Pink Chopsticks

Over 30 teams took part in the 2009 Cosplay Competition in Guilin, southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Dec. 25, 2009. They competed for top prizes, best styling, best performance and best property.

Cosplay or costume play is a kind of performance art where participants don costumes and style themselves to  represent a character. Cosplayers are typically fans of Japanese comic books. While this creative event has started in Japan, it has slowly gathered an audience and following in many countries.

Here’s some photos of the contestants of the 2009 Cosplay Competition.

20-year old Tokyo native, Nobuyuki Tsujii, become the first Japanese pianist to win a gold medal at the Van Cliburn international piano competition. Nobuyuki Tsujii has been blind since birth but learned to play the piano by listening to recordings, is also the first blind pianist to win the competition.

He won $20,000 and will go on a concert tour with the other finalists. He’ll also be giving a series of concerts in Japan.

Watch the video of his performance..