On Chinese Horror: From Xiangxi Legends to HK Zombies
Continuing on with my series on Chinese Horror, I want to talk about Jiangshi (僵尸) films that have made them the overriding image of the Chinese Supernatural.
The beginning of the 1980s saw the release of a wave of Hong Kong zombie movies featuring those blue green doleful jiangshi that hop around in Qing Dynasty official uniforms. These pioneers and the plethora of imitators, were mostly inspired by the legend of the Xiangxi Corpse Handlers from Hunan.
Posted in Culture and tagged china, Chinese, film, HK cinema, horror film, Jiang Shi, movie, Mr Vampire, New Wave, Spooky Bunch, supernatural, zombie
On Chinese Horror: the Jiangshi
In honour of World Zombie Day 2014, I wrote about the China’s traditional monster of the undead, which I have revised and updated for Ghost Month 2021. You might know these are the “hopping vampires” (a misnomer that I shall address in this article). The proper name for them is Jiangshi, and in fact, they had lived in the Chinese fictional imagination for 900 years before the movies.
Posted in Culture and tagged china, Chinese, cinema, culture, film, horror, Jiang Shi, literature, movie, zombie
On Chinese Horror: Early Zhi Guai (Tales of the Strange)
2014’s Zhongyuan or Ghost Month, took place in August, and Xiayuan was not until December. Nevertheless, with the crisp scent and keenness of the autumn air, I felt the delicious anticipation for All Hallow’s Eve. So I started a series on the Chinese horror genre. This was the first in the series, now with updates and revisions. It will focus on attitude towards the supernatural and the history of this kind of storytelling.
Posted in Culture and tagged china, Chinese, culture, film, Hong Kong cinema, horror, Liao Zhai, Pu SongLing, zombie