[Apothecary Maomao Cosplay] The Apothecary Diaries: Joyfully Welcoming the God of Wealth on the Fifth Day of the New Year

This photoshoot for welcoming the God of Wealth on the fifth day of the New Year was selected at a traditional Chinese classical garden in Qingdao, perfectly matching the traditional atmosphere of the Lunar New Year. The outdoor wind was quite strong during the shoot, but the corridors and rockery landscapes inside the garden blocked the wind perfectly. The light filtered down through the wooden pillars of the cloister, forming very clear lines of light and shadow on the ground, making the costume's texture stand out exceptionally well.

Next are the details of this styling. This time I portrayed Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries (Apothecary Maomao cosplay). The wig has a signature deep green base, styled into two symmetrical low double-loop hair buns, with red plush balls adorning both sides of the hair buns, which perfectly match this red and green color-blocked Hanfu. The top jacket is a red parallel-collar style, with thick white faux-fur trim along the neckline and cuffs, and paired with a heavy-embroidered cloud shoulder featuring traditional auspicious patterns. The lower body features a peacock green mamian skirt with finely detailed borders along the bottom hem, paired with a red tassel pendant on the side, delivering a strong sense of layering. That white plush scarf served a great purpose for keeping warm throughout the look while preventing the red and green colors from looking too abrupt visually during this Hanfu cosplay session.

For the theme props, we prepared gold sycees, red scrolls with gold lettering, and big red lanterns. The sycees are made of a substantial material that carries weight; when holding or cupping them in hand, they can solidly transmit the joyful vibe of welcoming the God of Wealth. The hand-held scrolls are printed with traditional characters like "May All Your Wishes Come True" and "May You Be Prosperous," which combine with the big red lanterns to instantly bring traditional New Year flavors into the frame.

The framing locations chosen this time are points I am personally highly satisfied with. One is in front of a Chinese moon gate and geometric lattice windows, utilizing the foreground gate opening as a natural viewfinder frame to box the character's dynamic stance in the courtyard right in the middle. Another spot is the wooden corridor, with a row of warm yellow lanterns hanging above; shooting along the corridor walkway at that time allowed the background's withered trees and grey tiles to form soft color blocks in the bokeh. Additionally, we shot a close-up portrait with a gold sycee balanced on my head, where the lush green bamboo outside can be seen through a small window, perfectly echoing the green of the outfit.

The fabric of the costume has a definitive thickness, combined with very dense embroidery, so it carries a non-negligible weight on the body. Standing or squatting to shoot these scenes in the corridor can both steady the center of gravity and let the character's posture look relaxed and natural. Since it was shot during the Chinese New Year period for a dedicated New Year photography project, the baseline tone of the entire set was fixed on the three primary colors of red, green, and gold. The post-production color restoration also focused on preserving the winter coolness in the environment, bringing out the festive colors on the figure. After a full day of transitioning between various locations in the garden, we finally obtained these final images. Moving around a winter-end northern garden in this heavy-embroidered Hanfu with fur trim feels quite warm physically.