At first I came in contact with organised cosplayers in China at the new campus of Chengdu`s Jiatong University when i attended a convention in November 2010.
I was told that the South Jiatong University would be harboring a group of cosplayers who were among others, making costumes and impersonating characters derived from Wuxia influenced online games. I was immediately fascinated, since it is precisely this transference of codes that i wanted to understand better and i decided to meet some of the people organizing costly events in order to learn more about this form. Up until this time, I was only aware of cosplay as a specific form of fan-culture originating in japan. Now I was confronted with a lively scene of “cosers” in the middle of Sichuan, China. Thus I began to make interviews collect information about their events, take photos with the cosplayers and film their event. During these events, I realized that I had found a fascinating form of global pop-culture that was deeply rooted in a participatory reaction to media franchises such as Comic and Animation films as well as as Computer Games. Thus I decided that I would limit my research to this phenomenon, not only because it perfectly illustrated trans-national cultural convergence and the growing importance of fan-culture, but also because I became convinced that a closer investigation of this culture would allow to pose some important questions about contemporary media culture as well as art.
What drew me to cosplay at first, was the fact that fans of specific media franchises, such as anime films and computer games, would attempt to bring the characters from these narrative universes to life by literally incorporating them. It seemed to me that this act represents a uniquely intense form of cultural participation and indeed production, since many cosers spend significant time and creative energy with the construction of their costumes.
Research in China 2 – COSPLAY
At first I came in contact with organised cosplayers in China at the new campus of Chengdu`s Jiatong University when i attended a convention in November 2010.
I was told that the South Jiatong University would be harboring a group of cosplayers who were among others, making costumes and impersonating characters derived from Wuxia influenced online games. I was immediately fascinated, since it is precisely this transference of codes that i wanted to understand better and i decided to meet some of the people organizing costly events in order to learn more about this form. Up until this time, I was only aware of cosplay as a specific form of fan-culture originating in japan. Now I was confronted with a lively scene of “cosers” in the middle of Sichuan, China. Thus I began to make interviews collect information about their events, take photos with the cosplayers and film their event. During these events, I realized that I had found a fascinating form of global pop-culture that was deeply rooted in a participatory reaction to media franchises such as Comic and Animation films as well as as Computer Games. Thus I decided that I would limit my research to this phenomenon, not only because it perfectly illustrated trans-national cultural convergence and the growing importance of fan-culture, but also because I became convinced that a closer investigation of this culture would allow to pose some important questions about contemporary media culture as well as art.
What drew me to cosplay at first, was the fact that fans of specific media franchises, such as anime films and computer games, would attempt to bring the characters from these narrative universes to life by literally incorporating them. It seemed to me that this act represents a uniquely intense form of cultural participation and indeed production, since many cosers spend significant time and creative energy with the construction of their costumes.