(TibetanReview.net, Nov02’24) –In China where freedom of speech is severely curtailed, festive costumes might be seen as providing a way out to citizens to express themselves with a bit of celebratory liberty, especially on an occasion like the Halloween Day when revellers mask and dress themselves in outlandish fashions. But China has just made it clear on the Halloween Day celebrations in Shanghai, China’s most international city, that this is a wishful thinking.
Last Halloween, young adults in the city dressed up as surveillance cameras and covid-19 testers in oblique criticisms of the government’s treatment of the country’s citizenry. One brave soul emerged as Winnie-the-Pooh, a podgy cartoon bear whom China’s ruler, Xi Jinping, supposedly resembles, noted the economist.com Oct 31.
Many donned costumes offering social critique – a rare phenomenon in a country where dissent is not tolerated in any form – said edition.cnn.com Oct 29.
The celebrations last year in Shanghai were marked by huge crowds, with revellers using the occasion to take tongue-in-cheek swipes at China’s strict Covid lockdowns and lacklustre economy.
Some dressed as university graduates who had failed to land a job, a reference to China’s sluggish economy and high youth unemployment rates. Others rocked up in hazmat suits in a sarcastic swipe at China’s stringent Covid control measures, which saw Shanghai locked down for roughly two months and sparked rare protests.
That rare public critique in a country of heavy censorship both in online debate, media and entertainment was largely unimpeded by police last year, who practiced crowd control but did not appear to be proactively stopping people in costumes, the report said.
This year, the authorities made it clear that this could not continue. Videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in three busy Shanghai bar and restaurant areas, where partygoers typically celebrate the annual tradition more closely associated with the United States, raising concerns about further narrowing of personal freedoms in China, the report said.
Multiple videos circulating online showed police stopping people in various Halloween costumes and escorting some away. While it was not clear whether they were detained or merely escorted from the immediate area, some videos were still circulating China’s heavily censored internet, while others seemed to have been taken down.
The report added that this year’s celebrations appeared to end early for the young man who donned a blond wig and a bandage on his right ear to imitate former US President Donald Trump, citing a now-deleted post on Chinese social media platform Douyin. Trump wore the bandage after a bullet skimmed his ear during an assassination attempt in July.
Superheroes Spiderman and Batman, as well as a man who donned a yellow robe with a beaded necklace in the image of the Buddha, were all escorted away by police, all captured in online videos, the report said.