In Shanghai, Halloween scares the authorities

LETTER FROM SHANGHAI

Despite the rain, they went out. A sadistic doctor, a Jesus, a girl with a takeaway cup of coffee, others in traditional dresses, a superhero or even three children on Huawei folding smartphones. “Dressing up is fun, but it is already a form of expression”says a young man who was there, on Saturday, October 26, to celebrate Halloween early in the streets of Shanghai.

While most opted for innocuous costumes, others risked sending more subversive messages. We met Lu Xun, master of irony and satire in Chinese literature of the first half of the 20th century.^my century, Chen Duxiu, co-founder of the Communist Party, who launched an activist newspaper in 1915, Youthan initiative that is difficult to imagine in today’s China, but also a fake Fan Bingbing, the star who suddenly disappeared in 2018 and who, accused of tax fraud, had to publish his self-criticism. Lenin and Stalin were also present on the streets of Shanghai, as were several Donald Trumps.

But it is above all the big issue of the moment that inspires those in costume: the economy, its slowdown and the prospects it offers to young people, while the unemployment rate has increased in recent months. On this topic, Shanghainese have redoubled their creativity. We saw a cardboard helmet printed with the logo of a job search site whose name had been modified to mean “the future is worrying”, a young man wearing a green trash can marked “CV”, a woman in a bag of blue trash can with a similar message about poor job prospects and a child with “Wanted: a decent job” written on a piece of cardboard.

Arrests

The police, for their part, did not like the party. Already during Halloween 2023, the same Shanghainese had indulged in irreverent costumes: one walked in the white jumpsuit of an agent responsible for Covid-19 detection tests, while another had made a cardboard mask in the shape of a surveillance camera, showing both. his desire to breathe and his political awareness.

This year, city authorities banned bars in several Shanghai districts from organizing specific Halloween parties, without clearly informing the population of the rules. A large number of police officers had been deployed on streets known for their nightlife, where the meetings took place in 2023. On Julu Street, which has several bars and a particularly popular nightclub complex, 158 were found, including yellow barriers had been put up. been erected.

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