COSPLAY in a broad sense can be traced back to totem worship in early human history. In ancient times, some sacrifices dressed themselves as gods they worshipped, such as Indian feather headdresses and oil-painted faces.
COSPLAY in the modern sense is said to have originated in the United States, and some people think it originated in Japan. As the birthplace of modern American animation, Disney, which focuses on animation, established the world's first Disneyland as early as 1955. At the same time, in order to promote the product itself and attract tourists better, employees are specially invited to wear Mickey Mouse costumes for tourists to enjoy or take pictures. At the beginning, these unknown Mickey Mouse actors were the real ancestors of Cosplay behavior in the contemporary world. However, this kind of behavior still belongs to business and is not recognized as an independent Cosplay.
For a period of time after World War II, Japan's economy recovered from the destruction in wartime, and the animation industry developed rapidly. Because the United States is influenced by some western trends, cartoon role-playing has also been moved to Japan, and gradually developed into its own hobby with the enthusiasm of fans. After 1980s, a social and cultural phenomenon gradually formed, and an independent industry was derived.
COSPLAY was introduced to China late, and the earliest recorded COSPLAY in Taiwan Province Province was on August 27th, 1995, located on the first floor of SAGAWORLD in Kaohsiung. COSPLAY appeared in Hongkong before Taiwan Province Province. It is said that Hong Kong had its own COSPLAY fan club as early as 1993, but it was not until 1998 that the Hong Kong Comic Association began to hold the first cartoon exhibition that really belonged to comic fans.
In contrast, COSPLAY appeared later in Chinese mainland. It was not until 1998 that some exotic comic exhibitions were held in China. Influenced by the style of Hong Kong and Taiwan, some sporadic and spontaneous individual COSPLAY shows have appeared in China. The landmark event was the successful holding of the first COSPLAY competition in Chinese mainland in August 2000. Since then, COSPLAY has been widely recognized and popularized in China.