Chinese are not really into Halloween - it's so weird. But for some fiends, it's another excuse to party and be outrageous. Wear a mask, put on a costume and let go.

Many say China is getting more and more Westernized when it comes to holidays - more people, especially the young, seem to prefer commercialized Christmas and Valentine's Day to the traditional and more serene Mid-Autumn Festival or the Dragon Boat Festival.

However, for most Chinese, Halloween is still strange. There's no Chinese equivalent to the wildly commercial Halloween period in the United States. There's no carnival dress-up (though cosplay is gaining popularity in cities), no trick-or-treating, no culture of the ghastly, gory, Gothic and spooky-creepy (though China does have its ghost stories).

But those who love it - usually the party animals and people who have foreign friends - really love it. And, of course, a few Chinese children get dressed up.

The Halloween fiends take the night seriously. They dress up as Harry Potter, witches and wizards, pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman, Cat Woman, little devils, cowboys or even a Playboy Bunny. Or, they just get dressed up. The whole point is to party.

It is especially popular among kids and white collars who work in a foreign-invested or joint-venture company. Some use Halloween costume parties to showcase their secret self, while others view it as a social occasion, a chance for exposure to Western culture.

And some Chinese kids love it, certainly for the fun. Luckily, some parents seem to support the idea as well - it's exposure to Western culture and maybe their kids will get to go to school in the West.

Eleven-year-old James Ni goes to an ordinary middle school where no Halloween events will be held. But he has been busy preparing his Halloween costume for his after-class English school, where a party will be held tomorrow night.

Ni plans to dress up as Captain Jack Sparrow from the film "Pirates of the Caribbean" because "I did Harry Potter last year and Captain Jack Sparrow is even more challenging."

""My company has a Halloween party every year. Everyone dresses up - some are exaggeratedly creative and fun, others are just normal with cute little decorations. It is a way to get familiar with my foreign colleagues," says Lina Zhou, a 28-year-old researcher whose boss and most colleagues are expats.

Zhou's company has three large parties every year - on Halloween, Christmas and New Year's Eve. She finds the parties a great opportunity to get to know and understand her foreign colleagues "because we are all more casual and like ourselves in such an environment."

"Also, it is a chance to get dressed up gorgeously, since there are not many occasions to wear something sexy in Shanghai, besides clubbing," she says.

Ni's mother, who got him a wizard's peaked hat and robe last year, has found Ni a perfect beaded wig and plans to paint his teeth black to imitate the mysterious and weird pirate.

Although very busy as a lawyer, she finds it fun to shop for costumes for her son.

"It is a supplement to his English study. It is important to understand the culture when you study a country's language. Since we will definitely send him abroad for university education, it is better to get him started now," she explains. "Plus, he enjoys it very much. It is a good way for him to relax since he has so much homework."

Ni's mother also says kids of this generation are entirely different from older generations because they receive ideas from all over the world from a very early age. Some of them might even find themselves more familiar with foreign cultures from movies, books, animations and celebrities than with traditional Chinese culture.

Ghost holiday

Roy Lu, a 24-year-old marketing manager in a French-invested company, is not surprised that kids like Ni are crazy about Halloween although he himself is not a big fan. He buys some candies every year for trick-or-treaters since there are many foreign kids in his neighborhood. That's the extent of it.

"Yeah, of course I know about the holiday, but I think it's still very far away," says Lu. "I mean, it's fun to see all those people getting very serious for Halloween - carving pumpkins, shopping for costumes, preparing candies for kids. But it is too much trouble even to think about doing it myself. It could cost a bunch of time and money."

"Cosplaying, getting candies, telling ghost stories - those are all kids' favorites, but not for me, I need to deal with work and pressure," he adds.

Though Lu considers Halloween a waste of time, some other equally busy professionals are passionate about the ghost holiday.

"Isn't it awesome? You can wear whatever you want and do your makeup in all the strangest ways, and nobody will say anything," says Sabrina Ye, a 27-year-old graphic designer in a US company.

She is one of the small but growing number of passionate Halloween followers. She started celebrating four years ago with her American colleagues and friends. Last year she hosted her first Halloween party at her apartment, and she is throwing another this year.

"Although Shanghai is quite modern and internationalized now, you still get a lot of strange looks if you wear something a little bit more post-modernist," says Ye. "Even my friends might say my hairstyle is too bright for work, or my skirt is too colorful. But on that day, just on that day, you have the excuse."

She plans to wear a skin-tight, more than skimpy Playboy Bunny costume, with a little bunny tail and rabbit ears atop a glorious multi-colored wig.

Ye says she is jealous of today's kids, who get to "enjoy all these fun holidays - we didn't have anything like that when we were little."

However, not all Halloween partygoers are in it for fun. With increasingly more Chinese working in foreign-invested or joint venture companies, the reason behind the celebrating may just be professional - it's good for their career. And though the Western boss may dress up as superman, many Chinese employees still stick to nice dresses, suits and ties.

(Shanghai Daily October 30, 2007)