Margaret Zhang has blue hair. She’s so cool. She’s had it for years, I swear. And it still looks so good. She’s who I want to be when I grow up.
She’s Mother. A filmmaker, writer, model, photographer and Editor-in-Chief of frickin’ Vogue China — and the youngest Editor-in-Chief in Vogue history at that. And it’s the fact that you’ve never heard about her that’s shocking to me.
I came across her in 2017 when I was like, you know, discovering myself. Most of the things I love to this day I found through YouTube, and that includes her. It was a video called “I’ve been thinking about what you look like.” It’s about two Australian immigrants in Tokyo navigating their shared loneliness in an online chatroom, “Loneliness in Japan.” I know it’s cliche, but I swear, it’s so good. The dialogue’s kind of clunky, but I think it works because the characters are meant to be awkward and out of place. They’re in a foreign country where they know no one, and that’s what happens when you’re a foreigner — and it’s even harder when you don’t speak the language. Maybe it’s meant to reflect Zhang’s experience as a Chinese-Australian.
The film is good; the montage scene is my favorite part. The visuals are dreamy and she ate when she picked the music for this scene — it’s just so smooth and light, like a daydream. This film started my love for films about lonely people in neon cities. It’s why we watched Chungking Express. I feel like explaining this to you is useless because it’s not like you take my recommendation. Don’t refute it, don’t even try to lie.
Wait… Before I stop talking about her, I need to talk about her becoming the Editor-in-Chief for Vogue China. Bro like at 27 — that’s insane. And it’s not like she was working at a magazine; she was just living her life as this mega-creative and then boom, Vogue calls and asks her to be Editor-in-Chief for Vogue China. Life’s so random. Anything you do could lead to an opportunity you never even expected. And she’s good at it, releasing hit after hit.
Have you seen the Vogue China October 2023? The model takes the front and center of the page. She’s in a deep red lace gown that forms into a balloon shape at the bottom. She’s floating on the powerfully dark water. In her hand she holds up the celestial moon. I think she’s meant to be a goddess. I’m intimidated, yet inclined to worship. The clouds, oh, the clouds in the background. How the colors cascade from the light-almost-beige-gray to this heavily-pregnant-raincloud gray is magical; it makes the photo. It’s so bold.
Zhang really elevated Vogue China to a whole new standard. It’s sad that she’s leaving though, and after only three years — it feels kind of short. But I think that’s who she is, just chasing creation after creation. She’s like water, a force to be reckoned with.
