1930年代的上海，经济繁荣、中外商业资本杂糅共存，都市消费发达，具有世界性、现代性、开放性、商业性等“摩登”特点，是可媲美欧美工业化国家大都市的商业城市。1937年11月12日至1941年12月8日，上海租界部分地区是暂时免受日军占领的“孤岛”，城市经济出现“孤岛繁荣”，但是社会环境因战火充斥着不安与动荡。近代新型企业在全球性经济的环境中和国内复杂多变的政治环境中格外重视市场变动。近代新型百货公司的典型代表，上海永安公司，于1939年创办《永安月刊》，体现了商家在 “孤岛”的社会变动中的调整和转型。这份刊物持续发行至1949年，由上海永安公司广告部运营，定位为休闲文化刊物，内容涵盖上海都市商业与消费生活的方方面面。《永安月刊》面向的读者也是百货公司潜在的消费者，实为永安实现市场转型的营销手段。永安公司以《永安月刊》为媒介接触消费者，提升了品牌知名度，推动经营转型，并通过广告业务拓展经营，利用聚合效应获得社会资本。广告是营销的主要手段，也是包含多种信息的商业史料，反映了商业与社会的互动。“孤岛”时期的商家在广告营销上需权衡政治等风险，因此广告能够反映商业文化和消费主义如何被商家利用和设计。《永安月刊》是永安公司的企业广告， 还刊登了数量可观的各种商业广告。通过分析《永安月刊》，本文从多角度讨论1939年至1941年间“孤岛”的商业变动：一是“孤岛”时期工业布局、商品结构和社会购买力有所改变，工业生产多为轻工业和小规模，高端技术和材料短缺，奢侈消费受限，消费进一步大众化，广告反映了变动的图景；二是作为百货公司龙头的永安在“孤岛”期间经营转型，表现在由高端消费市场转向中高档消费市场，由主营洋货转向主营国货，《永安月刊》是这种转型经营的证据；三是消费潮流上的变化，《永安月刊》的广告风格反映出中上阶层消费者在“孤岛”时期对现代性和国际性风尚、民族主义和国货消费的态度，反映出消费社会的区隔和市场的差异化面貌。
Shanghai was the largest metropolis in China in the 1930s, could be comparable in every respect to the main cities in Europe and America with cosmopolitanism, modernity, openness and dynamic economics. It had emerged as a flourishing commercial society with influxes of the Chinese and foreign capital and investments. The district of the International Settlement (south of the Suzhou Creek) and French Concession prevented itself with its privilege from being temporarily occupied by the Japanese invaders from November 12th 1937 to December 8th 1941, and were thus called the “Isolated Island” (gudao). The economic flourish in “Isolated Island”, with the continual influx of capital and businesses, provided growing opportunities to the retail commerce and the consumption market, whereas the social environment was unstable and unsecured in the “Isolated Island” due to the war. The businessmen in Shanghai had to pay close attention to market changes, for the business had long been under the influence of the global economy and the complicated political background. The Wing On Company typically represented the new enterprise in Shanghai. The Wing On Monthly Magazine, which was created in 1939, symbolized the new commercial strategy of the Wing On Company by advertisement in the new situation of the changing market in the “Isolated Island”. The magazine had been published till 1949 and was managed by the Advertisement Department of Wing On as a fashionable and cultural magazine for urban entertainment and leisure, covering all aspects of consumption life for the bourgeois and upper class. The operation of the magazine was Wing On’s maneuver for business transition, for its readers were the potential customers of the company. The magazine as a media linking customers and the market, helped Wing On to realize its strategic expansion in management, strengthened its brand effect, and generated social capital by the polymerizing effect. Advertisement reflected the interaction of business and the society, and contained rich historical material of information. Businesses in the “Isolated Island” required careful estimation of various political risks, and the advertisements witnessed the tactics and manipulation of commerce and consumerism in business management. Based on the advertisements of the magazine between 1939 and 1941, a study is made on the business changes in the “Isolated Island”. First, the research is made on the changes of the industrial structures, commercial market, and purchasing power, showing that the manufactures were limited to the light industry, high technologies and raw resources were in shortage, and luxury merchandise was restrained, consumption of cheaper goods prevailed. Second, an analysis is made on the strategy of management of Wing On, showing that its service was moved from the high-end market to the middle-class market, starting to sell more domestic products than imported foreign products. Third, an analysis is done on the changes in fashion and trends of consumption among the bourgeois and upper class, their attitudes towards international fashion and modernism, nationalism and consumption of national merchandise, as well as the changing dynamics, dimensions, and diversities in the market, and social distinctions.
