As the name implies, COSPLAY is a shorthand for English Costume Play, and its verb is COS, while people who play COSPLAY are generally called COSPLAYER. Generally speaking, the earliest Chinese translation of COSPLAY is from Taiwan Province, which means role-playing. However, because this translation is the same as the Role Play Game(RPG) in the game, in order to avoid similarity, the author prefers another translation-dress up. As far as today's COSPLAY is concerned, its form and content generally refer to the use of costumes, trinkets, props and make-up to play the role in ACG(anime, comic, game) or some Japanese visual bands and some characters in movies. From this, we can see that COSPLAY contains a wide space for its positioning, and it can even be said that as long as there is COSPLAYER, this field is definitely the mainstream of teen pop culture today.

COSPLAY origin

When it comes to the original origin of COSPLAY, it is generally agreed that the birthplace of COSPLAY is located in Japan. Of course, this can be said if it is based on the concept of COSPLAY in the modern era. But in a broad sense, the real birthplace of animated COSPLAY is definitely the United States in the western hemisphere, and even if we really want to discuss the original form of COSPLAY, the author can tell you without hesitation that COSPLAY first appeared in the centuries before the first year of AD! Because whether it is the costumes of the Greek sacrifices that existed around 1000 BC or the great bard who co-created two great Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, they are actually playing the role of others. The former became the prophet and prescient of later generations, and successfully cosplayed the existence of the apostles of God, while the latter, like the originator of today's stage drama, cosplayed the deeds of those epic heroes. In fact, the meaning of COSPLAY to include and dress up not only refers to an external visualization, but more importantly, to go to the heart of COSPLAY people. Well, get down to business. Next, let's talk about the real birthplace of COSPLAY-the United States.

Is COSPLAY in America formable?

Since the Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher invented the "magic slide" in the 17th century, the appearance of animation has become a necessity. In the following century, this kind of "magic slide" became popular in Europe until1Walter? Only after the appearance of Disney's charming little mouse did the American animation style have a clear and definite definition, and it was during this period that the first real COSPLAY with animated characters as the object was played. Yes, there is no doubt that Mickey Mouse, who is cute and funny, is all the rage in the United States and all over the world. Walter? Disney seized the opportunity to create the world's first Disneyland in 1955. At the same time, in order to promote the product itself and attract tourists better, Walter? Disney also specially invited employees to wear Mickey Mouse costumes for tourists to enjoy or take photos as a souvenir. Therefore, it can be said that this group of unknown "Mickey Mouse" costumers were the real ancestors of COSPLAYER all over the world in the present era. From this, we can also know that the original purpose of COSPLAY is still a commercial form, not a popular consumption like now. There is actually a very important basis for taking the United States or, more precisely, Disney as the real birthplace of COSPLAY, that is, the professional production of COSPLAY costumes worn by Disney dressers at that time. Although in the current COSPLAY clothing, many of them are sewn by the dressers themselves. However, as the origin of COSPLAY, it is necessary to have a standardized and systematic clothing production organization.

At first, it was Walter who made COSPLAY costumes for those Disney characters dressed as Mickey Mouse, Brutow, Gu Fei, Donald Duck and others in Disneyland. Disney's earlier prop department. Shortly after the formal establishment of the park, Walter? Disney has expanded the scale of the props department. Besides making props for film and television works, it is also responsible for all COSPLAY costumes needed for working in the park. Of course, these so-called COSPLAY costumes in the early days are just a "big paper bag" with a fixed shape, which has no aesthetic feeling at all, and the finished products are relatively rough, so it is easy for the dresser to have poor breathing after wearing this costume. But in any case, compared with the time, Disney's COSPLAY costume production at this time has a certain scale.

Is Japan the founder of COSPLAY in the true sense today?

At this moment in Japan, because 1947, Osamu Tezuka, the god of comics, adapted the red book cartoon "New Treasure Island" based on the original work of Sakai Seven Horses, showed a sharp edge, and set off a new comic craze in Japan. As a result, the whole ACG(Anime, Comic, Game) market in Japan has flourished, thus laying a solid foundation for truly establishing the position of ACG in Japan. Just at this time, Disney's activities for publicity (COSPLAY) were introduced to Japan and imitated by ACG circles. As a result, it became a trend and became the normal activity of ACG circles in Japan now. The earliest COSPLAY in Japan appeared in the thirty years of Showa (A.D. 1955). At that time, the so-called COSPLAY was just a costume for children's games. The year I remember happened to be the year when Masked Moonlight and Young Jeter were broadcasted in Japan, so many children were the protagonists of these two works at that time. Although COSPLAY at this time is purely a toy between children, it is still very particular about clothing, of course, the premise is to have money. At that time, there was no special COSPLAY clothing store in Japan. If children want to have the same clothes as the protagonist in the animation, they must first ask someone to draw the design drawings, and then go to the department store to ask someone to sew them. Oji Hiroi, a famous game producer today, asked the geisha in a geisha street near his home to draw the costume design of COSPLAY when he was a child. This relatively rough situation has been maintained for nearly twenty years. It was not until the 1970s and early 1980s that ACG in Japan experienced the exploration and growth period that COSPLAY, as a subsidiary culture of ACG, gradually got real development. It can be said that the concept of COSPLAY today is completely inherited from Japan at that time.

However, in the 1980s, although Japanese COSPLAY developed in a higher age group and more groups, there was still no real pure COSPLAY activity. At this time, COSPLAY is more attached to another surrounding culture brought by ACG-fan club (whose works are called fan zhi). The word "fan zhi" originated in Japan, originally referring to "a group of people with the same interests who create their own literary works together, which is called fan zhi". In other words, as long as like-minded friends assemble their published literary and artistic works into a book, they will not be published by commercial publishing houses, but will pay for their own printing and circulate among the same friends, which can all be called "fan zhi". Due to the prevalence of Japanese animation and video game culture at that time, many good popular works were very popular among the same friends, and "adapting commercial works and compiling comic fan stories in the form of rumor" gradually became the mainstream of the fan world. As a result, a large number of fan associations have sprung up, and in order to recruit members and hold fan zhi instant sales meetings (the first fan zhi instant sales meeting began in 19751February, when it was just a small fan zhi instant sales meeting with only 32 organizations and more than 600 visitors, it became a super-large fan zhi instant sales meeting two or three times a year in the 1980s. As a result, this trend, like an explosion, quickly caused a trend among the same friends, and the number of people who joined the ranks of COSPLAY grew rapidly. Later, its popularity was even comparable to that of the fans' instant sales meeting.

After the naivety in the 1960s and 1970s and the start-up in the 1980s, COSPLAY in the 1990s began to get on the right track with the rapid maturity of the GAME industry in Japan's ACG industry (the most typical one is the dispute over the next-generation models among Nintendo, Sega and Sony) and the endless stream of visual orchestras, and became a subsidiary culture of the ACG industry with a very large scale. In the 1990s, ACG industry in Japan successfully held a large number of animation exhibitions and game exhibitions. At this time, Japanese cartoonists and video game companies, in order to promote their products, found some men and women to COSPLAY into ACG characters in these game exhibitions and comic festivals to attract exhibitors. This move can be said to be the same as that of Walter? When Disney opened Disneyland, it was exactly the same. It can be seen that the key to the formation and development of COSPLAY is based on the degree of commercialization of ACG itself. It can be said that COSPLAY itself can be developed and recognized by leaps and bounds only by taking COSPLAY as a commercial promotion means.

What about COSPLAY in Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province and Hongkong?

COSPLAY was introduced to China late. The first recorded COSPLAY in Taiwan Province was held on August 27th, 1995 at SAGA WORLD in Kaohsiung, but it was reported that the scale was not large at that time, and most of the characters were from video games. On the following 19961October 13, Taipei Baby Bear Restaurant held an autumn party by the "Super Orange Group". Although it was widely publicized before the meeting and many people knew it, the scale was still small. This situation continued until1mid-February, 1997, when three events were held in succession, the number of COSPLAY people began to increase, and since then, it has formed the characteristics of COSPLAY circles in Taiwan Province. Since then, the number of COSPLAY events in Taiwan Province has been increasing year by year, and the venue has also developed from the north to the south-central. The popularity of COSPLAY activities in Taiwan Province can be seen from this.

COSPLAY appeared in Hong Kong before Taiwan Province. It is said that Hong Kong had its own COSPLAY as early as 1993. At that time, there was no fan club meeting in Hong Kong. Generally speaking, fan clubs exhibited and sold through the venues of art festivals held every year in Hong Kong at that time. It was in that year (i.e. 1993) that a fan organization named "400 feet" appeared in the venue wearing the uniform of the allied forces in Galaxy the legend of heroes, and this group of them became the original COSPLAY in Hong Kong. In the same venue next year, they also played the role of allies, but this time they also brought another group of fan clubs called "UVRZ" to play role-playing. The female members of "UVRZ" put on Japanese witch dresses and prayed for the visitors with witch sticks. In 1995, "400 feet" played the role of "Mobile Police", while "UVRZ" began to play some famous ACG roles in that year, such as You Jing in "Chaos 1/2" or Beludandi in "My Love". Since 1996, the "400-foot" club has retired from any COSPLAY, but at the same time, other fan clubs have started to dress up one after another, which has kept the number of COSPLAY circles in Hong Kong climbing. Shortly after this, the first fan story sale in Hong Kong was jointly held by "UVRZ", "Comic Babies" and "Fire Dog Workshop" (but it was also the only time, and there was no such performance in Hong Kong since then), which of course once again expanded COSPLAY's influence in Hong Kong.

Because of its growing influence year by year, the Hong Kong Comic Association began to hold the first animation exhibition that truly belonged to comic fans from July 30 to August 3, 1998. At that time, the admission fee was HK$ 25. It is said that COSPLAY in this exhibition is the most popular one in history, and many people have played the roles in fighting games such as Ba Shen and Caoshave. At that time, the winner of the first COSPLAY competition in Hong Kong --"FUN FUN Costume Competition "was a girl dressed as Dhritarastra in The Legend of God. After that, SE Corporation, TG Workshop and Hong Kong Art Supplies Professional Center held the first Comic World for indoor sports in Macpherson, Mong Kok on August 30th, 1998. And for the first time, a "dress-up photography area" was divided in the venue to facilitate the participants to take photos as a souvenir. What is quite surprising is that at that time, someone had started to COSPLAY "Inuyasha"! ? In the following years, the exhibition among university communities has gradually begun to show its head and become another active venue in the COSPLAY community in Hong Kong.

In contrast, COSPLAY appeared late in mainland China, and there were some sporadic and spontaneous individual COSPLAY shows until 1998 when the comic exhibition was held in China, and before that, there was no fan-story sale meeting of a certain scale. Therefore, even if there is COSPLAY, the number is extremely rare. However, due to the maturity of COSPLAY in Japan, Taiwan Province and Hongkong, COSPLAY in mainland China grew rapidly and steadily, and the first COSPLAY Competition in Chinese mainland was successfully held in August 2000. In the following year, Huayi Company started the "200 1 year Best COSPLAY Competition for Stone Tools" under the name of its main product "Stone Age" with its great influence on online games. At the same time, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and other regions have frequently held comic exhibitions and fan exhibitions in recent years, which has made the COSPLAY in mainland China have a certain scale.