Dear Steemit friends:
Today is a continuation of my grave exploration, if you missed part 1, please check HERE.
All pictures below other than those marked with sources are of my own photography
As I walk in the cave, I hear a deep yet faint sigh. The only other sound is the footsteps of me and my two friends. I can just about make out the ghost in flourescent green.
As I wander, my greatest fear is any sudden noise or movement such as a ghost rushing out from the wall, screaming, or a person dressed as ghost patting my shoulder.
The cave is really dark, it makes my Steemit luminescent hat glow very brightly.
Meeting a Chinese zombie----Jiang Shi
As I enter another part of the cave, ahead of me and all around, I see zombies of all shapes and sizes all with terrifying expressions. Halloween is a very old festival originating from Celtic custom. They believed that on Halloween, the boundary between the living and dead is blurred. The festival has since been celebrated and ghosts a firm part of western horror folk tale.
However, in China, there is also a very long history of Ghosts. In China, people call ghosts ---Jiang Shi.
Ghosts in Western and Chinese culture
1.Different image of ghosts
West: They have vampires, ghosts, or zombies and each entity has arised usually as a result of a curse.
China : Chinese zombies are people who died with too much Yin "Qi". Their souls and therefore left without a home and they turn into ghosts. Chinese zombies originate from folklore around the Ming and Qing dynasties and that is why most Chinese zombies are seen wearing Qing dynasty clothes. The Chinese zombies "live" forever and like vampires, love to suck blood. They are often seen jumping around. That's the way that they walk, in the west people observe this and dcall them "Hopping Vampires". In China, there are four ancestors of Chinese Zombies each with their own name.
2.Different ghost festivals
In the West, Halloween is an opportunity for people to dress up as ghosts and decorate their houses with skeletons and pumpkins. Children will go "Trick or Treating" from door to door, house to house.
Trick Or Treat
In China, there are 3 main ghost festivals, but it is not a time to celebrate or have parties. It is a time to visit graves and hold memorial ceremonies for relatives who have passed away as well as paying respects to ancestors.
During these festivals, river lanterns will be lit and floated along the river. Food is prepared, and paper money is burnt all as a gift to the ancestors.
Today is Halloween but in China it is also the "Winter Clothes" Festival. This festival is one our main ghost festival and this year, it happens to fall on the same day as Halloween. One of the customs is burning five colored paper as a gift to the customs and passed away relatives symbolising water clothes. As I came out today, I saw many people on the street burining paper.
3.Different characters of ghosts
Western ghosts are usually lost spirits dettached from their physical form which has now passed away. A-lot of these ghosts are scary since many died in non-peaceful ways. Chinese ghosts can emerge from a humans imagination alone, and are often more abstract than their western counterparts. They are not necessrily scary but usually possess inherent complications of humanity.
A Ghost legend
There is a zombie legend in the Si Chuan province, 1995:
20 years ago, a team of archaeologists found an ancient Chinese zombie.
“The Zombie was black and it's facial features were still intact. It was wearing a Qing dynasty vest and had long braided hair. ”
The story behind this zombie is that as it was running away, it bit people's heads and turned those who did not die into zombies too. In the end, the army came along with flamethrowers and burnt it to death.
Some time later on, the government found more dead bodies by a river which was undergoing some refurbishment. When the bodies were salvaged, it was discovered that they did not die of drowning, in fact, there was traces of burnt tissue. Could this be another zombie who ran away in 1995?
(Sources:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12)
The white scarf is called a White Collar, in ancient times, people used it to kill themselves.
Finally, I reach the end of the cave and I see four skeleton ghosts sitting by a table and playing Mahjong.. I pensively walk towards them tempted by the pattern I see on the table. To my surprise, I found they were placing the pieces into a Steemit logo!
Thanks for your reading and hope you will like my story about grave exploration. Did you find the different from western and Chinese ghost culture. If you have any idea about it please comment, let’s discuss!
亲爱的Steemit朋友们，今天我想继续我在墓穴的冒险，没有看过第一部分的朋友可以在这里找到。走进墓穴的另一个空间，古代的僵尸们排成两排，吓到我了。万圣节是西方的鬼节， 当然在西方关于鬼神有着深远的文化。但其实在中国也有历史悠久的鬼神文化，中国的鬼怪叫做僵尸。
中西方文化里的鬼神西方：在西方，类似僵尸的鬼神是吸血鬼和丧尸，他们是一种诅咒。中国：僵尸是人死后阴气太重，没有经过超度，灵魂没有着落，变成的鬼魂。僵尸源于中国明清时代的民间传说，所以僵尸大多穿着清朝官员的衣服。西方的万圣节道具有骷髅面具、吊死鬼和南瓜灯，还有孩子们扮鬼挨家挨户地去说“恶作剧还是款待”讨来糖果。中国过节的时候，人们不会聚会，而是去墓地扫墓，祭奠过世的亲人以及祭拜祖先。中国的鬼节放河灯、祭祖的食物和烧纸钱。西方的鬼怪是实体，样貌比较吓人，鬼的特点偏重于一定的事实根据，大多数鬼都是坏的。中国的鬼是虚体，样貌可能没有很吓人，但是有很复杂的人性，有好鬼和坏鬼之分，鬼的特点偏向于想象力。
Legend of ghost僵尸的传说1995年轰动全国的四川僵尸传说：二十年前，考古队在探索古墓的时候发现了僵尸。关于这些僵尸的传说是僵尸跑走了，他们专咬人头, 没咬死的就变成了僵尸。最后还是出动了军队，用火焰喷射器烧死的...
最后我看到4个骷髅在打麻将。他们好像在认真地摆弄麻将，我走近一看，原来他们摆出了Steemit的标志呀!谢谢你们观看我的恐怖挑战---墓穴探险，希望你们喜欢我的照片。同时你们有没有从西方和中国不同的鬼形象，看到了文化差异？如果你们有任何想法，欢迎提出，我们一起来讨论。
Halloween Makeup Tutorial:
Halloween Special: Quick Halloween makeup---The broken doll (Original for Steemit)
Halloween Costume Tutorial :
Halloween Special: The ghost transformation dairy (Original for Steemit).
Halloween Special:
Halloween Special: Horror challenge—Grave Exploration.
Halloween Special: The ghost transformation dairy (Original for Steemit).
Halloween Special: A beautiful and cruel torture—Foot-binding, a woman's obligation?
