2020 SU Cosplay Competition Feasts Eyes with Fancy Costumes

As many as 30 individuals and groups of costume artists contended for prizes in forms of their favorite manga or animation characters in the 4^th Soochow University Cosplay Competition on December 5^th, 2020, at Waishuangsi campus, showing their dazzling cosplay outfits and skills and perking the audience up with dramatic visual and audio effects.

Each cosplayer, or more commonly known as COSER in Taiwan, immersed themselves in dressing and acting like the animation characters and staged up their performances with a combination of dance, drama, and music. Some competitors put focus on exquisite clothing and accessories, while some others made tremendous efforts in background screen display, sound effects, and stage lights.

The winner of the individual division was “Xiao Yu Er Emma” (小瑜兒Emma), who cosplayed the Disney character “Princess Jasmine” in Aladdin. The first prize of the team division was taken by a two-member group “Bei Ke Han” (貝嗑漢), with their cosplay of “Yzma” and “Kronk” in the Disney animated film The Emperor's New Groove.

“The results of the competition are not that important,” commented Kage Hight (影繪), the main judge with 23 years of experience in cosplay. “What truly matters is how well you show yourself during the performance as well as let more people get to know the cosplay culture through your performance.”

Other judges pointed out that the hardware of the stage that Soochow provided was really sufficient, and it could bring quite some bonus effects if contestants could make good use of it.

Extracurricular learning has been among the focuses of the University’s education policies. Chih-Hsien Tsai, Senior Specialist of the Soochow’s Office of Student Affairs, said that the goal of the competition is to cultivate students’ empathy and capability in appreciating different cultures.

In the previous years, the cosplay competitions were held during the Soochow International Ultra-marathon as a side event. Despite the cancellation of the marathon in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the contest remained this year and all the cosplayers did their best to bring everyone a great show.