This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
Dozens of people braved the rain and defied an official ban to turn out in Halloween costumes ranging from Buddha to Batman in Shanghai at the weekend, as the authorities cracked down on those who used the fall festival to take subtle aim at the ruling Chinese Communist Party, complain about the state of the world, or just have some fun.
Despite heavy police patrols in the downtown area, video footage showed a large crowd of mostly young people under umbrellas, some in costume, and some cheering them on and filming their performances on their phones. In separate clips, revelers were shown being taken away, some in full costume.
Video and photos uploaded to the Instagram account @drinkdownccp captioned “Halloween in Shanghai” showed people dressed in a huge variety of cosplay outfits including a Chinese emperor and his concubine, Jesus in an LED halo, the scissor-toting eponymous character from the 2007 Japanese horror movie “Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman,” No Face from the Hayao Miyazaki anime hit “Spirited Away” and Huawei smartphones.
Police, urban management officials and business owners in downtown Huangpu district last week warned of “strict controls” on cosplay activities, saying anyone breaking the rules would be subject to “coercion” if they didn’t lose their make-up or costume when told to remove it by the authorities.
People were banned from wearing costumes and elaborate make-up in public, while buildings in the district are also banned from displaying any form of Halloween decoration, including bats, pumpkins, ghosts, coffins and skeletons, while “horror or violence-related elements” will not be allowed, according to a directive from local authorities.
Yet many defied the ban, often to make a point to the authorities, according to social media footage and photos posted from the streets of Shanghai, which saw mass protests against the government as recently as November 2022.
In one photo, someone wears a mask emblazoned with the words “save the leeks!” in a reference to online slang that refers to ordinary Chinese people as resources to be used or harvested by those in power to suit their own purposes. Two people turn up dressed as Lenin and Stalin, waving to the crowd.
In another sign of public dissent linked to the flagging economy, a young woman dresses as “the Ghost of Poverty,” wearing a sign that reads “whatever you try, there’s still no money.”
Another reveler dresses in a traditional robe referencing the 1919 May 4th youth movement, carrying a copy of the New Youth magazine used by young people to express political dissent, another as the Statue of Liberty, while another holds a sign that reads “Police warning: homosexuals!” in a likely reference to recent crackdowns on the LGBTQ+ community.
In another clip on the same account, someone in a Trump mask wearing the red neckerchief of the Chinese Communist Party youth organization Young Pioneers dances to the Village People’s 1978 hit “Y.M.C.A.”
Reuters video footage from Shanghai at the weekend showed police on patrol, and a line of police mini buses parked along a street in the downtown area.
“Unless they’re from Happy Valley or Disney, costumes and make-up are not allowed,” a young woman says in a social media video clip circulating at the weekend, in a reference to China’s chain of homegrown amusement parks. “Especially when it comes to certain neighborhoods in the downtown area.”
“There’s no way they’re letting anyone do that.”
In a separate social media clip, another person cosplaying as former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is taken away from a store by security guards, as a commentator announces: “Breaking news: Trump gets chased by security guards!”
A Shanghai resident who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals said he saw several people taken away by police.
“Some of the women were wearing Qing Dynasty costumes, while some men were dressed as emperors,” Wang said. “They were all taken to the police station.”
“The main reason is that they’re afraid that too many people will gather,” he said. “They get particularly worried about large gatherings, particularly spontaneous ones.”
A Taiwanese national who runs bars in Shanghai’s Jing’an district and Julu Road, where much of the cosplaying took place, said they had been contacted by police last week and warned not to encourage any Halloween-themed activities.
“The local police told us … there were to be no Halloween activities, no displays, and nobody in weird costumes, on pain of them shutting the bars down,” the person said. “It was so sad.”
Some cosplayers gathered in Hangzhou, a one-hour high-speed railway trip away, after social media posts suggested it as an alternate venue to Shanghai, propelling “Halloween in Hangzhou” to the top of social media search results. Yet some cosplayers there were also asked to remove their costumes and taken away by police for questioning, according to social media footage.
Similar scenes were reported in Dongshankou, the artists’ district of Guangzhou.
A resident of the southern province of Guangdong who gave only the surname Chen for fear of reprisals said many young people see costumes as a way to express dissatisfaction with the government.
“Dongshankou is a downtown area, and part of the old city,” Chen said. “The costumes they wear express dissatisfaction, and such dissatisfaction can easily evolve into a demonstration.”
“The government fears this more than anything,” he said. “So many images are sensitive under the current regime, which has so many sore points and sensitive topics.”
One sensitive topic appeared to be the fact that Sunday marked the anniversary of former premier Li Keqiang’s death, which prompted a wave of spontaneous national mourning that many saw as an indirect criticism of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s handling of the economy.
According to social media posts from local residents, police were patrolling the streets around Li’s former residence in downtown Hefei, capital of the eastern province of Anhui, where local people left thousands of floral tributes a year ago.
Authorities in Anhui and Henan provinces meanwhile canceled two major marathon events originally scheduled for Oct. 27, citing unexplained “reasons,” postponing them to early November instead.
