So, Halloween isn’t really celebrated isnt celebrated at all in China, but at Aston we like to teach culture as much as language; so a few weeks back we set plans into motion to celebrate Halloween, including getting all the kids to dress up. It made for some excellent photographs…

So, I was really impressed with just how much the kids took to it. Some classes you’d have most of your kids not in costume, but in other classes, you’d have 18 kids froffing at the mouth with excitement. It was good to see the kind of costumes they came up with, baring in mind they have no real frame of reference. I was also impressed at the amount of kids who’d found masks to wear. I frequent a lot of shops here in Weinan; and really haven’t seen any scary masks. Anyway, on with the photos!

This was the first costume I saw, my student Jimmy, and I really didn’t think he’d got the right idea.

  
But then he finished it off; and it turned out he’d got exactly the right idea. Really inventive, cheap to make, and pretty damn messed-up-freaky. The trick or treating was a bit of a mob-culture. The door would open and little arms would appear from nowhere grasping for candy. Fortunately Jimmy was waiting to scare them away. ^_^

There were plenty of less-than-successful paper masks.

  
Joanne as a panda (what else?!), More mob craziness, and the indistructable BAG-MAN!

What an unlikely bunch.

I love this spongebob mask. It has crazy serial killer written all over it.

  
BAG-MAN’s partner in crime… BOX MAN! and, superman; of course…with…two face?

Ah, the classic coat-over-the-head costume.

Not sure what was going on here, but; cuteness! ^_^

  
Automan! and friends. 🙂

  
China’s favourite super hero, America’s favourite super hero….and a pricness!

  
All cute kids, especially WOBBLY-MOUTH-MAN!

  
Sheriff Chelsea, Bandit Michelle, and…a sheep?!?!

Joanne and her students.

  
Left: My, my; what a long tongue you have. Center: Cuteness!! Right: Waiting for trick or treaters.

Freaky.

  
Some good costumes!

Chinese and western-style ghosts united!

  
🙂

Rar!

Pretty colours!

  
Prizes were given out for the best outfits.

This mask with circulating blood was freaky!

Love it, love it, love it, love it.

More paper mask goodness!

Genius!

Some kids had carved pumpkins!

  
Trick or treating madness!

  
Cool costumes!

  
Good times.

  
Some cool costumes!

Studying hard!

an odd bunch!

  
More costumes!

I loooooove this mask! It’s upside down, and it’s not exactly a masterpiece; but something about it is amazing! 🙂

And to a lesser extend; this one. 🙂

The classic “Sheet over your head.”

The not-so-classic “wrap yourself in toilet paper.

  
Who needs string when you can selotape things to your head?

Panda power!

  
That kid in the middlelooks like a young, Chinese Kanye West fo sho.

Rob doing his best to blend in.

  
Scary stuff.

  
Fun shenanigans.

Outlaw Che remains on the run.

Did I mention I love that mask?!?!

Ouch!

  
Running out of comments to make…

So cute!

I really need to get me a superman t-shirt.

Some very interesting masks.

One of my student’s costumes…. tomato ketchup all over his own face.

Love the colours!!!

  
Crazy to see that even scream masks make it over to China.

Rocking out with the devil horns.

  
The one on the left… a turkey. Apparently.

I like this photo. 🙂

So, in all of this shenanigans, what did I go as? Well… Glad you ask;

That answers that question.

Yes, I was walking through the city streets dressed like this. So many people staring. Lots of different reactions…

Especially in McDonalds; where the guy actually freaked out and refused to serve me a few seconds after this photo was taken. Fortunately B was in the area; so I had her come explain that it was halloween, blah blah blah.

I also threw together this video on JibJab of me and the other foreign teachers; Rob, Michelle, Chelsea and Joanne.:

In the evening we went to Grammy nightclub, where they had some Halloween stuff on, including a Michael Jackson Thriller reinactment. Ironically I was in that same club the day he died (my birthday) and as I went into the club on my birthday, a remix of Billie Jean was playing. True story. So there you have it, that was my Halloween. How was yours?

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