By Herbert Cheung, Michelle Chan, Sharon Tang, Natalie Wong & Choco Chan
Riku Ho, is no ordinary teenager. You might think Ho, who works at Louis Vuitton, is a typical luxury-brand salesman, but then he changes into his cosplay.
Cosplay, namely costume play, is a performance art in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character from manga or anime, comic books and cartoons, video games, and live-action films. It is not unusual to see women playing male roles and vice versa. A subset of cosplay culture is centered on sexuality.
As for Hong Kong, there has long been a trend of cosplaying since Japanese culture became fashionable. Ho started cosplay 15 years ago. He is really into the japanese popular culture including music and fashion, so he started with cosplaying his favourite brand and studied how to make his own clothes.
Ho’s family is very supportive of him, he said.
Being not-so-accepted in Hong Kong, Ho says he understands stereotypes are not likely to end. But he is proud to dress in the costumes he made, he said, given his years of experience as a stylist.
Ho said he is going to die together with his costumes together as evidence of his passion for cosplay.