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.
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.
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