A couple of weeks ago, a young crowd in Shanghai came out in force to celebrate Halloween. The street where I live filled with revelers dressed in a range of elaborate costumes — as the white-clad enforcers of China’s Covid lockdowns, as Chinese courtesans or simply as a watermelon. Halloween allows us to dress up as something that we can’t otherwise be.
It’s a strong impulse right now in China, which remains stuck in a post-pandemic malaise marked by job shortages, a trend of disillusioned 20-somethings dropping out of the work force and society, and a general…
