| Summary: | Malaysian cosplayers, as a subset of Asian cosplayers, engage in a visually
performative activity which raises the issues of ethnic and gender performativity,
among other identity markers. This is further contextualised within an “everydaydefned” experience of identity, in which its formation is influenced by non-“social
power” agents such as popular narratives (Baharuddin 1996: 18; Baharuddin and
Athi 2015: 268). In addition, cosplayers are noted to be affected by global cultural
flows. Given its relevance to studies of cosplay, I use Bourdieu’s framework of cultural
capital to outline the components which make up an established cosplayer. Using
a snowball sample, I survey several tertiary educated and employed Malaysian
cosplayers regarding the cultural capital they use to navigate the intersections of
race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. I compare the responses of my
sample to that of cosplayers from international forums, and to the content of emerging
counter-hegemonic popular narratives. My fndings suggest that cosplay can be
viewed as a form of public theatre, comprising rational and expressive elements.
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