Homesicky Halloween

Halloween approaches, and with that I'm quickly turning into my giddy self. I love Halloween, have for a long time. Horror movies are some of my favorite, the mythos of creepy creatures continually grabs my imagination, and candy! For this guy, Halloween gives one of the best parties and opportunities for fun out of the entire year. Forget New Years Eve, Halloween is where its at.

I've gone a bit overboard with Halloween celebrations in the past. 2004 gave a grotesque zombie, 2003 a wanna-be Venkmann complete with flashing proton pack. Every year gets more ludicrous, more ridiculous, more complicated, but at the same time more fun.

Now I'm in China, and I have to teach people about Halloween. Hard to do. But celebrating is even more difficult. The Chinese can't see the allure of the costume party or the scary movie. China has its own festivals honoring the dead, but these are more about "honoring" and less about having fun. And yes, Bill being Bill exascerbates the problem, as 9/10 costume ideas I have are lost on the common, non-Bill man.



This isn't to say that the Chinese are not without their costumes, as they have plenty of parades where dancers cavort in ye olde Chinese garb while on stilts, and each and every minority in the country distinguishes itself usually through their dress, but none of this is scary or even all that fun, as everyone does it anyways. Even on TV, I'm pretty sure more than half of the fictional programming revolves around costumes dramas. If I'm going to find any sort of get up this year, its gonna have to look like something out of an old kung fu movie.



Oh well. I've taken over our school's Halloween decorations and this week I'm going to the temple district to look for some more ideas on the costumes. Regardless, times like these are the ones that I'm really hurting for the West and everyone back home. Until then, I've invested in every worthwhile horror movie I've been able to get my hands on at the DVD market, so at least I'll have a rogues gallery of serial murderers, mutated freaks, zombies, and gothic ghouls to keep me happy this season.