China’s Halloween Crackdown: When Ghosts Aren’t Spooky Enough to Escape the All-Seeing Eye of Xi Jinping’s Surveillance State

Halloween in China was quiet this year = October 31st, Beijing (Photo: AP/Afro)

This year’s Halloween in China was quiet compared to last year. The background is the Xi Jinping administration’s thorough crackdown. Why is Xi Jinping so afraid of China’s “masquerade parties,” which have become increasingly political following the coronavirus pandemic?

(Kaori Fukushima: Journalist)

October 31st is Halloween (All Hallows’ Day), and young people dressed up as ghosts are holding parties on the streets of Japanese cities. It was originally a festival similar to the harvest festival of the Celtic people of northern Europe, where the gates of the other world open and the dead roam in this world. It seems to be an American custom for children to dress up as ghosts, ask for sweets, and have parties, but it has become a seasonal event in Japan as well.

In China, Halloween cosplay events like this have spread mainly in urban areas, but the difference between them and places like Shibuya in Japan is that they have quite a political overtone. For example, last Halloween, a large number of “ghosts” wearing “white protective suits” appeared on the streets of Shanghai. There was also a costume of Chinese literary giant Lu Xun with the slogan “Learning medicine cannot save the people,” a costume of A4 blank paper worn like a dress, and a costume of “Winnie the Pooh.”

Last Halloween, there were many costumes wearing white protective clothing = October 31, 2023 (Photo: CFoto/Afro)

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Both are criticisms of Xi Jinping’s zero-corona policy and criticism of Xi Jinping. These Halloween costumes in Shanghai are attracting attention from the international community. So, what kind of costumes were there this year?

Originally, China prohibited Communist Party members from celebrating overseas festivals such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day, and instructed them to respect traditional Chinese culture. This has continued to be strengthened as part of cultural and ideological control since the Xi Jinping administration took over.

The reason may be that behind these cultural and religious holidays in the West, there is an idea of ​​respecting human rights and freedom that is contrary to the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. It is true that in many cities in China, young people cosplaying for Halloween has been seen as an opportunity to assert their freedom of expression. The Chinese Communist Party was wary that young people who were dissatisfied with the system could criticize the Communist Party through such free self-expression, which could eventually turn into a political rally.

In Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city, the Bund and Shanghai Disneyland are usually decorated with colorful Halloween decorations, and the last week of October was crowded with young people, including tourists, all night long.

In the past, Shanghai Halloween had almost no political overtones, and was just an Americanized, free and cheerful celebration, and was also a tourist attraction. However, Xi Jinping disliked such cosplay festivals as being inconsistent with traditional Chinese culture.

Some of the cosplays include Japanese anime characters and kimonos, and some are highly revealing, and some are grotesque and violent, covered in blood. Such expressions were considered by the Chinese Communist Party to harm the minds of young people.

Over the past few years, as ideological control has been rapidly tightened under the Xi Jinping administration, there has been an increasing tendency to incorporate criticism of the system into activities such as Halloween and cosplay, which were originally not very political. As you may know, on Halloween last year, a number of cosplays with strong political satire appeared, which were spread on social media overseas and became a hot topic.

In 2022, Shanghai experienced a long-term city lockdown for more than a month due to the zero-coronavirus policy, and at the end of November of the same year, a youth rally to criticize the zero-coronavirus policy, called the “blank slate revolution,” occurred mainly on Urumqi Middle Road in Shanghai. After it spread across the country, dissatisfaction and repression over the thorough crackdown by the authorities exploded on Halloween 2023.

The white hazmat suit cosplay is a symbol of Communist Party control, and it is a metaphor for ordinary citizens and young people to see it as a monster. Last year’s Shanghai Halloween event was accompanied by a large-scale police crackdown, and footage of the crackdown was shared on social media, drawing criticism from the international community.

Well, this year’s Halloween started around October 25, 2024, and there was a strange sense of tension all over the country.