More than 200 "cosers" from all over the country got together in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, yesterday afternoon for the National Cosplay Invitation Competition and the grand ceremony for the 3rd Golden Dragon Awards for Original Animations and Comics Produced in Chinese (OACC).

Cosplay, also called "comic reality show" or "role play," is becoming a part of pop culture. Usually organized in the form of competition, it features boys and girls dressing up to imitate figures in animation.

The cosers of the 14 teams were from Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Fuzhou and Hong Kong.

The first cosplay performance, based on an original Chinese animation Qin Shi Ming Yue - Bai Bu Fei Jian (The Bright Moon of Qin: A Crack Sword), drew the attention of insiders. They deemed that it showed a sound development of comic culture in China. Previously, figures cosplayed have all been from Japanese comics.

The third annual Golden Dragon Awards, dubbed the "Oscars" for the Chinese cartoon industry, were held last night. It is an international awards competition for honoring all the outstanding Chinese comic artists both home and abroad. There were also awards for foreign comic masters.

Jilin Province's Wang Xiaoyang's Black Worm won the top prize of Best Comic Golden Award while B&T Studio's Swallowtail Butterfly received Best Short Animation Golden Award. Thru The Moebius Strip, though encountering a box office flop and harsh critics last year, got an award for Best Theater Animation.

Outstanding Contribution Award for Global Chinese Comics went to Wu Guanying, who created the Fuwa mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Chen Weidong, whose God Zone Studio created Chinese comic Outlaws of the Marsh that sold very well in Japan, and Sun Lijun, president of the Animation School of Beijing Film Academy.

Liao Bingxiong, a famous Chinese comic artist who died last year, received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Many international comic artists and experts from China, the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Malaysia -- including Hong Kong guru Huang Yulang, Japan's master Takao Yaguchi, South Korea's Kim Dong-hwa -- attended the ceremony. Yaguchi received the Oustanding Contribution Award for Foreign Comics while Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children won for the Most Popular Foreign Animation.

(CRI.cn, China.org.cn February 6, 2007)