West Lake: Pics with my fandom merch a no-go? Seriously? 🥺
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I shoot there often.
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It feels a bit like that Wu Banbao incident. It seems the older generation in Hangzhou can be quite fond of openly judging people to their faces...
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Locals are getting a bad rap from this. The accent in that video isn't Hangzhou dialect at all—who knows where that outsider came from. Besides, the local elderly around West Lake are used to seeing cosplayers; I doubt they'd go out of their way to scold someone just passing by.
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If you look closely, you'll even see elderly men with all sorts of camera gear – those are the real locals. They hang out by West Lake all day discussing photography, you could even ask them to take a few shots for you.
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Haha, that's so true!
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Go for it! I'm from Hangzhou, and I'm at West Lake taking photos of my plush dolls all the time. Shoot with confidence!
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Nah, that won't happen... Local elderly folks will usually just ask if they can take a picture because they find your '娃' (doll/costume) cute. At least, that’s my experience when photographing dolls.
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Genuine Hangzhou locals wouldn't mock you. My grandma even said, 'Back in my day, what I wore was much more out-there than what these kids wear now!' The ones mocking you are probably older folks from your own hometowns.
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My grandma says: 'Back in our day, we were among the very first to wear qipaos. Kids these days dress much more conservatively than we did back then!'
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How am I only seeing this May Day post now? Go for it and take your photos!!! Even my grandma doesn't bat an eye.
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Hangzhou has had anime conventions since the early 2000s. I remember the earliest ones even had parade floats in front of the People's Great Hall – I think Ni Ping (or some other celebrity host, I was too young to remember clearly) even attended. That's a prime central location in Hangzhou. There's an anime convention every year, cosplayers are a common sight, and everyone got used to it ages ago. People who make such a fuss about it usually aren't locals.
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Hangzhou is genuinely very open-minded, but to be honest, I feel like it hasn't been quite as open these past couple of years as it was before the pandemic.
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What's a good comeback if you run into a situation like this?
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(In Hangzhou dialect) 'Hey old timer, what's it to ya? Buzz off!'
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Hey OP, don't pay any mind to that old lady; she's 100% an outsider. Local elderly folks are very open-minded. If you go on a weekday morning and your hands are full, they'll even offer to hold your props for you while you shoot.
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Alright, got it...
