A Chinese Halloween

I'm not a particular Halloween fan (it's all about Christmas, I've been listening to carols since the start of October. No lie.), but this October I had a refreshingly novel experience. So Halloween sort of snuck up on me this year, as all the usual precursors were absent; no frilly children's costumes in the shops, a lack of fake cobwebs, a deficiency of scary movie adverts, and so on. The only omen was an abundance of small pumpkins in the supermarket. And it was much more pleasant this way. 

In fact, to find evidence of the existence of Halloween, you have to go out of your way to search for it. Dressed up as Minnie Mouse, I headed to the hidden Carnegies - a well known expat bar - for a special Halloween themed night. The decorations were great (as far as I could tell, it was very dark), and we ate our meal by candlelight. We overlooked the dance-floor, and had a clear view of the various costumes; nurses, surgeons, cowgirls, cats, vampires, Anonymous and even some elaborately dressed Victorians. They all made for a curious rendition of Michael Jackson's Thriller.  

For the fated night of Halloween itself, I owe a 'thank you' to my amazing 同学, for inviting me to her Halloween dinner party. And thus, I spent the evening with a group of dentists, which may be some people's idea of scary. When I was younger, Halloween was an inventive way of acquiring sweets. What I didn't realise is how fun it is to be inventive with food; my classmate made scary eyeballs to put in the cocktails by stuffing a pistachio into a longan. Less inventive were the sliced pigs ears, which were actually sliced pigs ears. 

土豆鬼 - mashed potato ghosts

Eyeballs for cocktails, made from longan with pistachios inside

Pumpkin hopefuls for the pumpkin carving competition

My conclusion is that Western festivals don't come to you here, you need to put in the effort and make the atmosphere yourself. It is nice not to be saturated with cheap, tacky goods, and I think much more satisfying to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Christmas 2012, here I come...