Cosplay. Characters, Costumes and Craziness

Something I’ve had the pleasure to see since I’ve lived in China is various cosplay days. .  They are held every year or even twice a year and are always fun

Firstly, in case you were wondering, no I don’t participate or dress up, but I do love conventions and expos. I go to all sorts from tea to IT from pets to books. I love the energy and the different sights and sounds you can see at these conventions, some are great some are not, but I try and go to as many as I can.

So what is cosplay?

Cosplay is basically ‘costume play’, it’s a hobby in which people dress up as their favourite characters, from comics, TV, games, you name it basically.  Now you go to say ‘Comic Con’ in the states you’ll see people dressed as all sorts of characters you’ll prob already know.  However the SZ one was mainly Japanese characters, most of which I didn’t know.  But occasionally saw one I did know which got me a bit excited (I’m a big kid)

10^th edition

This convention was the 10^th time it has been in SZ. I went in 2016/17 and again this year.  And its bigger each year this time over 5 days and using 3 halls.  The scale really surprised me.  There was men dressed as women, women dressed as men, and some cosplayers I didn’t know if it was male or female!  Stepping into the convention hall I thought I was in Hogwarts or something was surreal.  What struck me the most was the confidence of the cosplayers.  They were happy to pose for photographs from anyone who wanted them and seemed to really enjoy the attention. Many of them were sprawled on the floor and lapping up the attention. They were in a place where they were accepted by everyone and even admired and applauded for the efforts made on the costume.  Something that would not happen if they were to walk the streets of SZ on a normal day.

Money money money

The main reason for the convention seemed to be selling merchandise. Expos are usually business after all.   There were stalls everywhere selling everything under the sun.  Almost everyone had bags and bags of goodies.  Pretty odd since it can be easily bought online these days.  I myself bought a Peppa Pig t-shirt, when in Rome do as the Romans do right?  After around 90 mins of wandering around, snapping some pictures and seeing the sights my head was spinning, so I left.  But i’ll be back in 2019 no doubt!

If anyone is interested in any conventions you can go onto www.SZCEC.com and they have a full calendar of the scheduled conventions.  Just turn up on the day and you can get in, usually by scanning a QR code and signing up for free.