[See & Be Seen] We Went to RedNote's Anime Comics & Games Fair

See & Be Seen is our semi-regular peek into the people, parties, and pop-ups that give this city its buzz. From gallery openings and rooftop mixers to low-key scene-y happenings, we swing by, soak it in, and share a slice of what went down.

It's a light-touch look at where we were, what it was, and who showed up – followed by a gallery at the end most importantly – photo galleries at the end.

Scroll through. You might see someone you know. Or yourself. Probably holding a drink.

Look, Shanghai temple fairs are cool. Firecrackers, lion dances, old dudes hawking deep-fried things on sticks... the classics! But what if we did all that, added hundreds of cosplayers, enough anime plushies to bury a mid-sized panda, and set it in a giant shopping mall where you can also get a soy latte? Welcome to the future, friend: Xiaohongshu's ACGN Chinese Fair.

RedNote IRL: Because Screens Aren't Enough

If you haven't been sucked into the vortex of Xiaohongshu (that's "RedNote" if you're fancy, or "the app where your friends are suddenly experts on eyelash perms"), it's basically where Shanghai's Gen Z plots their rise to cultural supremacy. We wrote about the brief phenomenon where millions of American's piled onto the APP last year in protest of the looming TikTok ban, good read! Think of the APP as Pinterest plus Douban, with a dash of "yes, you DO need another tote bag." Now they've taken all that online energy – the memes, the fandoms, the #aesthetic – and turned it into a real-life, flesh-and-blood festival at Push Art Center in Putuo.

What's it got? The entire ACGN stew: Animation, Comics, Games, Novels. Yes, it's a festival named after an acronym. No, your parents will not understand. Five themed zones, crowdsourced by the actual Xiaohongshu user base (because of course they were), and stalls where you can buy limited edition Genshin Impact keychains or spend an hour getting your photo taken with someone dressed as a sentient cup of milk tea.

Cosplayers, Dumplings, and That New Year Vibe

Here's what's wild: They've mashed up the classic Chinese New Year temple fair – dumplings, lanterns, red everywhere – with a full-blown anime-con fever dream. On one side, grandmas are writing spring couplets; on the other, a dude in full Demon Slayer regalia is live-streaming to his 60,000 followers. Somewhere in the middle, people are painting tiny cat masks and arguing about who's the best husbando. It's chaos, it's glorious, it's very Shanghai 2026.

And because it's Xiaohongshu, there's enough "participatory content creation" to satisfy the most rabid dopamine junkie. You want to help design a fair zone via online poll? You can. You want to watch a live DJ do remixes of anime theme songs while a kid dressed as pikachu whips a yoyo? Also possible. Everyone's a content creator now, including your uncle who accidentally wandered into the photo zone.

If you go...

• Date: Through February 1, 12pm-8pm
• Venue: Push Art Center, Push Plaza (普熙金融广场PUSH艺术中心)
• Address: 88 Yunling Rd E. (云岭东路88号)

But Seriously, Just Look at These Players!

Words don't do it justice, so here's a photo gallery: cosplayers giving face. If your Instagram is in need of some content... this is a fun thing to do this weekend. This is what happens when old-school temple fair collides with the terminally-online, and honestly, it's pretty fun to watch: