This article discusses the vampiric representation of the jiangshi in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema. The paper argues that while the jiangshi is a monstrous creature in its own right, over the years it has undergone a number of changes to align it with Western vampires. The article begins with a brief discussion of the jiangshi as a literary trope introduced in Chinese stories of the strange, particularly those written during the Qing period. The paper then examines three major shifts in cinematic representation of the creature from its early appearances in the 1980s Hong Kong cinema where it is compared and contrasted with Western vampires, and its post-Handover evolution that follows two different trajectories – reinventing the jiangshi as a pan-Asian horror icon and utilizing it as a tool of the Chinese government anti-superstition propaganda.
Tag: jiangshi
From revenants to vampires: The transmedia evolution of the Jiangshi
This article examines the transmedia evolution of the jiangshi – from their ghostly origins in Qing literature, through the cinematic portrayals that defined them as comic martial arts icons, to their recent appearances as hybrid creatures in popular fan-powered media, where their representations oscillate between cute and erotic and draw on the aesthetics related to the European vampire and Japanese anime characters. The article begins with the discussion of portrayals of the jiangshi in Yuan Mei’s eighteenth–century collection of strange tales, Zibuyu, then moves on to examine the cinematic construction of the ‘hopping vampire’ in classic jiangshi films like Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980) and Mr Vampire (1985) and, more recently, Rigor Mortis (2013) and Vampire Cleanup Department (2017). Finally, the article focuses on the creature’s hybridization in fan-friendly contemporary texts like James Duvalier’s light novel Night Flowers (2015), collaborative webnovels, and drama CD series Midnight Jiang Shis (2016).