When Ken Carroll, my co-host at ChinesePod asked me in a Halloween related lesson whether people in China knew about the holiday, I said ‘no, the vast majority doesn’t’. It was in 2007. Come 2009, things have changed. Halloween/万圣节/wan4 sheng4 jie2 is set out to become the next big imported/commercialized holiday  in coastal China. While in the recent past, Halloween was only celebrated by expats dressing up in costumes that shocked and amused the Chinese, this year’s Halloween seems to have a lot of local flavors, which makes one wonder if it has reached critical mass in China. Here is the evidence: I received a multimedia message from China Mobile which featured a step by step guide to carving a Jack-O-Lantern; youngsters in Shanghai line up for hours to enter a Halloween themed haunted house; a local supermarket near my home which is frequented by young migrant workers is selling plastic pumpkins and scary masks. But in typical style of ‘festival adoption’ in China, hallmarks of the true Halloween spirit seem to be missing: crazy costumes and trick or treat.