Halloween basically doesn't exist in China. Most adults have never heard of it. Only about half of my students knew what it was before this week. The only people in the village who know about and celebrate Halloween are the few American foreigners (there's three of us) and the very young students that attend one of the private English schools in town. And I'm pretty sure they are just enjoying people giving them candy.
In true form, we decided to celebrate Halloween anyways. As luck would have it, the infamous 0513 nightclub was having a "Halloween Party". Translation – maybe a few decorations, special outfits for the employees, but pretty much business as usual.
Except for the foreigners.
I've blogged about being stared at like a celebrity. On a normal day in normal clothes. But it's just not Halloween without a costume.
As luck would have it, a friend brought me a "Sexy Nurse" costume from the States. (And believe me, the irony that she brought the costume all the way from the USA when it was probably made less than an hour from here is not lost on me.)
So there I was strolling through the village in a nurse costume… I had a stethoscope, working "syringes" for shots of booze, a cute little nurse hat, and a significant amount of cleavage showing. I must note that this costume would not be considered the least bit scandalous in the USA, but here I was accosted by more than the normal amount of paparazzi.
The point is… we were the only people dressed up. And the commotion we generated was even more amusing than usual.
I think that we have quite a few new fans of Halloween. I'm pretty sure I convinced at least 10 people to dress up next year. As ridiculous as it sounds, our costumes were the starting point for some really interesting conversations. There's nothing like promoting cross-cultural understanding through dressing up like a nurse, sexy zebra, and Sock Monkey.
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