I saw the headlines of people being arrested for partying in the streets and my first thought was, yeah you probably need to get a block party cleared by the local government. I mean, when people riot over college basketball and get arrested, no one is writing:
"In America, freedom of expression is on the decline, as College Basketball fans take to the street to celebrate the end of another season, some were met with brutal police pushback. Some fans were pulled into police cars and asked to ID themselves to authorities, all for attempting to partake in the celebrations at the end of March Madness. Government sanctioned celebrations at the local Wild Wings continued as scheduled."
You don't necessarily need a permit for these sort of street gatherings, but some local governments are aiming to crack down on 洋节/foreign holidays for nationalist and/or anti western cultural hegemony reasons.
Although modern Halloween barely has anything to do with the religious roots as the eve of All Saints Day, some people have argued that it's essentially a celebration of a foreign religious festival which goes against laws that prohibit prosletyzing religion (no-one really seriously believes this).
However, coupled with the specific location, which was used for anti lockdown protests, and the fact it was spilling onto public roads, the Shanghai police shut it down with little warning. A bit heavy handed but wasn't a nationwide ban.
Like just looking around the XHS I can see costume parties from Chengdu to Beijing. SH police was overcautious due to previous protests at that exact location, and were too heavy handed in dispersing the gathering.
I'm not like China expert, but this seems to be a pattern in stories for China that I've started to notice more, since the different local responses to Covid. Some local police or local government will do something and then it will be applied to the country as a whole, it's federal government, and/or to Xi.
China is seen as a monolith, sometimes even among the Chinese. Something that came up is 几多 vs 多少 (how much) in modern China. Someone from Beijing will say 几多 is only used in Cantonese speaking areas and in old texts since it's such an archaic way of asking "how much" that's been preserved in the far south, despite the fact that I hear it on a daily basis here in Wuhan, it's like 40/60 for 几多/多少. Also 饮 (to drink, eat or enjoy in general) vs 吃 (eat), 喝 (drink) or 抽 (inhale). 饮 is very rare for my dialect of Mandarin and only really paired with 料 to make 饮料 (drinking mixture/concoction, refers to soft drinks or other non alcoholic beverages or fruit juices), but I think other locations will still use the old verb.
Localities get a lot of autonomy in China. The central government generally issues guidelines and only steps in directly in cases of national interest, like with organizing the economy, which is part of why Chinese people when polled tend to have a higher opinion of the national government than they do their local government. It also means that foreign press can cherry pick moments where a local government does something bad while simply never reporting on the things that they do that are cool to paint a certain picture of China.
when people riot over college basketball and get arrested
Cops in the US will just let you riot, for the most part, so long as you don't block them or trespass on their turf.
Was in downtown Austin during a real raccous 6th Street party and the police were simply standing around in front of a few of the nicer buildings. My friend moved out of the way of a big cluster of people in the crowd and crossed some invisible line. Two cops immediately rushed him, tackled him, and dragged him off for trespassing. Some guy was straight up standing on a car half a block away and nobody cared.
J6 was crazy in so far as how blaise the initial police response was. Whites really don't have any kind of fear of the police in the US.
I think that's the root of the anti-China hysteria. "What if you were in a country where you weren't completely immune from the law?"
I saw the headlines of people being arrested for partying in the streets and my first thought was, yeah you probably need to get a block party cleared by the local government. I mean, when people riot over college basketball and get arrested, no one is writing:
"In America, freedom of expression is on the decline, as College Basketball fans take to the street to celebrate the end of another season, some were met with brutal police pushback. Some fans were pulled into police cars and asked to ID themselves to authorities, all for attempting to partake in the celebrations at the end of March Madness. Government sanctioned celebrations at the local Wild Wings continued as scheduled."
You don't necessarily need a permit for these sort of street gatherings, but some local governments are aiming to crack down on 洋节/foreign holidays for nationalist and/or anti western cultural hegemony reasons.
Although modern Halloween barely has anything to do with the religious roots as the eve of All Saints Day, some people have argued that it's essentially a celebration of a foreign religious festival which goes against laws that prohibit prosletyzing religion (no-one really seriously believes this).
However, coupled with the specific location, which was used for anti lockdown protests, and the fact it was spilling onto public roads, the Shanghai police shut it down with little warning. A bit heavy handed but wasn't a nationwide ban.
Like just looking around the XHS I can see costume parties from Chengdu to Beijing. SH police was overcautious due to previous protests at that exact location, and were too heavy handed in dispersing the gathering.
I'm not like China expert, but this seems to be a pattern in stories for China that I've started to notice more, since the different local responses to Covid. Some local police or local government will do something and then it will be applied to the country as a whole, it's federal government, and/or to Xi.
Trump praises Xi for controlling 1.5 billion people with an iron fist. Americans actually believe China is some sort of Borg hive mind controlled by Xi where everyone thinks the same thing and it's always because he extended his will, like the Borg Queen does.
China is seen as a monolith, sometimes even among the Chinese. Something that came up is 几多 vs 多少 (how much) in modern China. Someone from Beijing will say 几多 is only used in Cantonese speaking areas and in old texts since it's such an archaic way of asking "how much" that's been preserved in the far south, despite the fact that I hear it on a daily basis here in Wuhan, it's like 40/60 for 几多/多少. Also 饮 (to drink, eat or enjoy in general) vs 吃 (eat), 喝 (drink) or 抽 (inhale). 饮 is very rare for my dialect of Mandarin and only really paired with 料 to make 饮料 (drinking mixture/concoction, refers to soft drinks or other non alcoholic beverages or fruit juices), but I think other locations will still use the old verb.
Localities get a lot of autonomy in China. The central government generally issues guidelines and only steps in directly in cases of national interest, like with organizing the economy, which is part of why Chinese people when polled tend to have a higher opinion of the national government than they do their local government. It also means that foreign press can cherry pick moments where a local government does something bad while simply never reporting on the things that they do that are cool to paint a certain picture of China.
they should tho
Cops in the US will just let you riot, for the most part, so long as you don't block them or trespass on their turf.
Was in downtown Austin during a real raccous 6th Street party and the police were simply standing around in front of a few of the nicer buildings. My friend moved out of the way of a big cluster of people in the crowd and crossed some invisible line. Two cops immediately rushed him, tackled him, and dragged him off for trespassing. Some guy was straight up standing on a car half a block away and nobody cared.
J6 was crazy in so far as how blaise the initial police response was. Whites really don't have any kind of fear of the police in the US.
I think that's the root of the anti-China hysteria. "What if you were in a country where you weren't completely immune from the law?"
Something something binds but does not protect, something something protects but does not bind