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 wake of its ham-fisted response to COVID-19. A crowd favorite: people sporting hazmat suits accessorized with gargantuan cotton swabs. (One can be seen here swabbing a massive inflatable dinosaur. You're welcome.) That doesn't sit well with a government defined by its flair for squashing dissent. Personal expression is the first to go.
Halloween, in my experience, gets a disproportionate amount of holiday hate. There are some who object to its pagan roots, and those who roll their eyes at the idea that anyone except a child would get pumped to dress up as anything but themselves. But if the situation in China tells us anything, it is that exercising that sort of creativity can be radical. Most Americans can't fathom that. 
So tonight, as people are trick-or-treating, I'll think of a few things as I see Disney characters and Marvel superheroes and maybe the occasional hot dog. I'll think about how delightful it is to see kids brighten up because they get to go out in the world and believe for a few hours that they're, say, a magical princess. (I think my niece, pictured left as Ariel from The Little Mermaid with a fabulous wig—1980s-esque in its abundance—wins the cuteness prize. I will not be taking questions.) And I'll also think about how that sort of individuality and free expression can be a powerful tool for everyone—no matter what the authoritarians say.
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