Clik here to view.
The Painted Skin II
Painted Skin was based, albeit loosely, on a story from Pu Songling's Tales of the Liaozhai. Now there's a sequel coming out, and it's loaded with stunning visuals. Check out this fan-made trailer to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Xíng Tiān (刑天)
The Xíng Tiān (刑天 "the heavens' convict") is a headless giant. He was decapitated by the Yellow Thearch as punishment for challenging him. Because he has no head, his face is in his torso. He wanders...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Moonlight (殭屍魅影) -- hopping vampires in 2011?
Moonlight (殭屍魅影) is a 2011 movie from Hong Kong. I was interested in it because it was supposed to be an updated version of the hopping vampire movie, a Chinese film genre from the 1980s, which I love...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Sōu Shān Tú (搜山图)
I've never made a study of Chinese art. There's too much else, the lore and language, clothes and customs, literature, history, music, and religion of dozens of different ethnic groups with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Zhīzhū jīng (蜘蛛精)
Zhīzhū jīng (蜘蛛精). Spiders that have grown old and powerful. They can change their shape.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hún Dūn (渾敦)
Hún Dūn (渾敦). Described in the Shān Hǎi Jīng as having the shape of a pill, the color of fire, six legs, and four wings.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chánchú (蟾蜍)
A chánchú (蟾蜍) -- a three-legged toad that brings riches. People devise elaborate strategies to attract them.
View Article"Smash All Old Things."
Hong Kong in the 1980s and 90s produced some fantastic movies. Now censorship threatens to erase them, and the culture they celebrated.In 2011, the Chinese government released a statement condemning...
View ArticleCHINESE GHOST STORIES
Just in time for Hallowe'en, I've published a spooky, fun, and informative article about Chinese ghost stories.You HAVEN'T seen this before.CHINESE GHOST STORIES
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pí Xiū (貔貅)
The Pí Xiū (貔貅) is the dragon's ninth son. He has a healthy appetite for gold and silver which gives him a mystical power for drawing wealth from all directions.
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Xiāng Liǔ (相柳)
The Xiāng Liǔ (相柳): a monster killed by Yǔ the Great. Associated with floods. It had a huge snake body and nine blue human heads.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gū Huò Niǎo (姑穫鳥)
A Gū Huò Niǎo (姑穫鳥). A woman who died in childbirth becomes a creature that can change shape between bird and woman. It wants to steal male infants. If you have a newborn son, make sure you don't leave...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Yú Jīng (禺京)
Yú Guó (禺虢), also known as Yú Guóshēng (禺國生) and Yú Jīng (禺京). A grandchild of the Yellow Thearch.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chinese New Year, a Time for... Exorcism?
Today people are celebrating the end of a year and the start of another. With fireworks they scare away the monster called Nian (year). They eat mooncakes and perform lion dances, and in one part of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Turtle and snake
Běijí Dàdì (北極大帝), the Deity of the North, God of Mysterious Day, felt guilty over something he'd done, so he cut out his stomach and intestines. The stomach became a giant turtle, the intestines...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This Young Woman Climbed a Ladder of Swords
Their surname, 康, or Kang, is common in Taiwan, but this brother and sister had an uncommon connection. It was the brother's dream to become a Daoshi, or Daoist priest. He wanted to undergo the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
China's AMAZING tomb guardian beasts!
墳墓獸, Fénmù shòu, "tomb beast."I haven't found a reliable written source about these, outside of art-historical documents which seem to have less concern with magic, belief, and, like, monster-magic,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bainiaoyi
Sources are reporting a Chinese-produced movie based on ethnic minority Zhuang folklore, the tale of the Bainiaoyi (百鸟衣/Hundred Birds Coat). While I'm excited about the film, there have been some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
They're not really Daoist priestesses.
Two young women dressed as Daoist priestesses at a gaming convention in Beijing. They were there to sell a new game. Their yellow robes were embroidered with black dashes, solid or broken, representing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hanged Ghost
The hanged ghost, or yi gui (缢鬼). One of the most common ghosts in Chinese folklore. Hanged ghosts are powerful. A kind of compensation ghost (chang gui), hanged ghosts haunt the room or tree where...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Soul-Arrester
The Soul-Arresting Ghost, or Ju Hun Gui (拘魂鬼).He has a list of the names of all the people who are about to die. When someone is dying, the Ju Hun Gui takes on the appearance of a living relative or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chan's Ghost
Chan (产) was a woman who died during childbirth. She envies women who can have children, and is always looking for a pregnant woman to replace her. If she kills a pregnant woman, she would be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Five Weird Ghosts
The Five Weird Ghosts, or Wu Qi Gui (五奇鬼), appear in folklore from central Zhejiang province. Resembling five enormous worms, only one of them has an eye, so the other four follow it everywhere. They...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Painted Ghost
The Painted Skin is one of the most famous stories from Pu Songling's Tales from the Liaozhai. It involves an evil fox spirit (huli jing) who eats human livers to stay immortal. She wears a stretch of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Drowner
Drowners, or ni gui (溺鬼), also known as drowning ghosts, flood ghosts, water monsters. Some sources consider these the ghosts of drowned people, some just consider them underwater menaces, but in all...
View Article