Film stars have played an important role in mediating between the cinema and mass consumption in our societies. This chapter examines the dynamic and complex articulation between Chow's star image as a male fashion and lifestyle icon and the local consumer culture during a period in which Hong Kong was experiencing rapid social, economic and cultural changes. In the 1980s, after nearly two decades of industrial restructuring, Hong Kong finally reshaped its image from a regional manufacturing city to a service-based metropolis and global financial centre. Together with this shifting of the city's image came the rise of consumer culture within the local society. Trying to stimulate consumer desire, an increasing number of local businesses and organisations began to seek high-profile endorsements for their products and services.

As glamorous celebrities with public appeal, film stars became the ideal candidates for such endorsement because their prolific (on- and off-screen) images provided a flexible territory in which advertisers could establish symbolic connections between their products (or services) and certain types of lifestyles, images of beauty, or social values. In conjunction with the commercial and critical success of A Better Tomorrow in 1986 and the unexpected popularity of the image of its underdog hero Mark Gor, Chow Yun-fat not only became one of the most popular stars in the Hong Kong film industry, but also one of the most sought-after celebrities for local businesses. During the years that followed, a range of companies and charities invited Chow to endorse their products or services, which included menswear and accessories, jewellery, mobile phones, food and drinks, blood donation and even babies’ diapers (Li 1992: 22–3).

Paul McDonald (2000: 54) pointed out that stars often represent the ideological values of wealth, freedom and individualism on which a consumer economy is built, and are therefore not only employed to promote movies, but also to sell other commercial products. From Sarah Berry's (2000) observations on the popular fashion discourses informing Joan Crawford's, Greta Garbo's and Marlene Dietrich's stardom, to Gaylyn Studlar's (2000: 159–78) study of the relationship between Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn's star persona, current scholarly attention on the dynamic interaction between cinema and consumer society recognises that female stars often help to define certain types of femininity through the costumes they wear in their films, through which a female audience is encouraged to participate in a fantasy of consumption.