In Shanghai, Halloween scares the authorities

LETTER FROM SHANGHAI Police officers behind barriers erected along Julu Street, where people in costumes gathered last year for Halloween. In Shanghai, October 26, 2024. NICOCO CHAN / REUTERS Despite the rain, they were out. A sadistic doctor, a Jesus, a girl wearing a takeaway coffee cup, others in traditional dresses, a superhero or even three boys on Huawei foldable smartphones. “Dressing up is fun, but it’s already a form of expression,” comments a young man who was there on Saturday, October 26, to celebrate Halloween in advance in the streets of Shanghai. While most had opted for innocuous disguises, others had risked more subversive messages. We met Lu possible in today’s China, but also a false 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 in the streets of Shanghai, as were several Donald Trumps. But it is above all the big question of the moment which inspired the disguised: the economy, its slowdown, and the prospects it offers for young people, while the unemployment rate has climbed in recent months. On this theme, the 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 person dressed in a green trash can marked “CV”, a woman in a bag- blue trash can with a similar message about poor job prospects and a boy with “Wanted: a decent job” written on a piece of cardboard. Arrests The police did not have a taste for celebration. Already, during Halloween 2023, the same Shanghainese had indulged in irreverent disguises: one walking around in the white jumpsuit of an agent responsible for Covid-19 screening tests, while another had made a cardboard mask in the shape of a surveillance camera, showing both their desire to breathe and their political conscience. Read also (2023): Article reserved for our subscribers In Shanghai, Chinese youth are thirsty for distractions Read later This year, the city authorities banned bars in several districts of Shanghai from organizing specific parties for Halloween, without clearly informing the population of the rules. Police officers had been deployed in large numbers on the streets known for their nightlife, where the gatherings had taken place in 2023. On Julu Street, which has a number of bars and a particularly popular club complex, Found 158, barriers yellow ones had even been erected. You have 48.24% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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