WHILE other teenagers might spend their free time merely imagining life as their fantasy heroes, Deng Jie, a 17-year-old girl, has brought her daydreams to the level as the leader of Shenzhen's first cosplay organization, Zero.

Cosplay, a contraction of the words "costume" and "role-play," allows people to dress up like their favorite characters from graphic novels, anime, video games or pop music bands. Like-minded teenagers gather to see others' costumes and strut their stuff, take lots of pictures and participate in best costume contests. The fad originated in Japan, where it is recognized as a popular hobby among young people.

Although the cosplay culture has thrived in Japan for more than 22 years, it has just recently become popular in Shenzhen. As the leader of Zero for almost three years, Deng has witnessed cosplay's rise and development in Shenzhen.

The group debuted at the first China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industry Fair (ICIF) in 2004. Deng and members of Zero believe such events will give people more insight into their cosplay, which they say is a form of art in itself.

"At least people will understand it's a kind of culture," she said.

Zero won "runner-up" twice at the Guangzhou-based OACC competition, became champion at the local cartoon and animation exhibition, and was runner-up at the first ICIF.

However, Deng said Zero is not well known by the public outside cosplayers.

"The other dozens of local cosplay organizations have the same problems. We can only show off our costumes and makeup to the public during events and exhibitions," she said.

Without sufficient cosplayers and graphic novels fans here, the cosplay culture meets its bottleneck.

"There are gaps between us and those high-level cosplayers in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing," said the teenage girl, explaining that there are limited chances to see exciting cosplay performance in Shenzhen.

Deng said that because of cosplay, Japan has become a country she most wants to visit in her life. She is sure the country holds something beyond her imagination.

Deng and her friends founded Zero the same year she enrolled in Shenzhen Art School in 2003.

As an art school student, Deng can spend more time on her hobby than peers. "School classes are divided into two parts. I need to learn literature and math like general students, but I can also learn drawing cartoon and animation in the morning."

After school, Deng will watch cartoon and animation if she does not have much homework.

Deng believes that a cosplayer must not only play the character by dress, but also play the character's nature. In other words, whilst you're in costume, you must be the character, in thoughts, words and action.

Therefore, Deng needs plenty of time to find ideas for costumes and study the fictional character in order to fully get into those roles. Hairstyle, dress, and poses also require practice.

She notes down new ideas while watching and creating cartoons and shares with other cosplayers at their gatherings.

To devote more time to cosplay, Deng seldom chats or goes shopping as other teenage girls do.

She has been interested in drawing since primary school and hopes to see more local graphic novels in the future, rather than just the Japanese ones as present.

"In Shenzhen, the trend mirrors the Japanese counterpart in that the subject costumes may be selected from sources such as Japanese graphic novels or anime."

Cosplay: the latest trend

As Deng wished, a recent trend in cosplay is an increase in the popularity of non-Japanese fantasy and science fiction movie characters, perhaps due to the international success of such films as "The Matrix," "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings." Characters from the Harry Potter films have a particularly high number of female fans in Shenzhen, with female cosplayers playing male and female characters.

Another recent trend in cosplay is a blurring of the distinction between costumes based on characters from games and anime and "original" costumes based upon a general theme or existing fashions. In particular, the Tokyo teen-fashion trend of Gothic Lolita has attracted some cosplayers who might not have the inclination to wear such distinctive clothes around town, but who would like to dress in such a manner on some occasions.

Shops selling Lolita suits can be found in Dongmen.

The city's cosplayers want more understanding from the public when they are wearing costumes and walking in streets.

"No surprise or cold eyes," Deng said.

As cosplayers said, a fan of rock music will don a leather jacket and grow his hair long, it is also a form of cosplay. For fans of animation, graphic novels and computer games, it's simply an affirmation of their tastes.

Editor: Wing