I spent all last week introducing my students to the curious customs of this wonderful holiday ("we wear ridiculous costumes" "children beg for candy" "people make their houses look creepy") and spreading the joy of that Great Film, Hocus Pocus. My living room has been filled with cardboard gravestones and flapping bats that Carolina, Lilly and I made during our quarantine days, and I decided to be a panda for the night -- ace! We dressed up in the afternoon and played some basketball so students could see our costumes and take pictures. I also went into a store and bought some 'bamboo' from a befuddled store clerk who I suppose is not used to seeing pandas walking about (it was not actually bamboo, but rather some kind of sugarcane, but close enough for my Halloween prop).
Our party was set for the only night club in dear ol' Hechuan, Manhattan's (曼哈顿). We worked out a deal with the manager of the club -- the foreigners would perform three songs and draw in clients in exchange for an entire night of free beer. I was more than okay with this, and thus, after we all introduced ourselves ("Hi, I'm Alison, and I'm a panda), I found myself singing Backstreet Boys' "As Long As You Love Me", some techno remix of John Denver's "Country Roads" that is insanely popular amongst the Chinese here, and a dance to MJ's "Thriller" which at some point randomly turned into a conga line.
There were other random performances as well, including a drag queen. I think. At one point someone stole my bamboo, but then someone else gave me a mask, so I changed my costume to a panda at a masquerade ball. And, outside of a soccer match in Chongqing and finding a Subway sandwich in a place called Pirate City (more about this later), that was the highlight of the past few weeks. You stay classy, Hechuan.
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