Chinese zombies
The other day C. and I were talking about the differences in what is considered scary in the West and in China. He said western ghosts are not scary because “they are just a bed sheet floating around”. I don’t know why he had this idea! In children’s cartoons, ghosts are indeed represented with a bed sheet (and maybe a chain), but in movies… not really! My counter-attack was that Chinese zombies are not frightening at all. They just look like Qing dynasty officials! What’s scary in that? (Well, unless they are in charge of processing some document for you. Then you should be very, very scared).
Have you ever seen a Chinese zombie? I think they are not very scary, but they are interesting anyway. I will write a description so you can picture one:
- They wear Qing dynasty clothes (little hat included).
- They have long, blue nails. Long because nails keep growing after you die (not really, but many people seem to believe it) and blue because they are rotten or something.
- They cannot walk property because their knees cannot bend (rigor mortis?) so they move by jumping around. It’s kind of cute.
- They are so ugly that if they catch their reflection on a mirror, they are scared.
- When they attack, you only need to paste on their forehead a piece of paper with some magic words written on it and the zombie will stop in his tracks.
Pretty different from our western zombies, right? The part about the Qing dynasty clothes is indeed classier than the dirty rags our zombies usually wear.
On Saturday we watched a Chinese zombies movie because I had never watched a full movie with them. After some research, C. decided we should watch a Hong Kongnese movie from 1985 called 僵尸先生 (jiangshi xiansheng), literally “Mr. Zombie”, but the title was translated to English as “Mr. Vampire”. In fact, Chinese zombies are probably more similar to western vampires than to zombies. They even have long fangs and bite their victims in the neck! (They don’t seem to have a preference for young beautiful women though). They also sleep in coffins and get up at night.
The movie was quite interesting. It had some mildly scary parts, but also a lot of comedy and Chinese folk references. It is available in YouTube here with English subtitles. Within the first 5 minutes you can see how the zombies wake up, jump around and fight. If you dare to watch it, let me know what you think of Chinese zombies!
I’ve never actually heard about Chinese zombies before. From what you described they don’t sound that scary, not the kind that jumps out to scare you but attack in a group? Don’t think I will be watching that YouTube anytime soon…. :D
I think they are more funny than scary! The way they jump is so cute, haha.
I think it’s to do with cultural interpretations. Eg most Turkish young people do not understand the subtlety in British jokes. They told me it would be easier to understand Turkish jokes if I know their culture better.
My view is that Western zombies are probably more ‘realistic’ than Chinese ones. It could be technology know how, onscreen make up, sounds and visual.
Humour is definitely loaded with a lot of cultural references!
These zombies are quite old, the movie was made in 1985. I’m not sure how Chinese horror movies are nowadays as I haven’t watched any! But it seems zombies are not a popular theme in Chinese movies now.
So Chinese zombies are only scary if there’s no paper around? Pretty funny.
They are also vulnerable to glutinous rice. So better prepare your pantry for a zombie attack!
rice? really?
It said so in the movie! And also, one of the guys was bitten and was transforming into a zombie. To stop the process, he had to walk on rice for the whole night. But (spoilers) the shop owner scammed them and the rice was half glutinous and half other kind so it didn’t work xD
Primera noticia de los oficiales de la dinastía Qing… Qué raro.
Yo creo, que pa miedo, los fantasmas japos. Las estampas japonesas tenían que dar cantidad de miedito en su día. Y tienen un montón de leyendas y clasificación:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABrei
Desde que sé de ellos, pensé que debía ser porque los japos eran muy crueles, y tantas muertes violentas debían dar fantasmas furiosos..
Las pelis japonesas sí que dan miedo!
I love those Chinese zombies, they are really kinda cute :D
My wife however is terrified of them Oo
Could it be an “acquired fear”? Like us being scared of clowns when, by themselves, clowns are not scary?
My Chinese fiance tried to explain the whole Chinese zombies jump thing to me! Very different concept of zombies to the Walking Dead I am used to seeing. He also has to explain Chinese humour to me in a lot of the movies because I often don’t get the jokes. Again, very different to the western humour I am used to.
Yes, humour is different, but I think the main point is that it is loaded with cultural references! C. also has to explain me lot of things when we watch comedy xD
Hahaha al ver esto de inmediato me acordé de unos monitos en el juego Ragnarok Online que eran así hahaha (http://ratemyserver.net/index.php?page=mob_db&mob_id=1188 y http://ratemyserver.net/index.php?page=mob_db&mob_id=1026) hahahaha. Y también de un personaje del Anime Shaman King (http://es.shamanking.wikia.com/wiki/Lee_Pai_Long) ahahha.
Eso!
Que interesante el post, le preguntaré a mi pololo :)
Los de Ragnarok online sí que se parecen, el otro algo menos, jaja. Pregúntale si le dan miedo o no!
Cambodians and Thais love scary movies. My kids were begging me to play The Conjuring 2, so no bedsheet, maybe shitting on said bedsheet, so, yeah, terrifying. Of late, Thai ghosts movies have become actually pretty damn good (so I’ve heard, I don’t like them). It’s definitely a sub-culture!
I have heard of Thai scary movies! A long time I saw The Eye, which is not a Thai production but the director started his career in Thailand and part of the production team was Thai. This was a long time ago, now I am not so keen on horror movies!
Hahaha. I love these “scary” movies. So funny (but I love horror so my threshold for what constitutes scary is quite high). Apparently, all you need to defeat a scary Chinese ghost is some quickness to avoid hopping zombies, the ability to write quickly and enough accuracy to throw paper well enough to hit a ghost in the face. Boom! Ghosts defeated. Next level ghost killers also need excellent Kung Fu skills (like the ability to fly, kicks that shoot lasers and punches that blast enemies with lightning) to be able to rescue super hot Chinese damsels in distress from the leaders of the underworld. Ummm…maybe I should go work on my Kung Fu skills…
I liked this zombie movie because it was not really scary. When I was a teenager I loved scary movies but now, not so much. Everybody says American Horror Story (the tv series) is very good but I crap my pants with the trailer so I don’t dare to watch it, hahaha.
Nothing wrong with a scary movie now and then. But I find Western zombie movies disgusting. Zombies are so ugly! I go more for psychological terror or Stephen King books and movies like The Shining, Cujo, and Misery.
It’s interesting, though, to hear about Chinese zombies. My husband never talked about them, but he believed he had some encounters with ghosts. Here’s a post I wrote about it: http://nickichenwrites.com/wordpress/china/a-foreign-ghost-in-a-wartime-cemetery/
I read a lot of Stephen King when I was a teenager! And I’ve watched Misery and The Shining, but not Cujo. The older I get, I less I like horror movies!
I remember that post! Still gives me the shivers!
Just can’t bring myself to the ‘western’ versions let alone Chinese or Hindi versions! :-)
I secretly breathed a sigh of relief when a ‘ghost buster’ type one that my partner acted in never saw the light of day / Indian cinema hall…
Haha! You just don’t like them, or do you find them too scary?
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