Happy Halloween!, Shanghai
To take a bit of a break from posting about Shanghai Fashion Week, here’s a quick Halloween update from Shanghai before I go to Beijing next week for Xander Zhou‘s SS12 presentation (kinda part of Fashion Week) and some other shows/business.
So anyway, back to Halloween… Despite being a few days before the actual holiday, people were out in droves on Saturday night to celebrate. I was really surprised how decked out everyone got considering there is really no costume store, as I saw everything from Angry Birds to skeletons to the Gingerbread Man (mostly self-made costumes)! But there were two very pervasive trends this Halloween… the first was obviously cross-dressing, as we Asians already have an androgynous disposition:
There was a tiny geisha, a Shanghai aiyi with a showercap, and out from behind the geisha popped a bright pink… maid?
And yes, these were all boys, but I mean cross-dressing was totally expected…
But Smurfs? In Shanghai?! Do Chinese people know about Smurfs somehow? This was only one Smurf… (and I am pretty sure he was a Chinese Smurf, or at least looked Chinese).
But I saw a weirdly large amount of Smurfs on Halloween, like whole groups of Smurfs! I think I even saw a Smurfette, but that costume wasn’t as solid as this guy’s, cause I can’t really remember it… But this guy is supposed to be Papa Smurf, right?
Anyway, I love the commitment to this costume, but it seems his party left blue him all alone on the street, and I saw him disappear into the darkness. And that was the last thing I remember from Halloween…
Best Dressed Generation:
Gen X – 180 points
Gen Y – 100 points + 25 points for being so creative (most costumes were not bought ready-made) = 125 points
Gen Z – 30 points
*Gen Y will definitely get some major points for its contributions to Fashion Week, but I want to see what happens in Beijing before I decide how much to give them overall… And Gen Z will definitely get some attention soon… And while I’m away I’ll schedule some special posts about China’s 56 ethnic minorities. So check back!
Things I knew about as a wee youngin in the early 90s in China:
– The Smurfs
– He-Man
– Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles (important for introducing me to the concept of pizza)
– Sailor Moon
– Speed Racer
– Some Disney movies (this was progressive, though; my dad brought the VHSes from Japan!)
Bizarre but true!
Thanks for this great info! I had no idea that there was already so much American/”foreign” culture in China in the early 90s, but great to know that children around the world experienced some of these classics 🙂