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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Chinese folklore, film, Chinese mythology, Chinese culture

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Department

Theatre and Media Arts

Abstract

Chinese folklore has been a rich mine for artistic production for hundreds of years, and continues to be so today. For example, Chinese ghost stories, such as in the medieval compilation of dozens of ghost stories in the work Strange Tales of Liao Zhai, have inspired artists for centuries. Many modern filmmakers have exhibited interest in this particular subgenre, giving it both serious and comical treatment. In particular, the New Wave in Hong Kong cinema that began in the 1980’s initiated the creation of innumerable films, usually slightly comic, that dealt in some way or other with magicians, vampires, ghosts, the underworld, and such subjects. The first such film, or at least the most influential, was Tsui Hark’s A Chinese Ghost Story, and it has been followed by a host of sequels (including Hong Kong’s first animated feature film) and other titles such as Mr. Stiff Corpse, The Bride with White Hair (1 and 2), Mr. Vampire, Zu: Warriors of Magic Mountain, Deadful Melody, Close Encounters of a Spooky Kind, Butterfly and Sword, Green Snake, the Swordsman films, the recent Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and dozens more, even including a host of erotica. Tsui Hark has been the main stylistic force behind these films—whether he was directly involved or not—and he has recently been acknowledged in the US as a master of modern cinema, with publicity in major magazines and retrospectives in New York and other cities.

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