這是小的不才之作
最近英文作文課我選了<Cosplay>為題材，試著解釋Cosplay
（作文題目要求「定義」某個名詞）
如果有哪邊寫錯，或用字不精確、失當，請不吝惜告訴小的
感謝!!
2011.3.31
謝謝各位大大的關照與不吝指教
因為修改一篇文章需要耗費大量時間，修好的可能慢一點放上來
2011.3.30
Cosplay (Draft 3)
What happen to you? You’re stunned, standing there and watching those people who are in fancy dresses. Don’t you have a date with some friends? If you don’t move, you will be late! But…….oh! I get it! You find your favorite characters alive in our real world, don’t you? You even get a glimpse of five huge colorful frogs “walking” beside you. Actually, “they” are “cosers (or cosplayers),” celebrating an enormous festival cosplaying their favorite roles to express respect to them in the designated areas. However, cosplay is a complex activity, not just to wear fancy dresses and pose for the photographers. There are also some rules for cosers to follow. Let me explain what cosplay is to you:
“Cosplay”, coined in the middle of the twentieth century, is short for “costume play”, and “coser” is someone who plays his or her favorite characters. However, cosplay is pretty different from role-playing. Role-playing, according to Wiktionary, is an action in which a person takes on a role and pretends or acts out being that character. Role-players aren’t like cosers choosing characters from comic books, anime, novels, movies, idols and so on. Therefore, according to the definition written in Wikipedia, cosers not only “costume play” but know the characters inside out, including their thoughts, personalities, their roles in the stories etc, and then act as them. However, cosers are not actors or actresses except that they put on a play or participate a cosplay drama competition, like the Cosplay Competition held by Asian Youth Animation & Comics Contest (AYACC) 2009 in China.
Unfortunately, the Taiwanese often confuse “cosplay” with “role-playing”, for both words in Chinese translation share with the same words: Jiao-Se-Ban-Yian(角色扮演). Worst of all, some media give the public the wrong definition. For example, the 4th Superidol, a competition held by SET (Sanlih E-Television), asked their attendees to not only sing but “cosplay.” According to the introduction in the beginning of the show, Superidol hoped that cosplay enabled attendees to feel like the main character in the lyrics. However, there are only stereotyped and common roles in the lyrics and most of the songs are not complete stories, plots and settings. Attendees can only cosplay either songs of the original singers or some anime characters who sing in the anime, for the former are unique humans and the latter are from the complete plots. Therefore, not only was the definition of Superidol more similar to role-playing but it confused numerous attendees. As a result, most of them only wore on some common uniforms or dresses like the maid dress , the princess dress , and then standing on the stage singing their songs. Even though they made every effort to win the contest, the truth was that they were not the cosers but the role-players. Beyond all questions, the wrong definition of Superidol made some people fairly uncomfortable. They even informed SET and corrected SET’s wrong idea to the public.
Most important of all, cosers and cosplay audiences in Taiwan should follow the rule, named Cosjoint, set on February 19th 2008 and modified on June 23rd 2008. The main goal is to make a good impression on the public in cosplay. First of all, Cosjoint regulates that cosers should not disobey the Social Order Maintenance Act, since cosers should also respect others and be thoughtful to the conservative. Second, photographers, the cosplay audiences, should get the permission from cosers who they would like to photograph owing to the privacy issue, even if they are shooting them in the public. Third, cosers must get the permission from the public where is not particular for cosers to cosplay. For instance, if a group of people would like to cosplay in a public art gallery, where there is no cosplay event held in there, they should ask the gallery owners politely whether they are allowed to cosplay there and take some cosplay photos before visiting there. If the owners decline to borrow them the place to cosplay, they must choose other places. Additionally, It’s very impolite to cosplay on the street or in the park even though there are no owners of them, for people in outlandish clothes must appeal to or even frighten any passerby or the drivers. This behavior may endanger the traffic. Three rules mentioned above are the most vital ones for cosers and cosplay audiences. If you are interested in the detail of Cosjoint, please visit “http://blog.yam.com/cosjoint/article/13916694.” There are around three pieces of A4 paper welcoming your curiosity.
Who are the cosplay audiences? They are the people who are not only the lovers of comic books, anime, novels, movies, or idols etc but appreciating cosplay. In my experience and observance, the cosplay audiences can be divided into three groups- the people who are both cosers and audiences, the people who are the “potential cosers,” and the people who merely watch. All of them usually visit forums or clubs for cosplay lovers to have discussions. For example, Taiwanese audiences are used to staying in PTT, TWBBS, or Gamer etc. Differently, people in the first group, both cosers and audiences, usually spend much time on discussing and learning how to make their cosplay become better and better; the “potential cosers,” are the people who would like to be cosers but don’t have either time or money (This is how I call them, for there is no particular word to describe them). However, they may very likely become cosers someday; and the audiences only, the third group, merely watching cosplay and joining the discussion for cosplay. They prefer appreciating cosers rather than cosplaying, for some of them would like to spend money and time on something more important to than on cosplay.
Anyway, in the cosplay circle, seeing their favorite characters alive in the real world makes the cosplay audiences high-spirited. Take me and my friends for instance. We feel like meeting our idols face to face while finding our favorite characters cosplayed. However, if you don’t understand our feeling still, let me ask you some questions: first, don’t you have any similar experiences when you finally see your favorite idols or someone so important to you that you have to see him or her in person? Or haven’t you dreamed to take a trip to your idle world or to visit some places which you must visit the most in your life? Just imagine how you will feel if you make your dream come true. And that is how we cosplay audiences feel when we see our favorite characters cosplayed.
Nevertheless, according to three Song Shan High School of Commerce and Home Economics students study (http://ba.tchcvs.tc.edu.tw/99projects/upload/ A083第三名.pdf), which won the third place in the Essay Competition on 05.25.2010, it shows that some people believe that cosplay makes teenagers depraved. They consider cosplay as a kind of bad subculture which contains violence, porn, drug etc. Tragically, the Taiwanese media misuse Otaku (translating as Yu-Zhai-Zu (御宅族) in Chinese), which means someone is obsessive about subculture including ACG (animations, comics and games), and cosplayers as well as some enthusiastic cosplay audiences are also Otaku. The media always give the public the bad impression on Otaku, like naming Otaku as “enthusiastic about ACG, disliking interacting with people, rarely taking good care of themselves, and preferring to stay at home.” Consequently, the public may easily and even deeply misunderstand Otaku and cosplay.
As far as I’m concerned, cosplay is a healthy recreational activity even though it is a subculture. The process of preparing cosplay may consume lots of time and money, but cosplay connects lovers’ spirits and heart to each other. Therefore, if there were no cosplay or it suddenly disappeared, I would lose the chance to meet more interesting people and feel like missing something unexplained but extremely significant to me. Cosplay brings my life more colorful!
[1] http://pic.pimg.tw/hada/4b530a27380e3.jpg
[1] http://pic.pimg.tw/hada/4b530a2b998c9.jpg
[1] The blog (http://blog.iset.com.tw/superidol/?p=2268) posted on 01.13.2010;the related response: #10, #15 #50 #54 #56
2011.3.27
Cosplay (Draft 2)
LINE