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Halloween catching Chinese youths' imagination

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Press Trust of India Beijing
Last Updated : Oct 30 2014 | 5:20 PM IST
Making people scream is a big business in China and the latest trick on the block is Halloween, a new phenomenon that has caught the imagination of Chinese youth in a big way.
A moaning damsel crawls out of a wardrobe, distressed souls wander in obsolete operating rooms and bloodstained nurses hand out sanguine drinks in plasma bags are all part of Halloween fever, which has gripped youth.
The shows are part of an effort by business-minded Chinese performers to profit from Halloween.
In Beijing, long lines of young couples waited to be scared outside the Ghost Times, an Asian-themed haunted house that has received thousands of customers since it opened in mid-October, said its creator Raymond Wu.
A thousand miles away, the Chimelong Paradise in Guangzhou welcomed Halloween by setting loose hordes of zombie staff to roam the park and lure customers into haunted sites like the "Gothic Deserted Zone" and the "Biochemical Lab," state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The park has received over two lakh visitors since its Halloween season opened on October 16, and at least 50,000 are expected on Halloween tomorrow.

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Chinese horror movies generally fare well at the boxoffice despite their monstrously bad quality, and the country's manufacturers supply much of the world's demand for macabre decorations and costumes.
But commercial activities featuring ghosts remain a niche business in China and risk being labelled as "spreading superstition."
Wu said his facility offers a place for people to scream out and "let go of their pressures and resentment."
Not every wraith reaps huge profits, though.
The Fujiang General Hospital in the city of Fuzhou is in the red as too few customers dared walk through its dim wards of delirious patients and corpses.
The fact that people are unlikely to be scared by the same tricks twice prompts most ghost houses to go on performance tours, staying in one city for a month or two before coming back with a new theme the next year.
But ghosts have their fears as too much horror can cause injuries or legal troubles. People with heart disease are not allowed into the Fujiang Hospital, and ghosts there are told to be lenient on girls.

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First Published: Oct 30 2014 | 5:20 PM IST

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