Halloween partygoers pushed boundaries in Shanghai last year. This year, police are taking notice
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Hong Kong CNN —A year after Shanghai’s boisterous Halloween celebrations made global headlines, revelers dressed as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and comic book superheroes were escorted away by police as authorities appeared to crack down on the festivities.
Videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in three busy Shanghai bar and restaurant areas, where partygoers typically celebrate the annual tradition more closely associated with the United States, raising concerns about further narrowing of personal freedoms in China.
Crowd control fences had been erected to restrict pedestrian traffic in some streets, according to images on social media, and a park near another popular nightlife area where costumed partygoers had congregated on Saturday was also shuttered the next day.
The tight controls in China’s most cosmopolitan city follow last year’s at times raucous celebrations, when young people came out in force to celebrate the first Halloween since the lifting of China’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions. Manydonned costumes offering social critique – a rare phenomenon in a country where dissent is not tolerated in any form.
This year, Chinese police have appeared keen to avoid similar scenes – with multiple videos circulating online, geolocated by CNN, showing police stopping people in various Halloween costumes and escorting some away.
People stage a Halloween cosplay carnival in Shanghai, China, October 27, 2024.It was not clear whether they were detained or merely escorted from the immediate area. The circumstances leading up to