Shanghai Halloween Fury! Youth Surround Police Car, Demand Release—Why So Many Cops Over Costumes?

Police cracked down on Halloween celebrations across mainland China in 2026. In Shanghai, Hanzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, and other cities, large numbers of officers stopped people in costume, broke up crowds, and took many young people away. Despite the growing restrictions, Halloween has become a way for young people across China to push back against the Chinese Communist Party's tight grip on power. People dressed as the Statue of Liberty appeared on the streets of Fuzhou during Halloween celebrations on October 31. Crowds gathered to watch and take photos, and many connected with the costumes' message. Footage spread widely on social media. Many people joked that this was the real Ma Zou, the sea goddess revered in Fujian. In recent years, young people across China have used symbolic or satirical Halloween costumes to express their views. Police forcibly questioned and dispersed people in costume in Tianjin's He Ping District on Halloween night, especially near busy shopping areas such as Bingjiang Road. A young person dressed as US President Donald Trump drew a large crowd, with passersby taking photos and interacting. Police then stepped in and ordered the person to stop impersonating Trump, remove the makeup, or leave. Angry online comments said no one was doing anything about unemployment, but celebrating Halloween was forbidden. Others said police were more eager to catch people in costume than thieves. At a Halloween gathering in Shen Yun, someone dressed as a pandemic worker in a white protective suit holding up a sign reading, Stay Strong, Wuhan. The crowd burst into applause and cheers. Many young onlookers took out their phones to record the scene. The costume gave young people a way to express satire and pent up emotions about a shared social experience. In Shanghai, people in costume were taken away from several popular shopping areas and neighborhoods. Video circulating online shows a large group of police forcing two women in costume into a police vehicle on a street near Jing'an Temple because of their unusual clothing. A crowd gathered and protested. At one point, young people surrounded the vehicle, chanting, Let them go! Let them go! We've been arrested. We've been arrested. In a video posted on October 30, a man said Shanghai police took him away for questioning near Chengle Road and Zhulu Road over his Halloween costume. Officers ordered him to remove his makeup, recorded his ID details, and photographed him. He said controls were so strict that costumes were banned even at outdoor bars and other open-air venues. Authorities in Shanghai had begun preparations two weeks earlier, putting up large numbers of metal fences and riot control barriers along the streets. Police on patrol even outnumbered people out enjoying themselves. With checkpoints and tight controls across a wide area, many people in costume were turned back or forcibly removed as soon as their outfits became visible. While Shanghai cleared areas in advance, huge crowds poured into Hanzhou, Xin'an and other cities on the evening of Halloween. Bringing traffic close to a standstill, heavy police intervention and targeted detentions followed. Crowds packed Hubing Yintai in 77, a shopping complex besides Westlake, completely blocking the roads. Vehicle after vehicle carrying tactical police arrived to maintain control. Police in Hanzhou targeted costumes they considered sensitive. Several patrol officers forcibly carried away a young person dressed up as Ultraman Tiga, Drawing onlookers who mock the move. Even Ultraman isn't allowed. Officers also forced people dressed as traditional religious figures including the God of Wealth and Bodhisattva to leave as soon as they arrived. Outside Shanghai, Hanzhou's Hubing Yintai Inn 77 and the nearby Hubing Pedestrian Street became some of the clearest scenes of tension and absurdity on Halloween night. A line of uniformed officers marched along the pedestrian street to maintain order and deter the crowd. But the young people behind them did not disperse. Instead, they spontaneously formed a long line, matched the officers' pace and formation, and followed closely behind, escorting them on patrol. By mocking the patrol without breaking the law, the young people used humor to quietly push back against the heavy police presence at night. China's popular vlogger Feng Ge appeared at Hubei Yintai in 77 that evening. Fans and other onlookers quickly gathered around him and interacted, with someone shouting hi Feng Ge. Feng Ge has millions of followers across social media and is known for sharp satire and observations about life at the bottom of society. His appearance drew strong interest. Police then surrounded him and took him away. Near Hubing Yintai Inn 77 in Hanzhou's Changcheng District, a costume labeled Boss Direct Scams, a play on the recruitment platform Boss Zupin, became one of the viral images of Halloween in China in 2026. Photos show the person wearing a cardboard box labeled Boss Direct Scams and carrying a trash can marked Recruitment. The costume mocked employers' empty promises and the casual way young applicants' resumes are thrown away. Hubing Yintai Inn 77 is a large shopping and entertainment complex in the main lakeside commercial district besides Hanzhou's West Lake. It includes sections ABCDE and others with direct access from Longxiangqiao Station. It draws huge crowds. A man who went to Hubing Yintai told non-state media that the complex and surrounding area was extremely crowded. He said there were large numbers of police with tactical officers arriving one vehicle after another. Another man who went there said the crowd was so dense that he could barely breathe and was pushed along by the people around him. An ambulance was at the scene. A woman in Hanzhou who visited Hu Bin Yintai said she expected even tighter controls on the evening of November 1st. One man said he couldn't even reach Yintai Inn 77 shortly after 7pm on October 31st because the streets were packed and traffic had stopped. Unable to get home, he booked a private room at an internet cafe and passed the time watching videos. He finally made it home the next morning. He also said he saw someone dressed as Bodhisattva being turned away by police before she could enter. Someone dressed as a god of wealth was treated the same way. In Xi'an's Duhu Lane, a popular gathering spot for young people, a young person dressed as a pandemic worker in a white protective suit unfurled a banner on Halloween night. A large crowd quickly gathered to watch and take photos together. Patrol officers intervened, ordered the person to remove the suit on the spot, recorded their identity information, and issued a warning. Halloween events in Wuhan drew an especially tense response from the CCP authorities. Videos made by participants received no promotion on Douyin, could not be posted at all on Xiaohongshu, and barely reached viewers on Bilibili. This showed how social media platforms apply different levels of censorship when public debate suddenly erupts. It also reflected the authorities' deep fear of the collective memories tied to Wuhan. CCP officials have tried to portray their pandemic response as a great victory, downplaying the resulting disasters and the suffering of ordinary people. But the dark humor of Wuhan's Halloween costumes challenged that official story with blunt visual messages from the public. Chinese people in New York, Los Angeles, and other U.S. cities also use Halloween to hold protests and marches against the CCP regime and its leaders. Participants carried a mock coffin for CCP leader Xi Jinping in New York's Halloween parade on October 31. Young Chinese onlookers repeatedly called it awesome, then took out their phones to film the mock funeral procession. An ex-user named Guiyu Kai posted a video with the message, This year, we carried a coffin for Xi Jinping, nicknamed Xi Buns, in the Halloween parade in New York's West Village. We found that many Chinese students studying in the United States Really hate him. Their words of encouragement at the parade deeply moved us. It shows how much Chinese people and foreigners dislike his dictatorial rule. Videos posted on X by another overseas dissident, Jie Lijian, also showed a dummy with a head resembling Xi Jinping at a parade. Another Halloween parade-goer dressed as a female warrior spotted the dummy, walked straight up, and kicked its head hard. When nearby spectators recognized Chinese leader Xi Jinping's face, the crowd grew more animated, and some passerbys joined in hitting the dummy. At Halloween celebrations in West Hollywood, people dressed as five CCP leaders, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping, appeared as dictator zombies. Their costumes drew attention on the streets. Many Chinese visitors stopped to watch, take photos, and show their approval. Chinese participants in West Hollywood's Halloween parade carried a coffin bearing the words, Xi Jinping Thought Points the Way for the World in Chinese and English. A clown portrait of Xi was displayed at the front, with a wreath on top. A memorial portrait of him and another wreath hung at the back. The appearance of Chairman Mbappe in West Hollywood turned a recent major political controversy in international sports into a pointed piece of satirical performance art. The scene contrasted sharply with the tight police controls in mainland China, where people in costume were stopped or forced to remove their makeup. Facing job pressures and social anxiety, young people used costumes such as white-suited pandemic workers in Ultraman to express their feelings. Police singled them out for questioning and removal to prevent gatherings and suppress social satire. Chinese people living abroad in dissonance use the freedom and personal expression of Western Halloween parades To protest the CCP's authoritarian rule, suppression of freedom, and human rights abuses, one Chinese person living abroad wrote on X, In the United States, we have experienced freedom we never had in China. We are grateful for this great country, this fertile land, and its friendly people. On Halloween night, we celebrated freely in America. We sincerely hope freedom will come to China soon. In Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong, some people recreated the appearance of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou when she returned to China, wearing an electronic ankle monitor. Another person wore a fish head and held a sign with the Chinese character Jie, mocking Huawei's eye to electric vehicles, whose quality has faced criticism. One spectator exclaimed that someone should have told them about such a great costume sooner. The costume targeted recent disputes over ITO vehicle safety and quality in China. These include failures of automatic emergency braking, accident victims seeking redress, and broader questions about safety. It also mocked buyers whom online commenters describe as paying a stupidity tax or buying out of blind patriotism. The costume brought mainland consumers frustration over their rights onto the streets of Hong Kong. On Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and other social media platforms, posts combining Halloween with local place names faced strict limits on their reach or were blocked entirely. One person who attended a Halloween gathering wrote, It's sad to see this change. Maybe what we miss is more than a few days of freedom to dress up. We miss having a space where we could let off steam anytime, anywhere, in a way that was both ridiculous and sincere. When standing out is no longer allowed on the streets, even fun has to follow a planned route. More than lining up at a theme park for a polished show. I miss those spontaneous moments on the sidewalk, when the makeup might have been rough, But everyone laughed without care. That kind of unplanned energy is what a holiday should feel like. These comments reflect how Halloween has become an outlet for young people in China to release everyday stress over the past two years. Competition for jobs is intense, and youth unemployment has drawn widespread concern. Many young people feel that government policy gives too little attention to their livelihoods and futures. Young people see large numbers of police, tactical vehicles, and even metal fences deployed simply to stop playful street costumes and social satire. That use of public resources strikes many as absurd and unfair. The Halloween confrontations reflect the clash between ordinary people's anxiety about making ends meet and the authorities focus on maintaining control. In just a few years, Halloween has gone from a celebration for young city residents to a stage for political satire, watched inside and outside China. It has also become a top-level security concern for the CCP authorities. That shift largely began in 2023, The first Halloween after COVID restrictions were lifted, when young people used costumes for collective social satire and stress relief. By late 2023, China was still emerging from its long pandemic restrictions. Former premier Li Keqiang had also died suddenly, leaving many unanswered questions. Young people poured into the streets during Halloween to express their frustration. Shanghai's Zhulu Road was packed with humorous costumes carrying veiled social criticism. Some dressed as pandemic workers and used oversized swabs to pretend to test passersby for COVID. Others posed as liberal arts graduates, begging for money, surveillance cameras, or people covered in blank sheets of paper. Police took away someone dressed as writer Lu Xun that night. Every Halloween since, Shanghai has deployed large numbers of police before and after the holiday. Before Halloween in 2024, Shanghai authorities issued strict internal control orders and sealed off gathering areas. Police installed barriers and deployed large numbers of officers on Zhulu Road, at Zhongshan Park, and in other key areas. They dispersed people in costume and temporarily closed places, including Zhongshan Park, brought social media censorship, Also barred people from reposting related photos and information. From 2025 onward, authorities sharply restricted and shut down space for Shanghai's Halloween celebrations, Once described as China's largest street carnival, in a 2025 proposal, Shanghai lawmaker Zhu Guang wrote that national culture and tourism officials had held a meeting in 2023. They concluded that Julu Road parade had no connection to any political views, while also deciding to play down Western holidays. Police had continued studying how to eliminate cosplay from public spaces but had no legal basis to do so. In 2025 and 2026, Similar restrictions spread to other cities and commercial venues. Visitor rules at the theme parks such as Chai Long in Guangzhou explicitly banned protective suits, sensitive social topics, and controversial or political elements. Security censorship had extended from public streets into private entertainment businesses, blocking anything that might carry political meaning before it entered the venue. The fear that any word or action could grow into a revolution drives this response. Authorities worry that a small incident could set off a much larger chain reaction. A Trump costume on a Tianjin street, an Ultraman in Hanzhou, or a Meng Wanzhou costume with an electronic ankle monitor in Hong Kong's Lang Kuai Fong can all be treated as threats requiring the highest level of policing and state resources. This reflects the contradictions of political control in China today. It's also another legacy of the blanket paper protests three years earlier. Under every sweeping control, a movement without an organization or leader can still emerge. An individual protest or a small gathering for entertainment could unexpectedly grow into mass demonstrations. That possibility drives the authorities to impose severe controls on isolated incidents and individuals. Some political analysts therefore believe that CCP's crackdown on planned Halloween celebrations may reflect fears that participants will use the festivities to express political messages. One ex-user wrote, authoritarian governments restrict Halloween, cosplay, and other cultural activities mainly to protect their ideology, suppress spontaneous gatherings, and promote Limit free expression and tighten social control. The main concern is not foreign culture itself, it's cultural and social activities they cannot control.