Cosplay is a short form for "costume play". It
is an activity in which participants wear costumes and accessories to act and
represent a specific character or idea
from animations, fictions, video games,comic books and films, etc.
Initially "cosplay" was a promotion strategy.
In the1980s, Tokyo Game Show was held in Japan. Some exhibitors wore costumes
and accessories to act as the characters from the games so as to get attentions
from audiences. They were called "Brand ambassador" in the
beginning. Later some animation-lovers imitated those "brand
ambassador" to wear customs in some private gatherings.
The Internet fosters the creation of social-networking
between animation-lovers. They share stories,news,photographs to each other.
They even have regular gatherings. This gradually increases the number of
participants in Cosplay activity. Cosplay is thus getting much more
popular. Finally Cosplay becomes an unique culture of Japan.
Cosplay is generally considered different from Halloween.It
is because wearing customs in Halloween is a tradition and activity to reflect
the culture. However the purpose of Cosplayers is to accurately copy the
characters. In order to replicate characters accurately, most of the customs
and accessories are made by the Cosplayers themselves. Apart from customs
and accessories some Cosplayers will pay much attentions on other details so as
to act as the characters such as body languages and dialogues.
Some people may
think that Cosplayers are too addicted to animations and comics. Some even
criticize that Cosplay is a waste of time and money that Cosplayers won't get
anything from it. Some extreme thought say that Cosplayers are strange and
label them as "otaku". In my opinion, Cosplay is a kind of hobby. It
is a method to show and express the adoration and appreciation to the
characters by the Cosplayers. It can encourage the producers and related
creative industry. Moreover Cosplayers make much efforts in Cosplay such
as making customs and accessories. They can get satisfactions and confidence in
Cosplay. We have no right to stop or criticize them but should try to accept or
even appreciate their works.
Hi Wong Tsz Ching. I am Miller.
回覆刪除This article greatly show that Chinese does not have a big culture about animation or cartoon.
So, that leads we do not have our special term about ' cosplay' in Chinese, and causes us have to say 'Cosplay' this word.
Thanks for your sharing:) I think this is absolutely an unique feature of Japanese culture. It's so common to see Japanese cosplay some characters of animation, just like what your picture shown(e.g naruto) , but it's rare to see Hong Kong people joining this kind of cosplay activties.I hope there can be more cosplay events held in Hong Kong so as to let more people to be familiar with this kind of activity.
回覆刪除* a unique feature
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