@GB’s post on monsters and demons reminded me that a vampire has a comparable monster in Chinese folk lore. It’s called a “jiangshi.”
Hmmm… was it in “Zombie Detective” (2020) when I first saw a jiangshi? I have to look this up.
To me, a jiangshi is a cross between a zombie and vampire. It’s stiff like a zombie, but it sucks the life force (or qi) of a human like a vampire sucks the blood of his victim. It wears a long braid, and Qing dynasty hat and gown.
Frankly, I find a jiangshi more comical than scary. For one, it hops like bunny to get around since it’s stiff as a corpse. (It’s a corpse, duh!) Just run zigzag or backwards and you can escape it. In comparison, a vampire is more lethal because he can walk, fly, and seduce a young woman with a rakish smile.
And for another, a jiangshi is blind. It relies on its sense of hearing (or is it smell?) to locate its prey. Meanwhile, all five senses of a vampire work without a problem.
If I were being attacked by a jiangshi, I’d quietly creep up behind it with a long broomstick and just give it a mighty whack to topple it. It wouldn’t be able to get back up.
Also, a jiangshi is supposedly controlled by a Taoist priest (or some evil overlord).
The Taoist priest reawakens a corpse and turns it into a jiangshi. He can also deactivate a jiangshi by slapping a talisman paper on its forehead. According to this blogsite, the Taoist priests became associated with the jiangshi folklore because they were once hired by poor families to transport a deceased family member back home for burial. When a family member died in a faraway land, and the family couldn’t afford to retrieve the body themselves, the task to bring it back was entrusted to a Taoist priest.
In contrast, a vampire operates independently. He isn’t manipulated or subjugated by outside evil force. He decides on his own to kill his victim to satisfy his blood-lust. He’s also often portrayed as somebody aristocratic, i.e., “Count” Dracula and LeStat de Lioncourt. Driving a stake to his heart and exposing him to sunlight are two of the conventional methods of killing a vampire.
Thus, when we compare the vampire and jiangshi, it’s easy to see that the character of Mr. Shen is written more along the lines of a Western vampire than a Chinese jiangshi.
Yes, he swaggers instead of hop. Yes, he belongs to the ultra-elite in Haidong. Yes, he makes his own decisions. Yes, he dies because he has depleted his life-force after co-sharing his blood with Mi Lan. But it’s quite fitting that he dies just when dawn breaks in the horizon.
If I were on the Chinese Propaganda Team, I wouldn’t want this guy alive at the end of the series, lest he become an icon of capitalism, free press, anti-government corruption, and the free world. 🙂 I understand why the director left it up to the viewers to interpret the meaning of the flower blooming in the end.
LOL @pkml3. Thanks for this… you took the trouble to look up jiangshi.
Yes, I agree. The way it was filmed/edited… what was vaguely shown, what was left out. All in line with keeping this Show on air.
I watched the first episodesof The Strange Tales of Tang 2 (STT2). If I want mystery, creatures/demons, some fighting, investigation, nice friendships… I feel the go-to show is probably STT2 🙂
I’m transferring @monmor’s comment here. — pm3
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The opening chapter of the novel Sets the story in nineteen thirty six in the british concession of the city. Liangs boss is japanese. Did I also miss that in the drama. I am pretty good at picking that up in Korean stories.But I am less familiar with chinese history.
The description of the setting( Including statements About shen’s wealth and How
He is driving a newly important Car from the united states) Support my thoughts about shEN As a vampire Representing china’s fear of cultural invasion from the west, as alluded to in PM3’s comments elsewhere.
I just read an article about the transformation in literature of the vampire character and symbolization since “DRACULA”. With novels like Twilight vampires are shown as more human and fighting to control their primitive impulses, as we see Shen in this story.
I read that the original story of Dracula which I am trying to find on my daughter’s BOOKSHELVES is partly about the fear of the Victorian English that they would be invaded by the countries of the empire.
A story about a Western style vampire would represent that cultural invasion. An ironic circle.
The first few paragraphs are a readable translation.
I can post the link here to the novel if anyone is interested.
@monmor, I wouldn’t be able to tell you if Liang’s boss is Japanese in the drama. None of the actors have Japanese names, either in real life or in the drama. The boss, I would call him a general, had a Chinese name, so I thought he was Chinese. Shao Feng as Chi Shanying.
However, he may have been a collaborator. When @packmule mentioned floral features, I noticed that there was a 5 petalled flower on the metal plaque in his office. The 5 petalled sakura/cherry blossom is a very common motif in Japan.
https://stock.adobe.com/uk/images/id/187390671
@Fern I usually recognize the Japanese names.So I was surprised I had missed that.
But I guess I did not. The cherry blossom though, may have been An indicator.
If indeed Liang Is a Japanese collaborator That adds To the understanding of his character. In the first chapter of the novel they emphasize his poor roots and his sense of inferiority. It is more understandable why he feels so snubbed by shen.
On the subject of flower symbols, The novel’s title is Kisaragi, One meaning of which is the cold that precedes the spring. I wonder about the significance of the flower at the end of the story.
This chinese word may also refer to the month of february or perhaps the second month of the lunar calendar, Referring to the cold of the Season.
Also milan is planning to die of exposure and is in effect rescued by shen, Perhaps related to the meaning of the title and the significance of the flower at the end of the story. I think the flower looked something like a red Rose Which of course Is the flower associated with a vampire.
Good evening, @monmor, I don’t know if Liang is a Japanese collaborator himself, but it could be argued that Commander or General Chi is, if he is the boss you mean. Thank you for the information from the book. Chinese viewers with a good grasp of history and recognition of links to Japan would have picked up on this, but I did not, except for the sakura flower I mentioned above and in an earlier Snow Fall blog.
I recall after he escaped Shen’s prison, Liang said to Jin Jingxue that he didn’t want wealth, he wanted power. Perhaps his ideology permitted him to associate with whomever promised him the most. But although he liked Jin Jingxue, he didn’t want her to be involved with him. He discouraged her affection for him. He recognised that she was an upright woman from a mostly upright family. She even audited her uncle’s accounts to make that uncle see that he couldn’t drag the Jin family’s reputation into the mud undetected.
How interesting that Dr Situ with his own unconventional past (understatement) felt no such compunction to protect Jin Jingxue at episode 18, the point where I have left off the show.
I will try to finish this, but won’t be home. It may have to wait. I am enjoying the discussion and all of the history I have learned.
First, I don’t know about the others, @monmor, but personally, I don’t have the time nor the inclination to dwell on the elements in which the cdrama diverged from the novel. True, the novel is the “founding” document, but its derivative is the screenplay or script. The script is further transformed by the collaborative efforts of the actors, director, cinematographer and editors. I’m only interested in critiquing (or nitpicking as others might call it) the finished product, that is, the series itself.
But sure. Post the link of the novel if you want.
Second, I never want to appear sino-phobic. All I did in this thread was to:
a. compare the Western vampire and the Chinese jiangshi as logically and objectively as possible,
b. draw a conclusion that the hero Shen Zhi Heng is more a Western construct than a Chinese one, and from there,
c. extrapolate that Shen Zhi Heng as a heroic figure does not conform to the ideals espoused by the Chinese government/Ministry of Culture/Ministry of Public Affairs/State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television/Bureau of Censorship/whatever agency.
That said, I cannot go as far as calling China afraid of “cultural invasion from the west.” If it was, then American brands like Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Nike and Ford, and French fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, Givenchy and Hermes wouldn’t be popular in China.
It’s better to just concentrate on the cdrama.
As I pointed out, Shen is a capitalist. In terms of wealth, he’s the equivalent of Jeff Bezos of Amazon (who also owns my local newspaper, the Washington Post). He’s a patron of the arts (he watched the opera, didn’t he?) and he supports charities. Remember that party at the beginning of the show? All the rich attended that party and their gifts were announced to the public. He alone gave a cash gift of 1000 yuan.
Of course, we saw the cars he drove. Was it a Bugatti or a Duesenberg, I didn’t pay attention.
Shen is pro-free press. How free is China now? Lol. Before you accuse me of bashing China, I would say its press isn’t much freer than our American press which is in bed with this incompetent Democrat administration.
Shen is also anti-government corruption. That’s why Li YingLiang was sent by Chi Shanying to bribe/coerce/exterminate Shen if he didn’t stop exposing Chi’s abuses against the common folks. Li was practicing his “pitch” or sales talk in the car. He wanted Shen to name his price, and he’d pay up as long as Shen didn’t put the activities of the Economic Development Committee in the cross hairs.
The interesting thing here is Li wasn’t corrupt himself. (In a way, Shen admired him for this and for sparing the poor.) Despite his position, he didn’t have much money in the bank and his residence was spartan. His assistant had better living conditions than him.
I told you all in my very first thread on this show that the story was set in the Republican period. This period comes after the collapse of the imperial rule of the Qing Dynasty and precedes the current communist rule.
Hypothetically speaking, if Shen survived that night at sea, he would have been one of the first people the Communists would have captured when they took over. His wealth would have been appropriated. His land and other properties would have been redistributed. His newspapers would have been nationalized or shut down. And he, Mi Lan, and Situ would have been sent to prison for re-education. Or worse, for experimentation.
The romance of being a vampire and of being Shen Zhi Heng can only live on in the imagination. His very existence is bound to clash with the tenets of communism.
Hence, the blooming flower at the end. It’s a camellia plant, btw.
I had not really thought about what it means to be a collaborator. I was thinking he is working under somebody who is a collaborator so that implicates him. And it adds to He extend of his moral conflict.
I am only trying to understand the drama as well As I can So the background given in the novel is helpful. I am not at all interested in dissecting details. Way too time consuming. I am just trying to get at the overall meaning of the drama.
I sure hope it did not sound like I was accusing you of bashing china.
After further considerering this drama I have more ideas
about the significance of the historical back ground to this drama.
The destination for the train trip to another medical assessment was the Epidemic Control Center(euphemism for Unit 731- the Site of Japanese war crimes at that time.) in Harbin, Manchukuo – the puppet Japanese state in Manchuria. Thank goodness they escaped.
The war between China and Japan began in full swing in 1937. This drama begins in 1936. The Japanese bombed Beijing and Tianjin. Citizens fled the countryside to the cities and there was chaos in the cities.
@MM, thank you for looking up more into the history of that time and trying to find the setting for this Show. If that was really the place they were supposed to be heading in that train, it was imperative that they got out of it!!!