Suppose you love a game character so much that a screenshot isn’t quite enough. You want the badge for your bag, a small figure for your shelf or a plush version beside your books. The object gives something from a story a place in your ordinary day.
At fan markets described by Shanghai’s city website, this kind of merchandise is called guzi. Its April 2025 account explains the term as a playful borrowing from the English word “goods”, covering objects such as badges, posters, figures and plush toys connected with animation, comics, games and novels.
Those things aren’t equally important to everyone. A badge might look like a tiny picture to someone who hasn’t encountered its character. To a fan, the same picture could bring back a scene, a favourite line or a story they have followed for years.
A fandom you can hold
Think about an imaginary pair of matching badges. Two people might buy the same design for entirely different reasons: one likes the character, while the other enjoys the artwork. Or a single badge might start a conversation when someone else recognises it. You don’t need to introduce your whole collection before finding a shared interest.
That helps explain why the object and the surrounding fan scene belong together. Merchandise can be displayed, carried or compared, so enthusiasm doesn’t have to remain on a screen. A market offers a setting where people can look at what others have made and chosen.
Shanghai’s 2025 account described a festival in Yangpu district with a guzi market, cosplay and student projects. These were elements of a particular programme, not evidence that every young person in Shanghai was collecting the same characters. The event shows one way organisers brought several kinds of fan activity into one place.
There is room to enjoy that scene without filling a bag. You might admire a design, talk about the story behind it or decide that the one object you already own is enough. The size of a collection isn’t a measure of how much someone understands or likes a series.
A character, a maker and a buyer
Shanghai’s summer animation-and-gaming programme for 2026 included creative markets, pop-ups and fan creators as well as commercial exhibitors. Its published plans show how different sorts of work could sit within the same season of events. They don’t tell us that every advertised activity happened exactly as planned.
It is useful to notice who has made an object. An official product and something created by a fan may involve different people and aims. Being interested in a design can include being interested in the person who drew it, assembled it or chose how the character would appear.
Before buying anything, ordinary questions still matter: what is it, who is selling it and do you actually want it? A favourite character can make an item tempting, but it doesn’t answer those questions for you. You can like the story and leave the product where it is.
Keeping a small collection can also be a choice about space. Perhaps you would rather have one thing you enjoy looking at than a shelf crowded with purchases you barely remember. Somebody else might enjoy arranging lots of objects. There is no required display size for a fan.
A small word for a large attachment
The word guzi makes this interesting as language, too. Shanghai’s explanation connects it with “goods”, but within the scene it points towards a particular kind of merchandise. The borrowing has acquired a use that becomes clearer when you see the objects and the people interested in them.
If you spot a character badge on somebody’s bag, its owner may be carrying far more than a small picture. You might recognise the story immediately, or need them to explain it. Either way, the conversation can be much bigger than the object that started it.
Explore next
Sources
- Shanghai Municipal Government: Thrilling world of anime, other delights dazzle in Shanghai
- Shanghai Municipal Government: Game on: Shanghai’s summer of animation and gaming begins