Halloween in Shangai

Louise Moon, 2005

Happy Halloween! The one day of the year when we can all be someone else!

I've just completed my first Halloween in Shanghai and have reinvented myself twice for the occasion. My Halloween weekend started as early as Saturday morning with a walk through the Xiang Yang market, negotiating prices for a friend’s basketball player costume. The people in the stalls seemed more willing to negotiate a price once it was established that the items would be used only once, were in no way desirable and would be thrown out the next day. Apparently not actually wanting what you purchase at Xiang Yang makes the price drop considerably. Once we got my friend kitted out in an oversized t-shirt, 1980s style white sneakers with matching head- and armbands, it was my turn to work a miracle.

For this I travelled all the way across town to XujiaHui and a pre-drinks/make-up session. During my trip to Saigon I had a traditional Vietnamese "ao dal" tailor-made. As it's a rather unusual outfit to wear on a night out, I've seldom had an occasion to wear it. Luckily Halloween is an anything goes kind of occasion and so the ao dal was taken out of the cupboard, given a quick iron and put to good use for once. The outfit consists of a long silk shirt with slits along the sides through which you can see the white silk pants. It's very elegant. My friend provided me with a long black wig, which I fastened into a bun and stuck two chopsticks through. Voila! Vietnamese à la Louise!

The evening started with a quick stop at a local sports bar – big mistake! We were the only ones who had gone to the trouble of dressing up for Halloween and found ourselves receiving more than one enquiring look. I spent my time there standing in the corner next to a poster of a bat, feeling this to be some form of explanation for my appearance. We made a hasty escape and moved on to the next destination, Senses. My new home away from home. A local wine bar that happened to be having its one-year anniversary with free wine all night. At Senses we met others who had dressed for the occasion and a good time was had all round.

Once the Senses scene was winding down I found myself being pulled along with the crowd to the party of the night: Ibiza.

Ibiza was held at a new club about 30 minutes outside of Shanghai. The club is called Space, and with good reason. It's massive. I've literally never seen so much space in any club before, including Ministry of Sound in Taipei, which is rumoured to be the biggest club in Asia (not anymore it isn't!). The party was good and they definitely had a good turnout, but I'm doubtful if Space will survive in the long run. It's a 50 kuai taxi ride to get there and most people wouldn't be willing to go to all that effort unless they can be certain it was worth the trip. For Halloween, however, it was good fun.

At about four in the morning I'd had enough and returned home before the sun came up, as any good Vietnamese girl would.



LitNet: 24 January 2006

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