Lund University

Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies

Master’s Program in Asian Studies
China Studies
Spring Semester 2010

COSPLAY IN CHINA:

POPULAR CULTURE AND YOUTH COMMUNITY

Author: Kanzhi Wang

Supervisor: Marina Svensson

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Abstract

In China, cosplay, which is originated for Japan’s costume play, has not simply
played as another role of pop culture, but it has represented its unprecedented
influence among those youngsters to the public with the form of cosplayers’
association. By raising the questions that “why it is so popular” and “why youngsters
devote themselves to this cultural activity”, the research is to contribute to studies on
youth culture in China. Based on observation of a typical cosplayers’ association in
Hangzhou, the following issues will be examined. Why cosplay is the particular pop
culture that draw young people’s attention? How and why youngsters gather together
and form such organizations as “Cosplayers’ association”? Based on the character of
the central topic, the main approach of this research focuses on qualitative methods,
particularly case study and focus group. The intensive interviews and participant
observations are the main source of the primary data, while phone interviews and
online interviews are the accessorial proof. The result of this research shows the fact
that both their interests and social pressure driven the young generation into the
culture of cosplay while cosplay gives them a way of expressing their desire and
choice of life. And with people who share the same interests, the awareness of
self-identity is raised, thus the interest-driven gathering becomes a structural
organization, cosplayers’ association. In a profit-dominated society with heavy
regulations such as current China, a youth culture like this, eventually gathers more
and more people and becomes their last shelter from this cruel world.

Keywords: cosplay, globalization, ACG, cosplayer association, Chinese youth, social

identity

Foreword
First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Marina Svensson. I am so grateful for
her invaluable guidance and comments during last several months. There is no way I
can accomplish this thesis without her strict tutoring and kind encouragement. And I
would like to express my appreciation to my friend Huanghu Weigang, who led me to
this research topic and gave me the most information. Also I should say thanks to all
my interviewees, especially members from association “304”, the principal, Xiaomu,
13, sis manman and others, for their help during my fieldwork.

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 Table of Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………5
1.1 A brief introduction to Cosplay and cosplayer……………………………….5
1.2 Research problems and purpose……………………………………………...5
1.3 Hypothesis and research questions…………………………………………...6
1. 4 Research design and methods……………………………………………….8
1.5 Thesis disposition…………………………………………………………….11
2. Popular culture and Chinese youth culture…………………………………….11
2.1 Popular culture: Theories and current research……………………………....11
2.2 Pop culture in China: state-market relationship……………………………...13
2.3 Popular culture and globalization…………………………………………….14
2.4 Youth culture: China’s “post-1980 generation”……………………………...15
3. Cosplay and its development: Japanese origin and global impact1…………..18
3.1.General information………………………………………………………….18
3.2 The source of cosplay: ACG in Japan………………………………………..20
3.3 Being cool and looking good: The aesthetics and visuals of cosplay………..21
3.4 Exported culture and cosplay development abroad………………………….23
3.5 The influence of Internet during the process…………………………………25
4. ACG industry in China…………………………………………………………..27
4.1 Open-door policy from the 1980’s: import of Japanese ACG……………….27
4.2 The awareness of local market: regulation and restriction…………………..28
4.3 Golden time for cosplay……………………………………………………...30
5. Cosplay in China: activities and associations………………………………..…31
5.1 Background and introduction………………………………………………..32
5.2 Local change of cosplay concept…………………………………………….32
5.3 Localized performing style…………………………………………………..34
5.4 The emergence of the associations…………………………………………...37
6. Chinese cosplayer associations…………………………………………………..38

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 6.1 General information and development………………………………………38
6.2 The function of the cosplayers associations………………………………….41
7. Case study: the “304” cosplay association in Hangzhou………………………45
8. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...48
References…………………………………………………………………………...51

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1. Introduction

1.1 A brief introduction to Cosplay and cosplayer

Cosplay is a kind of performing activity originating from Japan. Though it is not
possible to settle the exact time of its initiation, the term “cosplay” was created by
Nobuyuki Takahashi around the year 1984, while he was attending the 1984 Los
Angeles Science Fiction World Convention. Impressed by the costumed fans, he
wrote a report published in Japanese science fiction magazines, using the
word ”cosplay” to refer to costume play (Xie, 2005:52). As a short term for the words
“costume play”, cosplay is simply considered as a role play in which participators
dress up like famous fictional characters. Figures from animation, comic and games,
in short, the “ACG,” are the main sources of those fictional characters (Kelts,
2006:151).

But the definition of this term varies from different perspectives. While people
normally think of a broader idea that cosplay is anyone dressing up in the particular
costume and acting like famous characters such as Superman or Marvel heroes, the
core players of cosplay, who are also called as “cosplayers” or “cosers”, believe that
cosplay is the realization of a fictional character, which means that cosplay brings the
fictional character alive from the virtual world to this real world through a living
human body (Xu,2008). A coser from Hangzhou, called “thirteen”, explained the
difference between cosplayers’ and normal audiences’ opinions on cosplay: “even
some random people put on an emperor’s costume, he’s still not an emperor within,
since he has no soul to match”.

1.2 Research problems and purpose

As a popular activity that combine ACG and fascinating costumes, cosplay has drawn
people’s, especially Chinese youth’s attention, and has got a significant influence
among them. Young cosplayers devote a lot of money to the activity. According to
my interviewees, the most expensive costume, a self-made armor from the cartoon
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“Saint Seiya”, cost more than 70,000 yuan.1 During the last decade, cosplay has
developed dramatically in China and local cosplayers claim that China has the best
cosplay shows in the world (Wan,2010:E24). The research mainly aims to examine
the different forms of cosplay in Japan and in China, and their unique characteristics
which gather so much attention, popularity, and also ebullient debates. By portraying
the situation of Chinese cosplay, the first part of the research will provide a general
picture about the cosplay and explain details about the phenomenon.

The second purpose of the research is to contribute to the study of how cosplay is part
of young people’s identity formation and a form of self-expression. In China group
performing shows are more common than individual activities which is the case in
Japan. Though the cosplay is one kind of non-profit voluntary activity, and the
association is non-official in China, fans are eager to join in cosplayers’ association
and become a coser. They are willing to spend money and devote their spare time to
this activity. As a unique phenomena in China, the birth of such organization implies
a simply fact that the cosplayers share common interests and identity(Zhang, 2005).
The second part of the research try to explain why Chinese young fans devote
themselves to these groups and what kind of emotional satisfaction they get from this.
The study will shed light on a cultural phenomena and its societal dimension, and will
explore such issues as subculture versus mainstream culture, globalization and local
cultures, individual and group identities. The study will furthermore enable us to
understand the values and aspirations of young Chinese and how they negotiate self
and identity in a global market economy.

1.3 Hypothesis and research questions

It is an obvious fact that cosplay is a byproduct of the ACG industry, and it grew to a
position of popular culture and youth culture within a decade (Zhang,2005). Two
aspects of popular culture will be examined in the research. The first one relates to the

1
From interviewee, the “Principal” from ”304” association
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form and idea of cosplay. Since cosplay was born in Japan, and then transported to
China, the product was somehow refilled with the local concept and form. It
eventually becomes a product that shows how traditional values and modern culture
merge. The second part is that the cosplayers’ association represents not only the
cosplayers’ personal identity, but also their common values and needs. The
emergence of such groups reflects traditional ways to create a collective “sense of
belonging” and can also be seen as an attempt by young people to organize
themselves against the control and pressure from authority such as the state, or parents.
(Zhang,2005).

The core questions in the research related to youth and pop culture are: Why is
cosplay so popular among the young generation in China? Three sub questions will
explore this in more detail
a. What is the general definition and form of cosplay? What are the special
characteristics of Cosplay in China?
b. What do these unique characteristics of cosplay represent?
c. What makes it possible for cosplay to become popular in China?

Related to the issue of social or group identity formation and the cosplayers’
organizations, the key question will be: Why is China the only country that has
established exclusive cosplayers’ associations which only pick ACG fans? There are
also some sub questions:
a. What is a cosplayers’ association? And how were they established?
b. What drives cosplayers to participate and devote themselves in such non-official
and unregistered organizations?
c. Do they really create a shared identity? Does this identity challenge traditional
values or mainstream culture? What are young people expressing through such
organizations?

The hypotheses based on literature reading and fieldwork is that cosplay culture in
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China has developed some unique features. It is a hybridization of global culture and
shaped by the specific social characteristics of youth life in contemporary China. In
other words, it is a production of glocalization(Zhang,2005). There is also a local
conflict between mainstream majority culture and minority culture in China, and
cosplay culture and associations can be said to belong to the latter (Chen,2007). With
the shared demands and interests, cosplay fans shape their identity as cosplayers and
gain self-esteem within such organizations.

1. 4 Research design and methods

Due to special characteristics of cosplay as both youth and pop culture, this research
will mainly use qualitative methods such as interviews and focus group interviews.
Since the cosplay phenomenon developed from Japanese ACG which was imported to
China since the late 1980’s, it is almost natural that both cosplayers and audiences are
youngsters. And since there are cosplayers’ associations which were founded by those
young people, it was somehow easy to find and follow those participators through the
special social network. As one of my interviewee, Xiaomu claimed, “There is hardly
any cosplayer who plays cosplay individually”, the culture phenomenon itself
naturally narrowed down the research targets to members of cosplayers’ associations.
Furthermore, since modern media, the internet, was the main medium for this
phenomenon to diffuse the influence, comparing to youngsters from less developed
rural areas, young people from urban areas had more opportunities to have any idea
about this culture phenomenon, to get involved in cosplay activities, and to participate
in the associations. Considering the fact mentioned above, the research would mainly
focus on urban cosplayers, especially those association members.

Through my former experience and social network, the fieldwork was conducted in
two different cities: Shanghai and Hangzhou. Shanghai is one of the biggest and most
globalized cities in China, while it is also the city where one of the two largest
cosplay exhibitions “China joy- Cosplay carnival” was held in recent
years(Zhong,2007:16). I conducted fieldwork in Shanghai while at Fudan university,
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where I had two local mentors, Professor Pan and Professor Shen. The reason why I
chose Hangzhou as the other field work spot, is that Hangzhou was one of the first 9
ACG industry bases in China2. And due to the local government’s supportive attitude
towards ACG, Hangzhou had the most cosplayers’ associations3, and meanwhile, it
was the city where the other biggest cosplay exhibition, the national cosplay
competition, was held 4 . Since I had certain connection with some of those
associations in Hangzhou, especially with one of the biggest cosplayers’ associations
in China, the “304”, which has more than 500 members, the field work was carried
out smoothly and invaluable interviews were done within a short time.

The whole field work process was mainly based on both participatory observation and
interviews. I attended the last “China Joy – Cosplay carnival” in Shanghai, during
July 2009, and spent one month in Hangzhou doing intensive interviews with
cosplayers and other interviewees. On the participation aspect, attending the “China
Joy” show gave me a direct first impression about the whole process of carrying out a
show. And during my stay in Hangzhou, the close observation on how cosplayers
perform, how they spend their time within the association and how they start their
recruitment also helped me understand the phenomenon. Since I had been a cosplayer
as an undergraduate student at university, the sense of distance between interviewer
and interviewee was somehow reduced by both shared topics and points of views, and
in that case, the conversations between us also became more casual, which led to the
result that these cosplayers invited me to participate in their performances, other
activities and dinner parties. Thus, after taking a close and direct look at them and
their group activities, the feedback could be reliable since there was hardly any time
and room for the interviewees to pretend their improvisational reaction. As somewhat

2
http://www.chinanim.com/index.php?N=baseinfo&id=75, Zhongguo donghua
wang(China animation.com), 2008, “Quanguo 15 jia guojia donghua chanye jidi
jieshao” (Introduction of 15 national animation and comic industry bases), Jul.31st
3
From the interviewee, the “Principal” from “304” association.
4
http://www.cicaf.com/root2.0/Default.aspx, zhongguo guoji dongman jie (Chinese
International ACG festival), official website
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of an insider myself cultural and social misunderstandings during the conversations
were significantly reduced.

The primary data of the research mainly came from interviews. 14 in-depth interviews
were conducted face to face while three interviews were done through online chat.
The questions were mostly open-ended questions, and thus those spontaneous and
explorative answers from my interviewees honestly represent their actual views. With
a non-judgmental attitude, the interviews were mainly conducted in the form of a
casual talk, which led to spontaneous feedback and answers. The core questions of the
interviews centered around issues such as, “What is cosplay in China?” and “Why is it
so fun that you decided to join a cosplay association?” The aim was to try to discover
the inner motivations of those interviewees and find out the key points explaining
why cosplay had a tremendous development in China and why the cosplay association
itself was so popular. Follow-up questions were asked during each of the interviews:
“What is the motivation for you to participate in cosplay?””Why do you choose
certain characters?” “What is the process of a whole cosplay show?” “Why is there
hardly any individual cosplayers?” and so on.

Among all the 15 interviewees in Hangzhou, there were six females. And eleven
interviewees were cosplayers, while nine of them were from Hangzhou the “304”. In
order to get information and different views from other people, the rest six
interviewees were not cosers. One female interviewee, who participated in the China
joy in Shanghai, was an ordinary girl. She admitted that she didn’t know much about
cosplay and went to the China joy exhibition just to be the company of her friend, a
ACG fan. Thus, her friend became another interviewee of mine. She was a Japanese
ACG fan, but didn’t have any experiences about cosplay. The other three interviewees
were ACG fans with certain experiences about cosplay. All the interviews except one,
were born in the 1980’s, in other words, they belong to the “post-1980’s generation ”.
While 12 of them are currently university students, 4 interviewees had already
graduated from university. The only one interviewee born before 1980, was a mother
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whose son participates in cosplay association.

While the interview offered the primary data for the research, additional sources of
data included cosplayers’ blogs, online chat forums and cosplayers’ magazines which
provided significant information. Several previous academic works related to the
topic, cosplay in China, also enlightened and led me to focus on certain aspects, such
as the driven power of this phenomenon, the origins of cosplay.

1.5. Thesis disposition

The study begins with an examination and general information about cosplay in its
country of origin, Japan. The concepts of cosplay, along with its development in the
globalized context, are also discussed in this chapter. Furthermore, since it was a
byproduct of ACG industry, the second step is discussing the local ACG industry in
China, its policy change and the current situation which lead to the development of
local cosplay. The next part of the thesis concentrated on Chinese cosplay and its
unique associations, which gather youngsters born in the 1980s. Through the case
study of a typical cosplayers association, the “304”, the identity of those cosplayers
are examined and the culture phenomenon analyzed in more depth.

2. Popular culture and Chinese youth culture

2.1 Popular culture: Theories and current research

The pop culture includes diverse forms of cultural production and consumption. In the
contemporary Chinese context, while it covers a wide range of forms such as music,
film, literature and all kinds of plays, it also refers to both mass culture and
sub-culture, for example cosplay, and homosexual culture. Tom Gold puts it like this
when trying to sum up what popular culture means:
“I use ‘popular culture’ to refer cultural products produced for the mass market, which
reflect market-determined popular taste and are for enjoyment. This is in contrast to
more elite or high culture which has a much narrower appeal and poses more of an
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intellectual challenge to the consumer. It is also in contrast to political contrived
directed culture ”(Gold 1993:908)
He thus emphasizes that comparing to the high or elite culture, pop culture has a much
broader appeal and acceptance for consumers. For its basic character of market-driven
taste, the pop culture also is unofficial culture that is in contrast to political contrived
directed culture.

In the book “Pop china”, the author Kevin Latham has raised the idea of China’s pop
culture that it “consisted of ideas, beliefs and practices that have origins at least
partially independent of the state. It includes any kind of culture that has its origin in
the social side of the tension between state and society” (Latham,2007:29). And the
author also follows Gold’s concept of pop culture, develops it to identify two key
points within the concept, as the market and the mass. While the market means those
potential consumers, he implies that as a huge country which has a long and
significant history, China has historical and political connotations that combine both
mass and traditional culture. According to the author, one example represents this
connotation: the Chinese word “Dazhong”, which means the mass, still has the
connotations of socialism, workers and peasants(Latham, 2007:28). But after 1980’s,
things change with Deng’s “open door ” policy in China, the propaganda from the
state no longer dominates the culture aspects. With more tolerance on the media
control, the market and the mass to some extent have their freedom on choosing their
favorites, which means the ideological freedom makes it possible for pop culture in
China to grow.

According to Anthony Y.H. Fung, pop culture is much more than a trivial mass
culture which only had an entertaining function(Fung, 2008:26). It also has
seriousness vis-à-vis critical and political contemplations in relation to the state and
civic society” (Modleski, 1986). And the mass production of culture which involves
the most crudely conceived capitalism results in circulation of symbolic meaning and
ideology (Garnham, 1990:155). Fung implies that the pop culture, which is invented
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by the history and society, not only represents discourses and the ideologies of that
society, but also portrays the citizens’ preferences and desires. Meanwhile, the history
and the society also “manufactures, manipulates, and distorts popular culture,
politically as sources of nationalism, socially as representation of social relations in
daily life, economically as products of transnational corporations and through the
forces of the political economy of globalization”(Fung, 2008:25). Through certain
process, the political implications are particularly noticeable in a nation’s popular
culture.

2.2 Pop culture in China: state-market relationship

According to Fung’s opinion, when a new form of culture and cultural production
enters into a state, normally the standard criteria for those foreign culture would
mainly depend more on market and economic considerations, rather than any political
rationality and ideology(Fung,2008:27). But in China, due to the different political
and social condition, there might be another story. “Understanding Chinese popular
culture very often requires careful attention to how precisely the state is involved in
and related to forms of social and cultural activity and practices. Popular culture does
not exist outside of or in contrast to the state but very often in a constant and evolving
dialogue with it.”(Latham,2007:33) Fung has his argument that authoritarian regimes
may often have a higher political principle over economic interest. Before 1980’s,
China was one case. During period of pre-1980, the state institutionalized their
communism ideology to dictate the economy and any other aspects. (Fung,2008:32).
Local cultural products were higher restricted. Only 8 model dramas were allowed to
be shown in the whole nation’s theatres, and people looked like the duplicate of each
other since they all dressed in same clothes. With its ideology, the state ignored the
market demands.

This situation changed from the early 1980’s when the economic reforms started.
There was a relaxation of the political climate and reduction of political intervention
in people’s daily life at the same time that people’s disposable income increased and
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they came to have more leisure time(Latham,2007:15). Non-political cultural
consumption such as popular love songs, more entertaining TV programs, clearly
reflects the preference and desire of the Chinese people. Thus, new and diverse
consumption patterns and consumer behaviors developed which were the opposite of
the politically contrived directed culture. The emergence of popular culture in other
words implied greater individualism and freedom of choice in China.

Since cosplay is one kind of pop culture, a Chinese sociologist, Xu Yi, describes
cosplay as a subculture from the main ACG culture, which is local youngsters’ choice,
in his thesis “The Fashion of Cosplay and Its Influence on youth”. Xu also mentions
this cultural transportation of cosplay in China, and he shares the same point with
Tom Gold that the existing popular culture in a realm of society is often opposed to
the state, and demanded by the mass. Comparing to the tradition bias such as “cartoon
was just about fairy tales for the kids”(Xu, 2008) that represents social conservative,
working to uphold standards of law and other that are consistent with the status quo,
Japanese pop culture is clearly much easier for audience, especially younger
generations to accept. Even under the situation that China has its open-door policy
from the late 1980’s, the most rational strategy was to get approval of the state in
order to minimize the conflicts. Thus, this culture may be rearranged and restructure
into a new form which was more suitable for both local needs and the political
principle.

2.3 Popular culture and globalization

The book Japanamerica explains how Japanese culture “invaded” the U.S.A and
describes the significance of cosplay culture as a part of Japanese pop culture. The
book also emphasizes the recent success of Japanese intellectual property, as well as
the exported cultural ideas. “They clearly suggested that others are appreciative as
well. Young Japanese are especially aware that people outside their country can be
hooked on cultural ideas”(Kelts,2006:121). And cosplay culture is another successful
example in other countries beside Japan. In the book, the author also points out the
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fact that the Japanese culture, along with the Japanese value and ideas it represents, is
widely accepted by people in other countries(Kelts, 2006:154). The messages behind
this culture are different comparing to the local tradition, and they manage to bear a
seeds of significant shifts in the meaning and structure of that long-running genre of
popular culture. TV series, soap operas, music and ACG, those cultural products keep
exposing Japanese culture to the rest of the world.

While Kelts’s idea is mainly about the culture product itself in the globalization
process, Fung concentrates more on the relationship between the nations and
globalization. Imported culture and local ones are not completely “distinct, separated
and opposing realities”(Ang,1996:153) and sometimes the national and the global
ones have a symbiotic relationship. According to this understanding, Chinese
Communism and global capitalism are no longer enemies(Fung, 2008:31). There is a
convergence between local and global cultural forms in the sense that global capital
and culture are being localized in various ways.

2.4 Youth culture: China’s “post-1980 generation”

With the transportation of the cultural products, it is obvious that those cultural ideas
spread and grow in local people’s hearts. Zhang Lei, a researcher from Central China
Normal university, studies Chinese ACG fans. He argues that due to the ignorance of
ACG industry and the lack of local ACG productions in the 1980’s, make it possible
for imported Japanese ones to occupy the whole market. Based on the open-door
policy, Japanese animation, comic and games have rushed into local children’s lives
and become the company of this generation(Zhang,2005). Due to this situation, Zhang
argues that the imported ACG culture has rooted in the young generation’s hearts, and
young people born since the 80’s, they share the same childhood interests and
memories. By their teenage they become strong Japanese ACG fans and acquire a
special identity and group mentality.

According to Zhang’s argument, the poor economic condition in China has somehow
15
limited the growth of local ACG industry. Japanese animations are imported to China,
masterpieces such as “Dragon ball”, “Sailor Moon” or “Doraemon”
(Schilling,1997:40), not only fulfill Chinese kids’ great demand of entertaining, but
also present them with new themes such as love, youth power and sexual power,
which are more close to audiences’ daily lives. Taking the manga “Sailor moon” as an
example, the main character, the sailor moon, she has inherited Clark Kent’s tradition,
to enact the transformation from human to superheroes. But unlike superman stories
which concentrates on portraying a superhero who is capable of saving the whole
world every day, the “Sailor moon” mostly represents an image of a ordinary female
high-school girl who occasionally fight against evil. In other words, for Japanese
fictional roles, the human character is more real. Their life may also be filled with
everyday pleasantries of shopping, or playing video games.(Allison,2000:260). And
comparing to those Japanese masterpieces, the lack of domestic products in the ACG
industry obviously give Japanese pop culture a chance to plant their seeds in Chinese
youngsters’ hearts. Thus, as the shared memory of those Chinese youngsters, Japanese
pop culture has shown its unique significance as the basic foundation for those
youngsters to create a Japanese ACG fan group, a social group that connect more of
those young fans(Zhang,2005). And since cosplay culture is a byproduct of the
Japanese ACG culture, thus cosplayers are also a part of Japanese ACG fan group.
Zhang’s study on emergence of the Japanese ACG fans group provides enough
background, and thus contributed to the study on how cosplayers’ association was
born.

Stanley Rosen has described who Chinese youth born in the 1980’s are characterized
as the “me generation” by the media, and criticized for being “reliant and rebellious,
cynical and pragmatic, self-centered and equality-obsessed”(Rosen,2009:360). He
believes that the global trend has made those youngsters very international, and also
very pragmatic, materialistic, largely concerned with living the good life and making
money. But at the same time, he also suggests that those youngsters have their unique
character that “desperate to believe in something and very willing to make sacrifices
16
if they are persuaded that the cause is just.”(Rosen,2009:361) Thus, when those
youngster try to devote themselves into TV, operas or video games, they become the
first generation of couch potatoes, or maybe addict to popular culture such as online
games, Hollywood movies. And of course, for those youngsters, cosplay is one of
those options.

The pressure and the criticism which the “post-1980s generation” have suffered are
much more than this. In 1979, Chinese government established the “one child” policy
as a basic principle to control the growing population. The policy has meant that most
urban children today grow up in one-child families. People even call those child
without any siblings as “ little emperor ”, because they are the center of the family,
who enjoys care and love from other elder family members. According to survey
Fung used in his article, 61.4% of elder people consider those post-1980s generation
as “always consider themselves as center of attention”(Fung, 2010:164). Media also
portray the generation as self-center, vulnerable and less social. Expectations from the
family also add burdens on their shoulders. As the only child in the family, while
enjoying the overwhelming love from other family members, they also suffer the
pressure brought by their elders. While the mainstream values force them to follow
the rules, post-1980s generation may go through a rebellious phase and sense a need
to find out their own identity and to express themselves. Keenly realizing what the
youngsters are capable of as shown in the Tianmen Square protests, the state
understands that the implication of youngsters’ community which based on “young
people’s fashioning of selfhood, culture identity and identification taken as a
collectivity” can be influential(Fung,2009:289). Thus, instead of causing problems on
the political domain, the state by all means channels young generation’s passion,
along with the potential problems, to the cultural domain, since that is the rational
strategy for the government to reduce the risk of raising political opposition and
public disorder. And meanwhile, the state’s recognition of profit they may gain from
the cultural domains also stimulates the government to divert young generation’s
attention from social issues such as high housing prices, officials’ corruption, low
17
income, to cultural industries. And thus, for the state, cosplay, which is largely related
to the ACG industry, is also an answer.

Under social circumstances like this, a sociology master student, Chen Lu argues that
with the pressure, sometimes even the oppression from the society, young ACG fans
and cosplayers, they gradually find each other and thus create their own organization
in his master thesis. In other words, mainstream value pushed those cosplayers to find
their cultural identity and to create certain organizations. (Chen,2007). Another
researcher, Luo Yi, points out that the characters of cosplay itself represents the
internal reasons for the emergence of cosplayers’ association in his master thesis. He
assumes that the reason why youngsters has the tendency to chase pop culture can be
divided into two parts. One is that people would imitated the majority in order to
match for the bigger atmosphere, while the other one is that meanwhile, individual
person would like to be someone unique(Luo,2006). And the cosplay group fulfills
both desires by providing those fans a community in which they satisfy themselves.
The core activity of such group gives fans a chance to achieve their value, discover
inner identity and express their desire, while the form of such group gathers those fans
together, providing those fans a sense of belonging. To some extent, the cosplayers
association is somehow an exclusive community, a cultural shelter for those young
generations to avoid the pressure for mainstream society and reality, to gain their own
self-esteem and find their company who shared same identity(Luo, 2006).

3. Cosplay and its development: Japanese origin and global impact

3.1.General information
The word “Cosplay” is a portmanteau word that combines both elements “costume”
and “play” together. While “Play” represents that it is one sort of performing activity,
“costume” implies that people need particular outfits and accessories to be a specific
character. The predecessor of the cosplay is the role play, which also needs specific
costumes to achieve. The major differences between those two performing arts are the
18
origins and sources which the play represents. For cosplay activity, the sources are
mainly modern animations, comic and video games, especially Japanese
ones(Xie,2007:52).

Modern cosplay activity was born in Japan during the 1980’s. During those early
years, with the fast growing economy, the entertainment industries, including the
animation, comic and games industry, had come to their boosting
development(Xu,2008). Related exhibitions were held. During those exhibitions,
some Japanese ACG fans, they voluntarily dressed up in their self-made costumes,
looking exactly like their beloved characters from the ACG products and thus drew
people’s attention. This non-official action soon became popular among fans, since it
was a convenient way to gain attention and to express their love about the fictional
role. Several years later, in the year 1984, the term “cosplay” was created by
Nobuyuki Takahashi during his visit to the Los Angeles Science Fiction World
Convention (Xie,2007:53).

The cosplay is the byproduct from ACG, people who do cosplay activities are also
fans of ACG products, and they are called cosers, or cosplayers. In their cosplay
activities, they utilize same costume, appearances, poses, items and action to recreate
the particular fictional character from the target sources, to imitate that role and its
related scene. Through those processes, those ACG fans manage to express their
feeling about the original masterpiece and love for a certain character. In the process
of cosplay, a culture phenomenon, participators imply not only the fact that they are
fans of cosplay and its related ACG productions, but also reveal the core concept of
such activity as a unique cultural symbol. The products of Japanese cosplay, are
mainly pictures, like example below:

19
 5

Photo 1 and 2: the original piece and the cosplay product

3.2 The source of cosplay: ACG in Japan

The essential of cosplay has determined that for cosplay activities, there should be an
original source. Since cosplay was the byproduct of Japanese ACG industry, it is
obvious that Japan’s fascinating ACG product is that source. It can be classified into
three kinds, one for boys, another one for girls, while the rest are for adults. Those
ones for the boys concentrate their topics mainly on fighting or sports, which
emphasize their themes of “making hard efforts”, ”cherishing the friendship”
and ”achieving the victory”(Izawa,2000:144). The positive themes, with various
storylines and charming characters, are always attractive to young males below 18.
Masterpieces such as the fighting manga “Saint Seiya”, or basketball theme “Slam
dunk” were nationally popular hits that encouraged young boys and became their
shared memory(Zhang,2005).

Those ones for the girls are a different story. Comparing to ones for boys, their target
group are girls under 18. Thus, the themes are mainly about love, fashion, and
romances, while the topics are mostly about fairy tales, or common daily lives. And

5
Pictures from an interviewee, Huangfu Weigang, a male coser in Hangzhou
20
unlike those boys’ rough fight or exciting adventure, to attract girls and to meet their
needs, the portraying style of girls ACG is somehow more delicate, tender and
feminine. Since those ones which aim on girls are closer to the real life, they can
easily be recomposed into real person TV series, and become another kind of blast
among youngsters(Allison,2000:264).

The rest are for adults above the age of 18. Those products’ themes and topics can be
varied according to their greater tolerance. More mature life experiences and
philosophy are usually represented and discussed in those products. And some of
them also can be easily recomposed into real person TV series. Fifteen years ago, the
famous comic based TV series “Tokyo love story” was a huge success and a perfect
example of this category6.

As Japanese animation, comic and video games are the most fascinating cultural
products they can ever provided to the whole world, it has combined all most every
“cool” aspects in life, sexual power, superhero’s ultimate power, fantasy dreams from
childhood, those attractive characteristics can be easily found in those ACG: “Sailor
moon” stands for the women’s sexual power while the huge superhero Ultraman,
human-being’s responsible friend, represents the Superhero’s unstoppable
power(Schilling,1997:279). And while “hello kitty” attracts young girls’ attention
with its cute appearance, Doraemon is known by the entire world for its endless
powerful tools from future that can fulfill every dream, every fantasy that you can
ever dream of. Thus, due to the diversity, they manage to provide almost infinite
topics and roles for fans to imitate, in other words, to cosplay(Zhang,2005).

3.3 Being cool and looking good: The aesthetics and visuals of cosplay
Based on the diverse categories of ACG products, cosplay, the byproducts of ACG
culture, and meanwhile the condensation of ACG industry, also represents different

6
From interviewee, “13” from “304” association
21
images and characters.

From the very beginning, one of the main purposes for cosers dressing up as fictional
roles were to draw people’s visual attention. Based on the visual sense, since the
discourse of such ACG industry and its byproducts are all creatures from this period
of visual culture. The pursuit of beauty in the visualization is the main content and the
goal of the cosplay activity7. Comparing to other culture and their inner meaning, in
cosplay culture, the outside appearance is much more significant than the inner value.
Or in other words, during the cosplay, the appearance equals its inner value since they
are almost the same thing here in this very activity. To some extent, fans’ original
passion for cosplay is based on the pursuit of beauty. The positive attitudes for visual
culture have created an atmosphere that extends people’s interest to re-create an
external image. And the cosplay provides people the opportunity to become someone
they want to be.

And as mentioned before, the styles of Japanese ACG are mainly diverse, fantastic
and delicate, in other words, it was a “cool” style. The standard of “cool”, just like the
fashion, it may change from time to time. And here it is mainly a flexible standard
which implies ACG characters’ elements such as charming appearance, great
charisma, and unique personality. Since almost every character in the ACG
productions is cool, good looking in some way, and they naturally become the perfect
objects and the sources of cosplay. Thus, even the cool standard is just like the
fashion, changing from gothic style to asexual aesthetic, from ethical style to modern
outfit, the main principle remains: While girls tend to choose those ones as idols, or
sexy sisters, guys also have a clear tendency to choose handsome, mature samurai.
And with the change of fashion, for a while, everyone felt honorable to dress as an
“cool” asexual figure. But there is hardly anyone who would choose ugly characters
to cos, and there is hardly any ugly main roles in Japanese ACG actually. Unlike

7
From interviewee, Sis “Manman”, from “304”
22
western style ACG, even the definite villains in Japanese ACG are often very
charming, sometimes even more attractive than the heroes.

And due to its specific process, the ordinary method to record a cosplay activity, and
its basic product, or the expression, the medium of cosplay, is taking photos. In order
to re-create the exact, at least, the similar environment background as the original
scene, those cosers would try their best to find the perfect spots. If the original piece is
about middle center of Europe, then they will find a European style park where they
take pictures. Until now, static photo pictures are still the most traditional and major
outcome of cosplay.

3.4 Exported culture and cosplay development abroad

With the coming wave of globalization, different aspects are influenced by this
unstoppable process. Cultural phenomenon is also blooming under such environment.
From the 1980’s, any foreigner who had access to Japanese cultural products, such as
animation, comic, video games, or even some kinds of newly created festivals, they
can sense the unique characters within those existences, which emphasized that fact
“this is Japanese” again and again(Kelts, 2006:123). Japanese people gradually
become aware of the fact that within the flow of globalization, Japanese pop can
attract people from other countries. Previous success on exporting material products
such as Sony walkman, Honda cars and Sushi, have also increased Japanese people’s
confidence that exporting their intellectual products will be another hit in other
countries(Kelts, 2006:133). They are right about this. After several years of exporting
their cultural products, those intellectual properties which use to be domestic, for
example, pop idols, fashion costumes, ACG, and even pornography, they manage to
explore new uncharted territories(Zhang, 2005). In 2005, ACG industry became the
third largest industry in Japan, and meanwhile, Japan has become the country which
exports the most culture products in the world(Zhang, 2005:E13)

Taking the United States as an example, according to American journalist, Douglas

23
McGray, Japan’s “gross national cool” has made deep inroads into American
culture(Kelts,2006:151). In the US, Japanese animation is a huge success which grow
at a rapid speed. In the early digital age, this growth had not only given Japan its first
fully functional experience of being an exporter of intellectual property, but also made
its eyes wide open to a new world of opportunity. According to Douglas’ idea that
even Japan is “usually written off by the rest of the world as aggravatingly insular”,
and all they have about their cultural is basically tiny and
weather-battered(Kelts,2006:152), it is ironic that once Japanese people have a clear
understanding of the significance of imagination, ideas and asymmetric thinking, their
culture’s influence is no longer limited only within their own island.

Thus, with the wide spreading of Japanese ACG industry and its products all over the
world, as their byproduct, cosplay also becomes popular. Since the development of
ACG industries is a unstoppable one which gives continuous birth of charming
characters, it keeps providing sources and motivates the development of cosplay
activity. Nowadays, cosplay has grown to a position that is not only a byproduct, but
also one kind of pop culture which represents both popularity and value.

And the globalization process also brings more changes to cosplay, makes it much
more than just merely pictures. Since 2003, Aichi Television Broadcasting was
sponsor to hold an annual event called “the world cosplay summit ” which attracted
participators from all over the world8, with the purpose of promoting the ACG culture
and building up friendship with fans from other countries. And later on, with the
support from the government, it becomes the largest international cosplay event in the
whole world, and is currently much more than a commercial exhibition9. Thus, from
Japan, the original place where cosplay was born, with the world’s largest ACG
industry and the consuming market as its backup force, cosplay culture grows to a
8
http://www.tv-aichi.co.jp/wcs/e/what/index.html, World cosplay summit, official
page
9
http://www.tv-aichi.co.jp/wcs/e/what/index.html, World cosplay summit, official
page
24
worldwide thing. And furthermore, stereotype about participators of cosplay is broken
by the current situation. College-aged males are no longer the main part of the mass
that are interested in cosplay culture(Kelts, 2006:153). Demographic figures have
changed at current animation and comic exhibitions: the percentages of different
gender cosplayers are almost equal, and close to the normal gender ethnic distribution.
Since the essential characteristic is to make fantasies come to life, there is hardly any
pressure for people to accept. After the culture transportation, the cosplay culture,
along with other Japanese pop culture, has gained an established status.

3.5 The influence of Internet during the process

Giving birth to the outburst of new techniques in major aspects of people’s daily life,
the globalization process influences a large part of modern people’s lives in various
means, including the birth of new media, the internet. With the fast development of
the communication and media, the internet manages to connect people from all parts
of the globe. Thus, it also had helped spreading the cosplay culture from a domestic
phenomena to a worldwide thing.

China, as a country that has the world’s largest population, has 384 million netizens
until the end of 2009. 28.9% of the total population are netizens who spent 18.7 hours
per week surfing on the internet. Among Chinese teenagers, there are 195 million
netizens. (CNNIC, 2010:10) With its unique characters of real time interaction and
communication, more and more people, especially youngsters, are becoming netizens
chasing various information all the time. Beyond the number of users, the new
technique also has its great effect on others aspects. Since everyone who gets free
access to internet has his freedom to share his or her own idea and information, the
internet becomes an open forum sharing information that differs from local domestic
media. (Pavik, 1998: 320) And for youngsters, popular topics always draw their
attention, and cosplay is one of them.

Since the major outcome of the cosplay is photo picture from fans who are often
25
amateurs on photograph, the traditional media such as magazine and newspapers
somehow limits the development of cosplay. And thus the scale of cosplay often
remains an unusual individual thing until the internet was born. In China, the internet
provides cosplay fans a platform to present their products, whether image pictures, or
video clips, while it also provides them a real time virtual community where they can
gather together and communicate with people who share same interests. From the late
1990s, there were blogs, online-chatting room, open or membership forums which
allowed cosers to upload their cosplay pictures(Zhang,2005). Their existence also
make it much easier for people to get access and understanding to such pop culture.
Through those online spaces, fans from everywhere can get to know each other,
which has somehow broken down the invisible limitation, or even the national
boundary, since there is no boundary online. Taking China’s cosplayers as an example,
according to their memory, the first time they heard the word “cosplay” was from
students who studied in Japan through online chat, and the first time they got to know
such activity was also from Japanese cosplayers webpage. With the similar
background, during the wave of globalization, the transportation of cosplay idea to
other countries, like America, share the similar story with China.

Taking China as an example, after realizing the great potential market in the ACG
industry, local government announced regulations to limited foreign ACG and to
encourage the local industry(Xu & Luo,2008:70). But the internet made the limitation
futile, since it is still easy for those cosers to have free access to Japanese ACG
products through the net. Internet has eliminated the territory disparity and ensures
that more and more youngsters get involved in the cosplay culture. According to local
interviewees’ idea, the internet makes it possible for fans from different parts of the
states to share an equal access to the latest ACG information, which meant that the
original sources of cosplay culture would not suddenly sink under the government
regulation and restriction. And furthermore, the netizens in China, has built all kinds
of website, and open forum to show their photos, recruit more fans, or discuss their

26
products. In China, such websites like “China cos net”10, or some associations’
websites, like 304’s “red city”11, contain thousands of pictures to represent their
activities. Famous cosers, like “the No.1 coser in China” Huangshan, or members in
the “304”, they all have their own spaces, and even fans. Somehow, a virtual
community of cosplay was born on the internet. And down below is the picture from
Huangshan’s personal page, his official forum12:

Photo 3: the background picture of Huangshan’s webpage

4. ACG industry in China

4.1. Open-door policy from the 1980’s: import of Japanese ACG

After the cultural revolution period back in the 1970’s, the economic reforms forced
Chinese people to concentrate more on the economy rather than the
culture(Latham,2007:33). Within the reform era, as the ACG industry in China were
somehow ignored by the masses, the development in the local industry
declined(Zhang,2005). The whole industry was occupied by three stated own factories,
and the investment into the industry could barely compare with the international
average. Due to the bias that the animation is only for kids below 10, certain problems
remain in the production process of animation and comic, for example, the designs of
the characters are too childish and naïve, the lack of action figure and the beautiful
static background(Zhang,2005). And the most important issue among those problems
is that the topics and themes only concentrate on education and are limited as the
educational material which has a cartoon cover. Thus, the Chinese ACG products are
totally no match for both the market demand and children’s interests. The whole

10
http://www.chinacos.net/
11
http://www.hz304.com/, Red city, 304’s website
12
http://hscos.com/, Cosplayer Huangshan’s webpage
27
industry was in a period of stagnation.

And with the absence of local ACG production, the open-door policy had changed the
situation in the ACG industry. From the late 1980’s, through both government import
and the illegal private business, Japanese ACG products rushed into Chinese market.
“Saint Seiya”, “Doraemon”, “The Flower Child Lunlun” ,” Pretty Soldier Sailor
Moon”, once those masterpiece came into local kids’ sight, they easily occupied their
minds and rooted deeply in the young generation’s hearts. Comparing to the childish
local products, Japanese ACG products has much wider themes and topics that
represent other kinds of lifestyles and fantastic dreams or illusions which attract huge
amount of people since the late 1980’s(Chen,2007). Realizing the potential market
needs, local television stations imported animations from Japan, while private
business started to pirate comic copies of Japanese ACG productions in the early
1990’s. As mentioned above, Japanese ACG products, which have different styles,
were aimed for various groups of local audiences and occupied more than 90 percent
of the market share soon. (Zhang, 2005) Growing up with those various kinds of
Japanese ACG products, local young generations who were born from late 1980’s
have a shared memory of animation and comic. According to a recent survey, “the top
20 favorite cartoon character among Chinese kids”, 19 of those 20 characters are from
foreign animations. And even “monkey king”, the only local one, maybe is referring
to “Sun Wukong”, the hero who shares the same name with “monkey king” from the
most popular Japanese manga “Dragon ball”(Zhong,2007:16).

4.2. The awareness of local market: regulation and restriction

With fast development on the economy, ACG industry are widely accepted globally
as a growing industry for couple of years. Taking the year 2002 as an example, the
entire global production value of this industry was 26.8 billion. In the next year, the
figure became 31 billion. Thanks to the early realization how significance this
industry could be, Japan is in a leading position. It had an average production value,
over 9 billion from its ACG(Zhang, 2005:E13). The import value from this industry
28
was four times than its steel industry. The other countries, such as America, Korea,
also realized the potential market power of this industry. Now, the United State has an
annual 5 billion production value in the related industry. The ACG culture and its
related productions become a main tendency in the global market.

Under this circumstance, China could no longer stay the same. The government
realized the market potential, and tried several methods to stimulate the development
of local industry, to awaken it from sleeping. On April 20th, 2004, State
Administration of Radio, Film, and Television announced “Guangyu fazhan woguo
shiying donghua chanye de ruogan yijian”, (Several points related to developing
China’s animation industry), encouraging private companies to invest in this industry,
and forcing local TV channels to increase both the amount of animations programs
and local animation products(Xu & Luo,2008:70). The regulation has emphasized that
among all animation programs, local ones should occupy at least 60% share. Since
then, related regulations and principles emerges continuously. And thus, the year 2004
is regarded as the start of local ACG industry. In 2006, State Council of the People's
Republic of China submitted a joint proposal from 10 departments, the “Guangyu
tuidong woguo dongman chanye fazhan de ruogan yijian”, (Several related points
about developing China’s animation and comic industry) (Xu & Luo,2008:70). Nine
cities, including Hangzhou13, were titled as the developing bases of ACG industry.
The government officially has a positive and supportive attitudes towards this
industry instead of the former bias and ignorance.

Based on the facts mentioned above, it is obviously that besides the high passion of
Chinese fans and cosplayers, the government policy is also a significant driving
power behind this culture upsurge. After realizing the potential market of ACG
industry, the State Council of PRC had established a related principle, “Guanyu

13
http://www.chinanim.com/index.php?N=baseinfo&id=75, Zhongguo donghua
wang(China animation.com), 2008, “Quanguo 15 jia guojia donghua chanye jidi
jieshao” (Introduction of 15 national animation and comic industry bases), Jul.31st
29
tuidong woguo dongman chanye fazhan de ruogan yijian”, “Several related points that
develop the domestic animation and comic industry”(Xu & Luo,2008:70), announcing
government’s supportive attitude towards the ACG industry and its related activities
including cosplay. Several cities’ high-tech districts were cataloged as the developing
base for ACG industry. According to the 2006’s report from State Administration for
Industry and Commerce, until October of this year, there were 5473 animation and
comic related companies and enterprises in 27 provinces and territories. 447
universities had set animation major, which involved 466,000 students, and 1230
universities had founded related major(Xu,2008). Even later, the State Administration
of Radio, Film, and Television had announced regulation and restrictions that foreign
animation programs can’t be broadcasted on any channel during the golden time, from
17:00 to 21:00 (Xu & Luo,2008:71). Local ACG channels should broadcast Chinese
cartoon during those hours. This regulation officially prohibits foreign ACG,
especially Japanese ones, in the local market in a disguised form, in order to protect
the domestic ACG industry.

4.3.Golden time for cosplay

The regulation and restriction from the government have ironically helped the wide
spread of cosplay in China. Such methods of the stimulation to promote local ACG
were somehow in vain, since people can still have access to Japanese ACG through
the world wide web, and the lack of related technique, the regulation on the topic, the
limited themes and the unspoken bias against the ACG, those reasons again have not
only turned Chinese ACG productions humdrum, educational and childish, in other
words, boring and unattractive, but also have pushed local audiences to Japanese
ones’ side again(Zhang,2005).

And due to the heavy regulation and prejudice about animation and comic, the lack of
original animation and comic works remains. Thus, local governments’ concentration
and support focus mainly on ACG exhibitions. With the government’s support, As
parts of the plans, those exhibitions are also widely held in major cities, spreading the
30
ACG culture, It somehow grows from a byproduct to the leading actor in China’s
ACG territory. And instead of the animation and comic masterpieces, the cosplay
activities draw the most attention. Nearly every ACG exhibition has its cosplay part or
competition. And the level of cosplay activities gradually raises from individual to
nationwide. In the year 2005, through fierce local cosplay competition which was
combined with the annual ACG exhibition, Hangzhou government had selected four
top cosplayers to take part in the biggest international cosplay event, the World
Cosplay Summit in Japan(Chen,2008:E5).

Thus, eventually, those positive policies benefit the cosplay and its related
associations. Some participators even claims that due to the lack of original products,
now the local ACG exhibitions are merely cosplay exhibitions. But this is good news
for cosplay culture. The positive attitude towards ACG industry has created the right
atmosphere for cosplay to develop. Cosplayers and cosers’ associations have a
significant progress, growing from unofficial organizations to permitted ones that are
always parts of the national ACG exhibitions(Zhao,2006:E3). And since there are
hardly any ACG productions, most local ACG store survive on selling cosplay items.
Local exhibitions and competitions also have stimulated the forming process of
cosplayers associations, since most of the cosplay competitions and exhibitions
require the group participation rather than individual participators.

Since 15 cities were set as the ACG industry base, they also became the base of
cosplay performances. The cosplay and the cosplayer’s community have a boosting
development in the mainland China, and their influence spread all over the country.
Since Japanese ACG mainly attract elder teenagers, as a pop culture, it gradually
become popular among young generation, especially university students, expressing
their demands and representing their values.

5. Cosplay in China: activities and associations

31
5.1. Background and introduction
Although cosplay originated from Japan, for the last decade, it starts to play a
significant role among Chinese youngsters. The first cosplay performance happened
in Hongkong 1993, a group of novel fans dressed in soldier uniforms which were
originated from the fiction novel “Legend of the Galactic Heroes”. Five years later,
the Hongkong comic association held the first animation and comic exhibition, which
involved most of ACG fans and was a milestone for cosplay in Hongkong. The first
cosplay show in Taiwan was held in a building called “SAGA World” of Gaoxiong
city, on August 27th 1995(Xie,2005:54).

The development of cosplay in mainland China was much later than in Hongkong and
Taiwan. There was no concept of cosplay until the year 1998, individual cosplayers
showed up in ACG exhibitions(Luo,2006). But with the help of new-born media, the
internet, the influence of cosplay from nearby territories such as Hongkong and
Taiwan, has accelerated the developing process in mainland China. After only two
years, the first national cosplay competition was held in Beijing. And other metropolis
like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan also started their tradition to hold annual ACG
exhibition and cosplay competition. The China joy exhibition is now the third largest
ACG exhibition, and the largest cosplay competition in the world. In Shanghai, during
the year 2005, there were 11 registered public ACG exhibitions from January to
March(Xu,2008).

5.2. Local change of cosplay concept

After cosplay has traveled to China with the globalization process, it soon became
popular among young people for its fancy appearance and visual attraction. But
gradually, local circumstances and elements has changed the original cosplay into a
new performing activity in several aspects.

The original meaning of cosplay is to re-create the exact scene in the original ACG
products. Cosplayers try to make the same costume as the fictional characters and
32
perform the fictional characters’ behavior. In that case, the cosplayers are the bridge
that connect both fiction and reality, the agent who make the fictional scene real.
Through this performing activity, the cosplayers are able to express their feeling about
the original products. But now in China, the cosplay has its own development.

As one Chinese coser “13” had emphasized, “you have to get the soul to create the
character”, the soul he mentioned here, is cosers’ unique comprehension. Normally,
cosers in Japan follow original scene and characters strictly, since they can easily get
access to the original ACG products such as the official design, scripts or the drama
play, to be their references. Both the lack of original references and the creative idea
from the locals has created a different inner concept in China. Due to the different
understanding of the original pieces, local cosplayers tend to add their own ideas and
points of view into the activity, which obviously change the original characters. Thus
with such diversity, the re-structuring process results in a different one from the
original piece. In other words, the local cosplayers do not only represent the duplicate
of fiction characters, but add their own creative points to the original form and content.
For example, one of those creative re-invention style is called the “kuso”, the
spoofing. The word “kuso” is from Japanese, meaning adding laughable points into
the original story to subvert the former image, and to increase the contrast between
the new image and the former one. This is one typical way of local cosers to produce
their own stories based on the former characters. The limited situation eventually has
provided local process new creative points, a totally new relationship between original
ACG products and cosplayers. It again represents the fact that local elements give
new significance to the discourse from the original products by creating their own
similar products once again. Chinese cosers are no longer the duplicate of the original
pieces, but also become the creators by adding their own understanding and
performing their own roles during the local cosplay. For example, a ninja character
from the game “Sengoku Musou” in the picture-03 below, he is dumb in the original
piece, but by imagining the possible character from his appearance, the coser, my
interviewee “13,” transformed the character into a talking role in the play he
33
participated in.

14

Photo 4 and 5: static photo and photo from a live performance

5.3. Localized performing style

The concept of cosplay is not the only thing that has its local development. There
follows the development of expression methods. Since in China, cosers believe that
the cosplay is not only the real human’s version of the fiction characters but another
creating process, the traditional photos which show only static scene or role can no
longer satisfy the growing demand. And the visibility contains not only the static
images but also the active scene play.

As mentioned above, in Japan, the cosplay is more like an individual activity which
involves much less people comparing to Chinese ones. And with its mature domestic
ACG industry, official plays or dramas are also part of the production chain. In that
case, since there is already the true main version of the ACG products, there is hardly
any room or need for cosers to create their own play based on the original piece. But
in China, the cosers have used this certain performing style as “play”, emphasize their

14
Pictures of interviewee “13”, from a “304” organized show
34
own idea about the roles, and act out a more vivid role than a static image. The group
cosplay for local cosers, is mainly a play which involves the target characters. And
furthermore, as mentioned above, most of the local cosplay competitions and
exhibitions require groups’ participation rather than individual participators, this also
has stimulated the cosplay in China to develop from a single activity to group ones.
So, in local context, Chinese cosers would choose the dynamic drama or opera to
bring the activity onto the stage.

The usual way for cosers is to pick up a certain one or several typical scenes from the
original pieces as a reference, and then to write their own play transcript and
conversation lines based on their own understanding and the references. Comparing to
the old static pictures, such dynamic expression may not be able to represent a
delicate solo image and details of a cosplayer’s appearance, but such group play can
obviously imply interactions between different roles, and thus portray clear images of
more vivid characters. Thus, as a result, in the local context, the “play” part is
especially emphasized by those cosers. In those plays, comparing to the main plot, the
other accessory aspects such as the background music, the sound effects and the
dancing style, are totally originally created by those cosers. Unlike the costume and
main plot of the play, those stuffs have no certain reference for cosers to follow or to
copy. So such elements become a extension of their own comprehension rather than
the original idea of the author’s. Cosers have to make up their own choices of the
music they use in a play, the lights which make different visual effects, and of course
the ground field they need to take the video shot. In other words, even with the same
cosplay transcript based on the very same scene from the same original masterpiece,
the results of two cosplays still vary because different cosplayers groups have
different comprehensions about the original piece. And other elements including the
poses, lights and sound effects, are also re-designed according to cosers’ own
understanding. During my fieldwork, I have witnessed cosers from association “304”
practicing the dance step they invented for the next show which act out in “Taipai

35
International Book Exhibition 2010”15. Yaqie, a female coser, explained that basically,
cosers participate such activities for fun, and considering the financial issue including
renting the stage, the setting of background light, the record of music, sometimes they
prepare the show for business exhibitions or celebrations such as this book exhibition
in Taipei. And here is the video clip of their performance, in which audiences can see
a typical Chinese cosplayers’ group performance.
http://www.tibe.org.tw/tibe/comic/news/20100201_04.html

And now, with the techniqal development, besides the static pictures, and the dynamic
drama or play, other expression methods are also developed by Chinese cosplayers.
Animation music video clip is one of those expressions. One basic style is to follow
the normal animation video clips as original references, and then to represent the same
video again, with real person cosers instead of the fiction cartoon characters. Another
developed style is to produce an original music video clip with cosers who dress as
and imitate the target fiction character. Since it combines both static images and
dynamic actions to present the inner cos theme, this style of cosplay production soon
become widely popular.

According to some local cosers’ idea, those developments in the concept and
performing style are based on the typical local elements, that is, the huge population
in China. As mentioned above, cosplayers are all Japanese ACG fans which grew up
with the ACG productions. With the large population from the entire young
generation, it is more likely for local cosplay activities to involve much more people
than other places. And unlike the situation in Japan that cosplay is mainly an
individual performance, in China, this cultural phenomenon is usually presented in
group activities, for instance, cosplay dramas, cosplay plays, and even video clips.
Such performing styles determine that in the local context, cosplay is no longer an
individual thing. In other places, once people dressed as a certain cartoon character,

15
http://www.tibe.org.tw/tibe/comic/news/20091231_01.html
36
and they claimed that they were cosers with picture proving that they had done so,
then, they are no doubt a coser. But in China, in order to be a coser, people have a
different procedure to go through and then become admitted as one by the others.

5.4. The emergence of the associations

China’s cosplay, has not only developed its concept and form, but also has developed
the organization aspect among the youngsters. Thus, for ordinary fans in China, there
are three main ways for local fans to participate in a cos activity, and to be a part of
the cosers’ community, and to be a “real” coser. The first one is to join a current
cosplayers’ association and take part in the coming play. The second one is similar
with the first one. The only difference between those two is that in the second one,
people don’t really join the association, but only take part in the show through a
temporary recruitment of a particular play. The last one is taking part in the individual
department of certain cosplay competitions, such as The China Joy, or the national
cosplay carnival16. But considering the fact that under the particular circumstance,
there is hardly anyone would carry out the performance alone, while most of the
cosplayers has joined a certain association in their own city. In this digital age, as
mentioned above, the internet, including online chatting software such as QQ, MSN,
or online forums, chatting rooms, blogs, or website has widely spread the cosplay
culture, and represents a fact that cosplay is a simple activity close to every ACG fans
life(Zhang,2005). It is obvious that internet has played a crucial role in the forming of
cosplayers community. The internet is no longer a one-way media such as the
traditional newspapers, magazines or TV. Its free access and people’s equal
participations, this kind of interactive communication has created a virtual community,
a platform on which participators can shape their individual identity, and also follow
the shared principle and rules in the group. During the process, the internet has shaped
the image of cosplayers, helped them to build a typical identity as a “real coser”, and
gathered cosplay fans together in a virtual group. Starting from this cyber Utopia, the

16
From interviewee, Xiaomu from “304” association
37
cosplayers have the chance to find each other, and begin to form their special
organizations, the cosplayers’ association, in their real lives. “Without the internet,
there may not be cosplay associations” Xiaomu claimed.

Thus, with the wide spread of cosplay culture, the communication technique and the
support from the government, young generation organizes associations to gather more
cosplay fans into the activity. From the late 90’s last century, cosplay associations
emerged in China. Taking Hangzhou as an example, by the year 2008, a city with 8
million people, had more than 60 cosplayers’ associations(Chen,2008:E5). Since
those associations didn’t have the responsibility to register in certain government
department, the actual number could be more than that figure. And according to some
interviewees, “Right now, every university has at least one registered official student
cosplay association”(Wu,2007:57), which implies a fact that the developing speed of
cosplay association is also incredible.

6. Chinese cosplayer associations

6.1.General information and development

Most of cosplayers associations grow in the university, and student interests
associations are their prototypes. Those student associations cover a wide range of
student activities, such as chess games, debate, or sports, and their main duty is to
carry out and organize such activities to provide young university students to
participate in such interest activity and meanwhile meet people who share the same
interests. And of course cosplay is one of those activities. Thus, by using those
student interest associations as samples, cosplayer fans, which are mainly university
students, imitate the similar infrastructure with those associations in order to run the
cosplay activities. Normally, several leaders raise the idea to form a cosplayers
association, then a chairman, and several secretaries who run for different department
are elected by all participators. The aim of certain organizations is to carry out the
cosplay activities, to spread cosplay culture among youngster, and to involve more
38
fans to join the group enjoying this cultural activity. Their main activity is to play
various cosplay characters and to participate in exhibitions.

Thus, after the group of fans has achieved certain achievement in a competition, or
they have published an official announcement on the net, a new cosplayer association
is officially born in that case. The scale of a cosplayer association can be varied
according to its influences among fans from that territory. While the minimum ones
may only have three members, the big ones can have over hundred members. And due
to the fast growing speed, there is no complete survey that can tell the exact number
of cosplayers associations. In big cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, almost every
university has at least one cosplayers association in the campus. With the convenient
communication methods, utilizing student cosplay association as the prototype,
independent cosplay associations, which don’t belong to any units and have no
registration in the government department, also emerge and become the main stream
form of cosplay associations. Only those extremely large ones may registered as a
small private company, which reduces some problems while signing the contracts for
business shows. Right now, almost every big city has one or two representative
cosplayers’ associations. For example, in Hangzhou, once cosplayers mentione the
association, the “304” is always the first option. And adding on those un-registered
ones on the list, the total number of cosplayers associations is definitely over a
thousand in the whole country. In Hangzhou, according to the survey from a
cosplayer’s alliance “Hangzhou animation and comic league”, the amount of cosplay
association had reached 35 in 2005.

Originated from student associations, the cosplayer associations inherit the same
characters from student associations. Since they are both unofficial organizations
formed by grass-rooted citizens, unlike registered enterprises or companies, cosplayer
associations have a loose structure. Furthermore, as the activity is non-profit, with
such core tenet, the association itself is also non-profit. It is the shared interest, pure
passion and members’ sense of belonging that connect those cosplayers in a group.
39
Actually, unlike other formal groups which have a clear list of member names, in
cosplay associations, such as 304, there is no such records. “The record stays in my
cell, and in my mind.” The head of 304, the “principal” smiled and pointed at his own
head. As a non-government organization, the cosplay association has to utilize its
attractive activity and fancy cosers in order to drew people’s attention and thus to
recruit new members. Three major methods are used for the recruitment. A small
number of new members are introduced to the association by the old members. Some
of them are attracted by the fantastic shows presented during the exhibitions. Most of
the newcomers are recruited through the recruitment advertisements on the internet.
Most of cosplayer associations have their own websites, or blogs. On those virtual
community, members of the association are capable of publishing their group
activities, news, productions and recruitment ads. Once some members have an idea
of cosplay roles from a newly released animation or game, normally the first thing for
them to do is to spread out the idea and to start recruitment online. Through this
process, more and more ACG fans are involved into the association, and the
association thus extend its influence in the territory.

And the shared memory about Japanese ACG products successfully combine those
fans together, and become the very basic foundation of the cosplayers’ associations.
Even according to those members’ idea, they don’t really have a strict standard of
qualification. But the different understanding of “cosplay”, and other recognitions,
have naturally settled a strict boundary between cosers and ordinary people in their
daily life. A certain reaction, ideas about ACG culture and the understanding of
cosplay and its related terms has eventually set an invisible boundary for them to tell
who is really “one of them”. Thus, within the group, particular manners are developed
while terms are also created from the ACG culture. The group is somehow like mafia
or other secret organizations, running on its own unique track, following the particular
principle which is based on the ACG culture. So, in other words, the cosplay culture,
which is based on the ACG culture, become a key word and the essential group
culture, clearly identify the potential group members that share the same interests and
40
memories, and separate them from ordinary people.

6.2.The function of the cosplayers associations

Since the association is founded, their core activity, cosplay, is widely carried out in
the region. For cosplayers in the group, the organization gives them a chance to
change their identity into another charming character and thus reduces their pressure
from the ordinary society.

During their childhood and early youth, the lifestyle of youngsters were restricted by
the mainstream social values transmitted through parents and school. Due to the lack
of financial support and mental independence, they didn’t really have other options
besides school life and family life which was somehow ordinary and boring. In a fast
developing country, local youngsters have to suffer the heavy pressure from the
competitive society, which resulted in raising negative emotions such as depression.
According to a survey made by several major medias and websites, comparing to the
older and younger generation, the “post-1980s generation” has suffered the most
pressure. Among all 3313 “post-1980 generation” interviewees, 52.6% of them think
that they suffer serious pressure from the society. 67.85% of them are not satisfied
with their current life, while only 1.7% think that they enjoy their lives. The high
housing price, the low income and the difficulty in job-hunting are the top three issues
for them. Graduated university students who live in big cities with a income below
2,000 yuan are even forming a new social group, the “ant family”, which are
inhabited by groups of low-income college graduates.(Qiu & Li, 2010) In that case,
those “post-1980 generation” has represented their characteristics as “very pragmatic
and materialistic, largely concerned with living the good life and making money.”
(Rosen,2009:361) It is obvious that the accumulation of those emotions and pressure
of “post-1980 generation” need to be reduced and eliminated through certain way.
Cosplay is one answer that make those youngsters willing to devote themselves.

Thus, the cosplay association, by carrying out cosplay activities, provides cosplayers
41
an opportunity to re-create the fiction world and be a part of their dreams. By joining
those organizations, youngsters find themselves a way that they manage to enjoy a life
style they ever dreamed of, and escape from the real world’s pressure and thus reduce
the negative emotions. “The cosplay, it does calm me down and reduce my
dissatisfaction about the reality” most of my interviewee from the fieldwork shared
the same idea. Some interviewees even implied that since they had the chance to
express and to release their inner feelings, they now had more tolerance towards
pressure or disappointing reality. “Because at least I have cosplay as my world”, some
of those cosers claimed. Sister Manman, one female interviewee from the “304”,
emphasized that it was the cosplay that help her avoid, overcome and keep away from
the pressure from parents and the “boring topics only about concerning money,
vehicles and housing among adults”. The only elder interviewee, coser Huangfu
Weigang’s mother, a woman in her late 40’s, also agreed that the cosplay did help her
son calm down and become more peaceful, even more mature when dealing with
pressures.

And the cosplayer associations have not only provided fans’ chances to reduce the
pressure, but also helped them representing themselves in a way. By acting out the
other identity and life style, they are no longer only the consumers of ACG culture,
but also producers of ACG based cosplay culture. As mentioned above, unlike the
domestic ACG products which share an educational concept, Japanese products are
less childish and more mature. By portraying different topics in life, they manage to
discuss the meaning of life and its significance, revealing the inner ideology. As fans’
of those products, cosplayers are also affected by them during their imitating process,
and start to think about their own significance. As mentioned in the last chapter,
Chinese cosers have developed cosplay into a group performing show rather than the
static image exhibition. Before association carry out one particular cosplay show, the
first step for cosers in the association is to design the character and to recompose the
scene based on the original material. Thus the cosplayers associations become
producers of a new cultural form. And the elements cosers add in the play have no
42
doubt represented their own ideals and dreams

Furthermore, the fancy outfits also help cosplayers to gain self-esteem. As the general
idea, the costumes from Japanese ACG products are usually fancy and fashionable
with its vision. Their dress and other accessories are often of great style which relates
to the colorful life. To some extent, choosing a charming role means that at that point,
the coser himself is also a unique one which is charming and fashionable. Cosplayers
associations help them to achieve this with its resources and shared experiences. And
for youngsters who really want to escape from the daily pressure and ordinary life,
one of their deepest wish is to become someone unique, or someone special. Thus,
those youngsters consider the cosplay is an exciting, popular fashion, and they find it
as the best option for them to build their own unique sense of fashion by acting some
unique charming characters. Meanwhile those youngsters also want to be accepted by
the mass, and treated as normal people. In that case, as both the executor of cosplay
performing and the organization of cosers who share the same interests and value, the
cosplayers association is capable of meeting those youngsters’ ambivalent demands of
being special and ordinary at the same time.

The cosplay itself is a foreign words which was imported from Japan to China, and its
related word “cosplayer” and its short form “coser” have emphasized a simple fact
that people who do cosplay activity have already categorized them as a sub culture
group. And thus, the cosplayers association, by carrying out cosplay activities through
various ways, has helped potential fans to discover, develop and admit their identity
as cosplayers from their ACG fans background. And furthermore, in a cosplayers
association, cosplay fans find other people who share same interest and value. Since
they have already shared cultural background, and grew up under the influence of
Japanese ACG products, their shared identity make it possible to communicate on the
same level. While the same identity ties cosplayers together tightly, the organization
manages to bolster their members’ self-esteem through the continuous interaction
among group members.
43
As mentioned above, cosplayers eventually are youngsters who had their own culture,
a sub culture which represents values that differs from the mainstream. Thus, the
misunderstanding and bias from the mainstream, especially from authorities like elder
people, somehow still imply negative ideas and considered cosers as strange others.
Since the sub culture is barely understood by the majority of the society, rumors about
cosplay and cosers emerge. The authorities criticize that cosplay’s non-profit
character as a total waste of money, and cosplayers are nothing but kids who are
addicted to Japanese ACG which would do harm to them. Taking my interviewee,
Mrs. Huangfu as an example, she was strongly against her son, Huangfu Weigang to
participate in cosplay activities, and not to mention organizing a cosplay association
himself. She used to have this idea that it’s a waste of her son’s money and time, and
more seriously it is ruining her son’s future life. It was not until her son’s association
won a price in the competition held in Hangzhou did she gradually change this bias
into a neutral attitude, which thought cosplay was just a regular interest just like chess
games, or sports. But somehow, even the emerging of the associations has developed
and presented the positive aspect of cosplay to the public, the prejudice still stands
among the rest of ordinary mass. According one of my interviewees words, her
university principal used to claim that Japanese ACG was “Japanese cultural invasion
which tried to corrupt Chinese youth generation” while he knew nothing about it17.
Thus, comparing to other sub culture, since cosplay originated from Japanese ACG
products, the so-called “culture invasion” as well as anti-Japanese emotions adds
more pressure on cosers, they have to suffer more bias from the society. According to
a case from 304, once they were hired to participate and perform in an exhibition for
one game design company, the contract had announced clearly that no Japanese style
cosplay shows allow during the exhibition18.

The misunderstanding, bias and prejudice have no doubt pushed away cosplayers

17
From the interviewee, a female Japanese ACG fan, nickname “A Bu”
18
From the interviewee, Sis Manman from “304”
44
from the majority of the society and rooted a sense of psychological distinctiveness in
the mind of cosplayers. For cosers, cosplay is part of their lives and inner world in
which they can release themselves and share a different standard comparing to the
normal world. Due to this cultural gap between cosers and ordinary people, cosplayers
naturally find each other and then form minority groups. The unique standard and
culture have somehow separated them from the main society.

Young cosers need a space to explore and grow their own identity. And thus, the
cosplayers association provides a space, a platform for cosers to leave the computer
screen, to walk out the door and to get into a group starting their own connections in
the real world. Through the interaction and communications between group members,
they tend to develop their special language terms, united ideas and value. For example,
among all cosers I had interviewed, all of them shared the idea that in the association,
every time during the preparation of a cosplay show, members enjoyed the feeling
that everyone was working on the same thing, making hard effort to achieve the same
goal. In the whole process, the special term they used, the division of works they
arranged, the topic they shared, all of those interaction and communication happened
in the group, based on their shared cultural background, had clearly distinguished
them from the society, increased their self-esteem within the group and thus bound
young cosplayers to their organization tightly.

7. Case study: the “304” cosplay association in Hangzhou

As the general situation of those associations are similar, it means that any local
cosplayers association’s can be representative of general trends. Meanwhile, the
majority of my interviewees were for one of the most famous and typical cosplayer
associations in China, the “304” association from Hangzhou. So I have chosen the
“304”as the case. My interviewees have confirmed some of the general trends
mentioned above, and in this chapter more details would be examined.

As one of the biggest and earliest cosplayers association, it was founded by five
45
female cosplay fans on aug.4th, 2001, in Hangzhou. As a city of tourism and culture, ,
government in Hangzhou commits itself into the entertainment industry, including
local ACG, and exhibitions. With local government’s positive attitude and support
towards the ACG industry, the cosplay association grew so fast that according to my
informer, Sis Manman, who was somehow related to the administration aspect in the
association, after ten years’ development, the membership of 304 had already reached
the number of 500. Due to the equal proportion of gender roles in the ACG, the
gender proportion between male and female is almost equal. Judging from my own
observations during the association celebrating dinner party, the percentages of both
genders was half to half. As mentioned above, cosplay has its aesthetics character of
being cool and good-looking, thus no matter which gender they are, those members
are mostly good looking ones.

And as the biggest one in the region, “304” was often invited by enterprises to
perform in business shows. Even one significant characteristic of cosplay is non-profit;
they may still need the income for carrying out business performing shows to make
their finance even. But due to the different understanding about cosplay, while the
companies’ ultimate goal was using cosplayers to draw people’s attention and thus to
gain profit, those cosplayers actually still insisted that their association was non-profit.
Manman, she explained that for those companies, they didn’t really care what cosplay
was, they just used cosers as cheap models who could gain people’s most attention for
the company and company’s products. And on the cosers’ side, performing in a
business show was “just a way to collect the working capital, the fund to support the
next cos”. Through this form of collaboration, both of them had get benefits. “While
those companies use us to work attract their customers, we use their money to
promote the level of our cosplay. Our purpose is not about the profit, it’s making
those business entities to pay the bill for us.”Manman explained. So in this case, those
core members of 304 had even registered their own small entity to negotiate business
with corporations or companies.

46
In general, they are essentially a non-government organization which doesn’t have a
strict management system, and there is no accurate figure of its membership. The age
range of the members is from 14 to 28, which means that all the members were born
after 1980. The “Principal”, the current leader of 304, is one of the first members of
the association. He explained that there was no strict regulation to join in the
association, everyone was free to join. Normally, the ACG exhibition, the internet
forum, and member’s introduction are the main method for them to recruit new
members. So every year there will be newcomers in the association. The interviewees
I talked to, their membership ranges from 2 months to 10 years. As the interviews
went on, those cosers all admitted that they were Japanese ACG fans, and those
products motivated them to take part in cosplay activity and association.

It was interesting that even the newest member in the association shared the same
point of view with the older member, whether on the definition of the cosplay, or on
the feeling about the association. They clearly had their own term in the group, and
most of them devoted their whole spare time to the group, since the activity took time
to practice, and perform. Considering the fact that Chinese cosplay is mainly group
performance which involves more than three people, and larger ones such as
“fengshen yanyi”, which was produced by 304 members last year, has more than 20
people, cosers often devote all their spare times in communicating and practicing with
each other. During their period of preparing for a show, they are somehow only
combined with each other, and thus hardly any of them has friend that has nothing to
do with cosplay. Among 9 of my interviewees from 304, 7 of them claimed that their
best friend is, or was cosers. One of my group interviews occurred in a dance-training
room of a university. The intensive practicing lasted four hours, but none of them had
any complaint. Actually, cosers were happy to do so. When talking about the question
“what make you happy in the association”, all the interviewees had mentioned one
aspect that “when we were preparing for a show, everyone gathered together to make
hard effort for the same goal. It feels like a big family in which I feel like a part of it”.

47
But according to the mainstream opinion, which is ruled by the old generation, the
cosplayer is a meaningless activity and waste of both time and money to some extent.
Thus, most cosers implied they had difficulties with their parents or other elders. As
Rosen had emphasized in his article, those young generation would devote them into
what they believed in (Rosen, 2009:361). Cosers from 304 had similar situations like
this. Some of them went through a huge conflict with their family. One female
interviewee, “the hell butterfly”, she told me that two years ago, after her mother
threw away all her cosplay items, in order to insist her interest of cosplay, she just left
home for 6 months. And her family finally compromised until she had gained certain
achievement in the national competition. And for someone who had less pressure
from the parents, like Xiaomu, after he became famous, his parents gradually took a
positive attitude and felt proud of him. And as mentioned above, Mrs. Huangfu and
her son also shared a similar story.

But somehow, the extreme passion on this interest had enlarged the distant feeling
between cosers and ordinary people: seven out of total nine interviewees implied their
best friends were also cosers in the association. And elder cosers, for example,
Manman and the “Principal” explained that they did have distant feeling among
people at the same age, since their interested topic didn’t really match. “All they talk
was just about money, housing and vehicles. It was too pragmatic and materialistic,
and it’s not my thing. But in the association, people shared the same topic, interest,
and even the special language terms” Manman claimed. Cosers talked about not only
their activities and ACG products, but also other pop culture such as Japanese soap
opera, music and movies were also their interests. Similar interests did combine them
tight together. Comparing to their ordinary life, in the association, cosers felt much
more happiness, passion and freedom. 50% of my interviewees strongly agreed with
the idea that in the association, they felt more secure and comfortable. “It feels like a
real family, and I never regretted that I was one of them”. Members of “304” claimed.

8. Conclusion
48
The results of this research shows that the globalization process brought not only the
technique development, but also the new individualism through the form of culture
phenomenon. In China’s case, with the open door policy which provided people
freedom of choices, the market-oriented economic had its influence raising popular
culture that represented people’s desire, preference, and also the individualism. Even
with the local context which developed both the form and concept of the popular
culture and thus repressed the individualism, youngster became fandom and gathered
into communities to express themselves. As the authorities somehow keenly realized
the potential power of those youth’s community and thus lead the youth’s passion to
cultural aspects rather than political ones, such popular culture, for example, the
cosplay and its related associations, became the shelter that youngsters devote
themselves into.

As a byproduct of ACG industry, cosplay originated from Japan. And during the
globalization process, along with the export of Japanese cultural products, cosplay
was also exported to other countries as the United States, Korea, and China. Back to
the 80’s of last century, in China, the pop culture industry was somehow ignored by
the state during their propaganda agenda. Thus, not to mentioned masterpieces, there
weren’t any ACG products in the market. Globalization was the key that changed the
situation. Once the open door policy was established by Chinese state, Japanese ACG
products rushed and occupied the market within the globalization trend. Gradually,
the “post-1980 generation” became a generation grew up with Japanese ACG
products which represented a different lifestyle and culture from the traditional or
pre-reform values and culture. After the cosplay’s transporting to China through the
internet which was also a significant invention of globalization, its aesthetical idea, its
original sources and its visual impact, they have awaken the shared memory deep in
the post-1980 generation’s heart, and attract some of the youngsters to participate in
this activity. Meanwhile, with the high pressure such as housing price and low income
on their shoulders, the young generation is eager to find a way to reduce the negative
emotion, to express themselves and to communicate with others. Cosplay, is one
49
answer for them.

The state government’s positive attitude toward local ACG industry supports the
development of local cosplay. And both the regulation for imported ACG products
and the lack of local products create an interesting phenomenon that local cosplay has
occupied the exhibitions held by the government and thus has a large space to develop.
With the free access to internet, in other words, free access to foreign ACG
masterpieces, the cosplay culture is again strengthened by local fans. The large
population and the financial situations of the youngsters have determined that local
cosplay activities mainly carry out in group forms rather than the individual shows
comparing to the original ones. The discourse of cosplay is restructured by the locals
adding elements such as their own comprehensions. Furthermore, local cosers develop
not only the performing style and concept of cosplay, but also shape the identity of
cosplayer. With the spread of the internet, more youngsters get to know and involve
into this unique activity.

According to cosplay’s one characteristic, acting like other fictional roles which are
the ideal images for youngsters, by doing so, cosers manage to become someone else,
and thus avoid pressure from the state and society. With shared interests and values,
more cosers emerge among the post-1980 generation. Once they gather together,
cosplayers’ association eventually is born to organize and to recruit cosers
participating in group performance. As the local concept of cosplayers is admitted by
the ACG fans and those associations, this cosplayers associations help cosplay fans
gain self-esteem, build their special term and languages, and shape their identity.
Within such organization, cosplayers feel like home and get their sense of security
along with satisfactions by interacting and communicating with people sharing similar
values and interests.

50
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