[A City for All] When Passion Finds Space: How Youth Culture Is Flourishing in Shanghai

The line between fandom and a professional career is rapidly blurring.

In Shanghai, pop-up stores, comic conventions, and dedicated spaces for anime, comics, and gaming (ACG) culture are making young people's interests impossible to ignore. At the same time, a cluster of creative industries and supportive policies is turning these personal interests into feasible startups and professions.

For many, the city's appeal lies not in lofty promises, but in its everyday offerings: a sense of recognition, room to experiment, and the chance to pursue paths that feel achievable rather than unattainable.

ACG pulse in the city

On a weekday afternoon, the ground-floor atrium of Joy City Jing'an is already busy. A pop-up store for the Korean webtoon "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint "has opened in Shanghai as its first stop nationwide. Fans emerge carrying bags of merchandise, passing cosplayers in elaborate costumes as they move through the mall.

"The turnout exceeded our expectations," said Mu Chunfan, marketing manager at Bilibili Goods, the organizer of the pop-up event.

Fans traveled from across China to attend the event, including some from South Korea. "Even without a shared language, they were clearly enjoying themselves," Mu said.

Scenes like this have become increasingly common in Shanghai. Industry data show that China's broader ACG user base reached 503 million in 2024 and is projected to exceed 570 million by 2029. Shanghai is widely regarded as one of China's major hubs for ACG culture.

Joy City Jing'an offers a telling example. In 2025 alone, the mall hosted more than 100 pop-up events tied to internationally known IPs, more than 70 of which were making their national or Chinese mainland debuts. Combined sales from these events exceeded 220 million yuan (US$31.5 million).

Large-scale events like ChinaJoy and Bilibili World have become annual highlights for enthusiasts. Last summer, social media platform Xiaohongshu (RedNote) transformed a former shipyard on Fuxing Island into "Red Land," a temporary venue hosting over 50 major gaming and ACG IPs, including Pokémon, Aniplex, Honor of Kings, and Genshin Impact.

"It's such a unique space," said British gaming content creator Java Chip during her visit to Red Land. She noted that most conventions she'd attended were held in large indoor venues. "But Red Land feels as much like a convention as it does a party, a place to have fun and hang out."

Shanghai native Qing Niao, 18, is a familiar face at conventions and ACG-themed events. During a visit to Joy City Jing'an, she told Shanghai Daily that many people from other cities come to Shanghai specifically for exhibitions and pop-up stores. "The city is more open-minded, and the ACG scene here feels much stronger," she said.

For 35-year-old longtime fan Zhao Zhengliang, Shanghai's ACG spaces have steadily evolved. As a child, Zhao frequented the area around the Shanghai Confucian Temple in Huangpu District to browse comic books. Today, ACG-themed venues span multiple commercial districts, from Joy City Jing'an to Bailian ZX Creative Center on Nanjing Road, and to shopping complexes in Wujiaochang.

As a lawyer who travels frequently for work, Zhao noted that malls built almost entirely around ACG culture, like Joy City Jing'an, remain rare in other cities.

Social attitudes have evolved, too. Cosplay no longer draws curious stares and has become a routine part of city life. Zhao attributes this normalization in part to the concentration of ACG-related companies in Shanghai. "People are used to it now," he said.

From fans to creators

If commercial spaces and events have made ACG culture more visible, the clustering of related industries offers a practical pathway for some young people to turn their interests into careers.

Many global companies like Sony, Bandai Namco, Pokémon, Sega, and Activision Blizzard maintain branches in Shanghai. Meanwhile, homegrown companies have also risen in prominence, with Caohejing Hi-Tech Park in Xuhui District serving as a prime example.

This hub hosts around 150 leading game companies, accounting for roughly 60 percent of Shanghai's total game industry output. Major Chinese game companies such as miHoYo, Hypergryph, and Papergames are based there, alongside tech giant Tencent.

Content creator and entrepreneur Jade Wu was drawn to Shanghai by this ecosystem. He previously worked on console game development for Electronic Arts (EA), a major video game company in the world, in Canada before returning to China to start his own business, first in Beijing and later relocating to Caohejing in 2017.

"The new leaders of the gaming industry are all in Shanghai," he said. "There are more opportunities, and talent is easier to find."

The concentration of the industry has also made communication and collaboration more convenient. In some cases, companies across the supply chain are just a few floors apart.

Wu has since founded a company that uses AI to participate in video content and game production. Coincidentally, Caohejing is also one of Shanghai's major hubs for artificial intelligence, home to more than 500 related companies, including SenseTime and MiniMax.

The latter produces one of Wu's frequently used tools, Hailuo AI, and its office was once located just upstairs. "If any issues or ideas came up, it was easy to communicate directly," he said.

Building big from solo

For Wu, institutional support is just as crucial as technology and industry when young people consider making a long-term commitment to a city.

Caohejing, for example, offers incubators for independent game developers, providing office space, publishing, and technical support. Meanwhile, the Lingang New Area, a key area for innovation and technology in Shanghai, has rolled out the "Super Individual 288 Program," offering phased support for office space and housing to eligible entrepreneurs.

"It's hard to find another place nationwide that offers this level of support," Wu said.

His view is shared by Xu Haoyang from MiniMax's marketing team. She told Shanghai Daily that many of the company's partner "super creators" have chosen to settle in Shanghai, drawn by local policies that support not only startups like MiniMax but also individual creators.

In addition to favorable policies and support structures, the protection of intellectual property is another crucial factor for industries built around original content.

Shanghai inaugurated its first full-chain IP protection center in Xuhui District last October. The city also introduced the country's first regulation to protect trade secrets for online game companies, signaling a stronger commitment to safeguarding creators' rights.

In an interview last May, Luo Xi, head of IP at miHoYo, explained that as the gaming industry grows, issues like cheating software and pirated merchandise have become more common. To address this, the company has set up regular communication with local police, whose swift enforcement actions have helped protect miHoYo's legal interests. "It gives companies peace of mind," Luo said.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has openly speculated about when the first "one-person unicorn" will emerge, a company valued at over a billion dollars with just one founder and no employees.

In Shanghai, supportive policies and AI advancements have made it increasingly feasible for micro-enterprises, including single-person companies, to thrive. According to Jiefang Daily, by November 2025, more than 100 'one-person company' projects had already emerged in Lingang New Area alone.

"Especially in creative fields," Wu said, "if you have strong ideas to begin with, AI tools mean you don't necessarily need a large team at the start. That allows us to launch ventures in a more flexible and agile way."