Though pandemic-related travel restrictions dampened early excitement for Asia’s biggest digital entertainment expo, hundreds of millions attended this year’s four-day event either in person or virtually.
SHANGHAI — A special “masquerade” edition of Asia’s largest digital entertainment expo, ChinaJoy, concluded Monday after a weekend jam-packed with gaming, cosplay, anime, and futuristic technology.
Now in its 18th year, the Shanghai event is an annual celebration of what might affectionately be termed nerd culture, held at the expansive 200,000-square-meter Shanghai New International Expo Center.
At huge company booths, ChinaJoy visitors lined up to play-test unreleased video games, tinker with smart gadgets, and shop for their favorite collectibles, as well as spectate live esports, game shows, and dance performances.
Among all the costumes and heavy makeup, one ubiquitous fashion accessory stood out at this year’s event: the blue surgical mask.
ChinaJoy has long been famous for its hundreds of attractive young models, who are hired and paraded around by participating companies. In the expo’s early years, the show models wore so little that local authorities eventually stepped in and introduced rules — such as setting a permissible cleavage standard and banning “vulgar” poses — to shift the focus back to games and tech.
Apart from scantily clad cosplayers and hired models, ChinaJoy is also an important watering hole for professional networking, with several other industry events, such as the China Game Developers Conference, running concurrently. Continue to read the full article here
– This article originally appeared on Sixth Tone.
