front covers have a different image and a different theme colour. The cover images are indoor portrait photos that capture the upper bodies of the subjects. Styled according to the fashion of the day, the subjects give different poses and facial expressions. Some of them look directly into the camera, as if they’re looking at the readers; others are photographed in profile, showcasing the contours of their faces. One of the portrait subjects wears a pink ear-length bob wig and a pair of huge earrings in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. Her bare shoulders are visible in front of floating soap bubbles. Another person has a black ear-length bob haircut and wears a black crew-neck top decorated with circles of pale yellow, pale blue, pale purple, and pale pink that go down from the shoulder. The circular decorations are the same as those on her bracelet and earrings. Most of the people on the covers are celebrities, including director Chan Chuk-chiu, actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and singer Danny Chan Pak-keung.
Actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai appears on the cover of issue no. 189. The photo captures him in the middle of taking off a white T-shirt, with his arms crossing and pulling the T-shirt up, exposing his torso. His left arm almost covers his entire face, but an eye can be seen looking into the camera, as if he’s peeking at the readers. The theme colours of the cover are black, white, and sky blue. The photo is black and white with a plain white background, while the logo of City Magazine and title texts are sky blue.
The person on the cover of issue no. 68 is not a celebrity but a woman in a black suit jacket. With clean chin-length hair, she wears greyish blue eyeshadow with a touch of purple, and heavy brown cheek blusher, which was a trendy makeup look in the 1980s. A calla lily flower is extended across the image, from the woman’s left shoulder to the right of her chest. The point where the white curling spathe and the green stalk meet is right in front of the woman’s collarbone. Looking to the right with a neutral face, the woman shows her plump forehead, straight nose, and the contour of her lips, jawbone, and the tragus of the right ear, appearing like a bust sculpture. The background is dark with hazy light and shadows, matching with the grass-green logo of City Magazine.
