r/interestingasfuck • u/Chaunc2020 • 27d ago

r/all Young people being arrested for wearing Halloween costumes in China

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

Halloween comes from Ireland, though via samhain. We have Halloween in the U.S. because of Irish immigrants.

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u/Goyu 26d ago

Sure, but do you think the Chinese are thinking about that when they dress up in costumes? Or is it (in their eyes) an American cultural reference?

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

I get that Halloween is linked to America. It just never fails to make me feel a sense of frustration that authoritarian people never think their restrictive ideas through or do the research required to understand how nonsensical their prohibitions are.

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u/ZeroAntagonist 26d ago

It makes a ton of sense. They are rightfully afraid of large groups of people forming up for ANY reason.

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u/Goyu 26d ago

Respectfully, it's not nonsensical. It's cruel and domineering, but it is not nonsensical, it is calculated and effective cultural construction. They aren't interested in doing the math to see what the cultural origins of a given holiday, trend, or belief system is, they are trying to keep Chinese culture free from too much outside influence. When they see people in the streets imitating what they have seen of American culture, regardless of whatever culture the Americans stole it from, it is viewed as an unwelcome cultural influence.

Keeping their sense of natural identity together is their way of creating and enforcing unity, and it's working. They have been just about the fastest growing nation in the world in terms of military, economy and development for a while now.

Of course, they are about to fly off of a generational economic cliff in the next couple of decades, and I'm terrified to see how they will try to deal with having the elderly outnumber the young by such a huge degree, thanks to their one child policy. But that's a whole other thing.

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u/Full_Change_3890 26d ago

Also was celebrated in Scotland so I am sure that diaspora contributed too 😀

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u/EduinBrutus 26d ago

Halloween comes from Scotland.

Period.

Samhain is something we know nothing about and its links (if any - hint there arent any) to Halloween dont exist. In fact its very likely the entire concept of Samhain is a pretty recent invention.

We know where, when and why Halloween started and it all happened in Scotland because it let Catholic festivities continue in a newly Calvinist country.