Nightmare on the Chinese subway

When ‘ghosts’ and ‘zombies’ are asked to clean up their faces before entering the station.

“PLEASE remove your make-up.”

This was an instruction given to a group of youngsters at the security checkpoint of a subway station in Guangzhou, a major city in southern China.

They did so, otherwise risked not being allowed into the station.

A video clip showing the youths removing their make-up went viral on the Internet and quickly became one of the hottest topics board on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter.

The video recorded last Sunday night showed some passengers with special effects make-up as if they were bleeding from the eyes and mouth.

They had just attended a Halloween party at a nearby theme park.

“They were stopped at the checkpoint of Hanxi Changlong Station and ordered to wipe off the bloodstains on their faces before being allowed to enter the station, ” the post wrote.

That Sina Weibo post on the subway incident were read 110 million times and generated tens of thousands of discussions.

Despite some people condemning the subway authorities for their lack of the Halloween spirit, most netizens supported the move.

Online polls, conducted by various local dailies, showed massive support for Guangzhou Metro, which operates the city’s subway system.

“This is scary, they will frighten the passengers especially senior citizens and children on the trains, ” wrote Mandarin Orange Indulges in Latte.

“The authorities did nothing wrong, ” wrote another netizen Zhiyu.

Another netizen felt that the security personnel had over reacted and wrote: “I think most people could differentiate between real and fake blood, these special make-up effects will not cause a major panic.”

Guangzhou Metro explained that it was merely trying to prevent unnecessary panic among passengers.

“Some had special make-up effect which were really scary, ” a staff told the local media, adding that the passengers were sporting enough and agreed to wipe away the special effects with make-up remover provided to them.

Guangzhou police has advised the public against creating unnecessary anxiety among others in public areas.

It also asked them not to wear outlandish clothes meant for activities with special themes while taking public transport.

“Action will be taken accordingly against those who refuse to follow instructions given by the authorities and disturb public order, ” the cops warned.

Some women, who were attracted by the headlines “remove make-up before boarding the subway”, expressed relief that such order was not targeting the ordinary passengers.

This was not the first time Guangzhou subway ordered passengers to remove their make-up.

A passenger with Gothic make-up was asked to clean up her “terrifying face”.

The others, who were stopped at separate stations in the city, included two women clad in Lolita dresses, an elaborate Renaissance-inspired style that originated in Japan.

Although taking the subway during peak hours is a nightmare, for me at least, it is one of the fastest public transportation mode in Beijing to escape the traffic congestion.

The 17-line public transport system connects most of the tourists’ spots and popular destinations including the outskirts of this Chinese capital.

However, it is not the busiest one in the country.

According to a statistic released last year, Guangzhou recorded the highest subway passenger volume with almost 27,000 travellers per kilometre, followed by Wuhan, Xian, Shenzhen and Beijing.

During a holiday trip to Guangzhou last year, a Malaysian friend took me to experience the busiest subway station in the city – the Gongyuanqian station.

It is so crowded that trains at this stop have to open both sides of the doors to ensure a smooth flow of passengers getting onboard and alighting them.

“Follow me tightly and don’t be pushed away, ” he warned me.

“There are people, who entered from one side of the door and being pushed out from the other side, ” he said and I laughed out loud as I have seen this on YouTube.

It happened in Beijing too, but the subway here only open one side of the door. So some passengers, who were alighting the trains, were being pushed back into the compartments.

The subway has always been the source for ideas for film scriptwriters especially ghost-related stories.

Hong Kong ghost film Visible Secret, helmed by award-winning director Ann Hui, sparked a wave of horror among the public. Many declared they dared not take the subway at night.

This was caused by the eerie poster that shows the stars including Shu Qi and Eason Chan sitting emotionless with a “ghost” on a subway train.

The 2001 film was nominated for the Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Sound Effects awards, winning the Best Cinematography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.