Cosplay is based on Japanese comic books or manga and is becoming an increasingly popular activity for young Chinese. Gan Tian reports.

Twenty-five-year-old office worker Cao Yilun and her best friends are hardcore fans of Japanese manga, or comics. In their spare time they wear costumes and accessories to represent characters from popular comic books, graphic novels, video games and fantasy movies. They call it cosplay, short for "costume play". Cao's first contact with cosplay was in 2004, when she went to the Second Man You Comic Exhibition held at the China World Trade Center. She was impressed by people dressed like Vampire Alucard, Detective Conan and a monster named Inuyasha - all famous characters in Japanese manga books.

"I was so amazed that these characters had come to life. It suddenly occurred to me, that dreams can be close to reality," Cao says.

After she was admitted to Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, 2006, the first thing she did was sign up to a manga association.

Cao will never forget a performance she gave with 40 of her fellow students that won the best script prize at China Joy 2008, the country's best-known comic and game competition. Her cosplay group, Heaven's Door, staged the story of Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), a powerful warlord in Japan.

All the characters, however, were from the video game Devil Kings, which is based on Japan's Sengoku period, or Warring States Period (from the middle of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century).

Cao and her teammates rehearsed in the evening after classes, made the costumes themselves and created the armor and weapons. Cao recalls spending a lot of time in Nanjing's hardware stores and cloth markets looking for materials. She even learned some skills from tailors and carpenters.

In order to have a better understanding of the Sengoku period, Cao went to the library and borrowed books, including The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture, written by American anthropologist Ruth Benedict.

"People might not understand why we did what we did, but for us, it created a subtle dream," Cao says.

Most of China's cosplayers are between 20 and 30 and there are two or three manga associations at most China universities that put on cosplay shows. At China Joy, more than 200 groups sign up for the cosplay competition every year.

Though a new leisure activity in China, cosplayers are making up for lost time.

The Nanjing-based group Heaven's Door plans to attend the Official World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya, Japan, the highest level of cosplay in the world. In 2008, two members, Zhao Jing and Zhang Li, were invited and won second prize in one of the competitions.

In Japan, manga made 406 billion yen ($5 billion) in 2007. According to Cao, manga is "written in Japanese people's blood and bones" - which gives a large platform for cosplayers.

By comparison, in China, cosplayers pay for their own costumes, accessories and travel fees. Cao spent more than 3,000 yuan ($456) for the competition in 2008, saving up by doing a part-time job.

Though there are cosplay costumes sold on taobao.com, China's largest online marketplace, few cosplayers go there.

"For one thing, the price is too high, for another, it conflicts with the core spirit of cosplay: create your own dreams," Cao says.

(China Daily 04/05/2011 page8)