Halloween Is a Middle Finger to Communists
Halloween, by its nature, is the one holiday that can essentially be about anything: fairy tales and storybook characters, movies and celebrities, robots and aliens, pizza and M&Ms, or, one of my new personal favorites, Mrs. Doubtfire and her hot flashes. That there are far more variables than constants on Halloween is a reminder that it is defined, above all, by freedom.
For another reminder, consider that police in China recently cracked down on costumed revelers because of the supposed threat they pose to the Communist government.
Indeed, law enforcement in Shanghai last weekend set their sights on celebrants who had the audacity to dress up, for example, as a poop emoji and as Kim Kardashian, the latter of whom can be seen on video waving goodbye to the group behind her as she was forced into a police van.
Last year, many people wore politically defiant costumes during Halloween in Shanghai; this year, the police clamped down on celebrations. We verified social media videos and talked to people in Shanghai about their Halloween experience. w/ @vwang3
????https://t.co/ddoykW3CTu pic.twitter.com/HOdbtaIlaB— Muyi Xiao 肖慕漪 (@muyixiao) October 30, 2024
Before the parties began this month, police saturated the city. Those not in costume were reportedly left alone, while individuals were taken into custody for dressing up and were sometimes made to remove them. When law enforcement dispersed Zhongshan Park, the cops conditioned their freedom on decostuming. Private businesses were also allegedly ordered not to advertise or host Halloween events. The scrutiny was not limited to Shanghai.
In other words, this was not about crowd control.
That the government targeted people for donning costumes is shocking but not surprising. That’s particularly true after last year’s Halloween, which many Chinese partygoers used as an opportunity to protest and mock the country’s authoritarian government—especially in the wa
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