QUOTE(sales.convenience @ Nov 6 2015, 03:16 PM)
There have been much discussions about dressing up as deities for halloween events that has sparked alot of debates.
Let me bring break cosplay and fake trances into 2 main catogeries.
Firstly, fake trances. Often these people who's main aim is to gain monetary benefits from the devotees. Costumes can be easily bought , thus , alot of fake mediums are seen everywhere , spoiling the image of sintua practice.
Secondly , the cosplayers. Sintua has this practice of god-children of deities dressing up as them , as a form of respect for their patron god-parent deities. Seemingly similar from being in trance , they do not go into trance , they are often seen in temple processions also known as yew-kengs , standing beside the medium.
Cosplayers , all along , halloween has been dominated by the western culture. People dress up as grim reapers , ghouls , and fictitious zombies , 僵尸. In recent years , there has been an influx of people who took the effort to dress up as our friendly deities from the sintua circle namely tua dee ya peh , san tai zi .


I have noticed alot of dismayed fellow sintua practioners that hve condemned such practice. Personally , I see no wrongdoing of such practice.
Dressing up as a deity , the person must observe basic respects to the costume even though it is not consecrated. Rules like , no hugging girls , no kissing
, no hanky panky stuff. People often mistaken cosplaying as a form of disrespect , in actual fact , it is bringing more awareness of our deities to the outsideworld. More people will be exposed to the mystical sintua practice thus , creating more awareness.
This is an especially relevant issue in this day and age.
To dress up as a deity is in itself not wrong; as Sales correctly states, there is an actual precedent for cosplay within Chinese folk religion, namely how deities' godchildren dress up as their godparents in honour of them on big days and festivals (here are a bunch of Na Zha's godchildren cosplaying as him, for instance).

Maintaining proper decorum whilst in costume is key, and is what truly separates respectful cosplay from blasphemy.
If merely dressing up as a deity is blasphemous, I guess every actor who has played Buddha, the Jade Emperor, Guan Yin and the Monkey King on TV and film is going to hell then.
All these zealots who call themselves sintua practitioners and condemn what is merely meant to be good, clean fun are small-minded bigots who are really no better than those who shoot up newspaper offices for drawing comics featuring their prophet.
We have already lost so many devotees to atheism, evangelical Christianity and so on; if we adopt a repressive, restrictive, 'no fun allowed' approach, people are going to continue to drop out, and before long, all the temples are going to be empty.
A progressive mindset will be the key to Chinese folk religion's survival; as Sales says, 'spiritual cosplay' can be a great way to promote awareness regarding the faith.
I love what the Na Zha cosplayer whose pic Sales posted did for his fire-wheels, by the way; it's extremely creative. The Tua Ya and Li Ya cosplayers posing with the girl are men after my own heart and I applaud their costumes, especially the hats.