Chinese Women Hire Female Cosplayers to Play Their Ideal Men

During her final years of high school, Chinese teenager Xu Yunting discovered a unique way to earn extra money—by transforming herself into male video game characters and going on dates with their female fans.

Known as “cos commissioning,” this trend has recently gained momentum in China. Social media posts about it have amassed millions of views, as more young women use their financial resources to engineer real-life meet-ups with their idealized video game characters.

On an early morning in Shanghai last month, Xu meticulously put in contacts to enlarge her irises and adjusted an orange wig to become “Jesse,” a character from the romance quest mobile game “Light and Night.”

Jesse is a tall, sensitive musician who is one of five characters designed to woo players throughout the game. For Feng Xinyu, a spirited 19-year-old, Jesse is her perfect partner.

“I don’t have a boyfriend because I’m not interested in 3D men,” Feng explained, using a term for real-life men as opposed to those on screens or in books. “I like anime characters a little bit more; they’re more appealing to me.”

Developed by tech giant Tencent and primarily aimed at young women, “Light and Night” promises a “brand-new interactive experience of highly immersive love.”

For players like Feng, who develop deep emotional connections with the characters, cos commissioning takes things to the next level. It drags these 2D characters off the screen and plants them in the real world.

Feng has previously commissioned Xu twice, paying around $70 each time. Last month, she spent $2,800 on a multi-day trip with another Jesse cosplayer but ultimately decided she preferred Xu’s portrayal and hired her for a third date.

“We really click,” Feng said. “She’s just like the character from the game; it feels like we were meant to be together.”

Feng was visibly delighted when she spotted Xu at a metro station. They held hands and chatted as they headed to their first activity.

Their date, planned and paid for by Feng, lasted an entire day. It included tea, a doll-painting workshop, a cake-decorating class, a hotpot meal, and a romantic stroll. At both the workshop and class, they were one of many cos commission pairs.

Staff at the cake-decorating class said they noticed an increasing number of couples coming in over the past year, sometimes dozens on busy days.

Experts studying the phenomenon explain that it allows young women to perform an idealized heteronormative relationship in a safe way. Conservative attitudes toward women remain prevalent in China, often reinforced by state media and popular culture.

Hiring a female cosplayer provides a level of understanding and equality that is not always guaranteed in real-life relationships. According to Fudan University’s Tian Qian, what matters is not the gender of the cosplayer but that they act as a vessel for the client’s emotions.

Another academic, Zhou Zixing, suggests that cos commissioning empowers women to gain a voice that is respected by the opposite sex, challenging and reconstructing traditional gender roles.

At the cake-decorating class, Feng fondly watched Xu pipe icing onto a sponge cake. Xu later helped Feng remove her apron, emulating Jesse’s gentlemanly behavior.

“The guys in the games are all quality guys,” Xu commented, adding that she believes clients might improve their real-life expectations as well. “They don’t settle for low-quality guys.”

Xu’s mother, Fang Xiuqing, admitted her initial reaction was shock when she learned what her daughter was doing. “How could this happen to my daughter?” she said. However, she has since come to accept it. “It’s not a profession, it’s a hobby. She gets enjoyment from it, and she also brings joy to others.”

Fudan University’s Tian noted that cos commissions offer emotional sustenance. “Although this is a paid interaction, it still provides a sense of being seen, which has a certain healing effect.”

Source: AFP