In my own town we have a big costume party every year at my favorite local pub, and every year more Chinese are getting involved. There's often a lot of fake blood, plastic fangs, witches hats, glow-in-the-dark face paint and other simple things that anyone can do quickly and easily.

You can of course buy a latex rubber mask, and in an instant transform yourself into a wolf or a demon or even a famous personality like Bill Clinton. The whole point is to become something or someone else for one night and to embrace the fantastic.

For myself, I tend to make elaborate costumes rather than simply buying one. I gather raw material from things I have lying around the house or from various shops and then combine them into grotesque new forms.

Halloween gives you permission to be silly, to be terrifying, to be weird, and in fact it rewards you for it.

I think in China this idea could be a popular one in the future.

Modern life is moving ever faster, with people consumed by pragmatic concerns of money, status and obligations. There's little time left to enjoy life and have fun.

Where is the sense of whimsy and playfulness? Chinese society can be conservative to the point of being stifling. One rarely sees public expressions of non-conformist behavior. Colorful, eccentric or unique individuals are not to be found on every corner, even if they are entirely harmless.

But repressing our innate human desire for creative play, for self-expression and fantasy is ultimately unhealthy.

The festival of Halloween can give anyone a safe venue for playing dress-up for a day.

People can take on new personalities, and reinvent themselves according to their wildest flight of fancy. They might actually discover something new about their inner spirit that will last the rest of the year.

The author is a Guangdong-based freelance writer, and a marketing consultant from the US. christopherw314@gmail.