[Fu Xuan Cosplay] Traveling Thousands of Miles Just to Capture a Fleeting Moment of Xianzhou's Light and Shadow

A 6-hour flight from Tokyo to Shanghai, all just to shoot Fu Xuan in this incredibly beautiful studio of Snow Flower Photography. In the winter of 2024, because I held such a strong resentment towards those so-called "Chinese-style" studios in Japan, I simply came up with a wild idea. I saved up money to order a highly accurate custom wig, bought round-trip plane tickets, and booked a hotel. The schedule on the day of the shoot was extremely tight, since I still had to rush back to school for classes; all in all, I shot four different outfits in a single day. When the last outfit wrapped up, I felt like my entire body was practically "dead." But the moment I saw the raw photos, I was immediately overtaken by an immense sense of satisfaction.

As a hardcore fan of Xianzhou characters, last winter at Comiket (CM), I released a photobook containing characters from Xianzhou and Penacony. The entire process from shooting to retouching and printing was incredibly rushed. Because I desperately wanted to present the unique traits of Fu Xuan's character, I completely ignored the upfront monetary costs. Fortunately, the outcome on the day of CM was highly ideal with a very substantial profit, which was a pleasant surprise.

For this Fu Xuan shoot, her hair accessories and costume details are extremely numerous, placing quite high demands on the wig and makeup. The specially customized pink-purple wig looks amazing on camera. Coupled with this exquisite set at the studio, the natural light streaming through the circular window and the cherry blossom branches in the scenery completely brought out that cool yet magnificent mood of Xianzhou. The post-processing color grading didn't blindly chase high-saturation special effects but leaned towards a more textured cinematic tone, preserving the original texture of the costume as much as possible to highlight the character's inherent cool demeanor. Throughout the entire shoot, I basically relied on fast food to replenish my energy, and quickly changed my makeup and adjusted my styling in the studio halfway through. Although the process was tough, being able to leave behind a set of work that truly satisfies me makes it completely worth it. As long as you have the passion, time and distance really mean nothing.