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 “everydaydefined” 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 findings suggest that cosplay can be viewed as a form of public theatre, comprising rational and expressive elements.

中文翻译：

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“表达理性”：马来西亚角色扮演社区的习惯和田野

作为亚洲角色扮演者的一部分，马来西亚角色扮演者从事视觉表演活动，这引起了种族和性别表演能力问题，以及其他身份标记。在身份的“每天定义的”体验中，这进一步得到了语境化，在这种经历中，其形成受到非“社会力量”代理人（例如流行叙事）的影响（Baharuddin 1996：18； Baharuddin and Athi 2015：268）。此外，扮演者也受到全球文化潮流的影响。考虑到它与角色扮演研究的相关性，我使用布迪厄的文化资本框架来概述组成既有角色扮演者的组成部分。我使用一个雪球样本，调查了几位受过高等教育和受雇于马来西亚的扮演者，他们使用文化资本来导航种族/民族，性​​别，和社会经济地位。我将我的样本与国际论坛上扮演扮演者的回应以及新兴的反霸权流行叙事的内容进行了比较。我的发现表明，角色扮演可以被视为一种公共剧院形式，包括理性和表达元素。