Cosplay: No longer forbid by parents

Cosplay: No longer forbid by parents

by Lee Hui Ying

There are many stereotypes and misconceptions toward cosplay and cosplayers, especially parents. They tend to have the mindset that cosplay is such as waste of time and money, an unhealthy activity and immature. However, parents are getting more open-minded and it has become more acceptable for them, some of them even join their children to cosplay.

In Malaysia, cosplay has become a growing subculture recently. It is a hobby increasing in popularity over the years. This can be seen from the increasing of participants in yearly event such as Comic Fiesta, c2age, World Cosplay Summit, Anicom Cosplay Competition and others.

Jared Cheah, 27, event director of Comic Fiesta said, number of cosplayers participated in Comic Fiesta are increasing in these few years, which is almost double up the previous amount every year.

 “One of reason is because of parents, as they are more open-minded nowadays. They allow and support their children to cosplay.” Said Jared.       

Parents helps in preparation

Evangeline Tong, 22, has been cosplaying for 6 months. She joined cosplay without her parents’ consent initially. Her first time cosplaying was at the Comic Fiesta 2012, as Ririchiyo Shirakiin, a character with a Naginata (Japanese halberd). She had spent 3 days to get the halberd and costume completed with her mum’s help.

Evangeline said, “I think my parents already realized by that time but they didn’t ask me more about it.”

“I showed them the photos which had taken during the event. Surprisingly, my dad didn’t forbid me to cosplay but complimenting about the photos instead.” 

Cosplay is just a hobby

Evangeline’s mum, Leem Lei Hoon, 48, supports her to cosplay as long as she can manage her time for studies and work. She also helps Evangeline in searching the materials for the accessories during her first time cosplaying. 

“My first impression about cosplay is costume role-playing of characters from Japanese anime. Well, cosplay is just a hobby rather than taking drugs, gambling and smoking.”

Most of the parents fear that cosplay will bring negative influence to their children in all kind of aspect, like lacking of interests in academics and involve themselves with unhealthy activities. 

Leem said, this is due to his or her own personality. I used to trust my daughter because she is sensible. She can always manage her studies well. Therefore, I can be sure that she wouldn’t involve herself with unhealthy activities.

See Also :
Cosplayers must have the right attitude
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