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3.2.3 Love and Rebellion reflected in ghost and vampire culture 17
4 Conclusion 19
Bibliography 21
1 Introduction
There are many references to ghosts in Chinese culture. Even Confucius said, “Respect ghosts and gods, but keep away from them (Net.1).” According to Huang and Zhou (1995:1) ghost culture is the summation of people’s beliefs, concepts, attitudes, behaviors and its influence towards social activities. Ghosts are described in classical Chinese texts, and continually depicted in modern literature and movies. And Painted Skin is a supernatural fantasy film regarding Chinese ghosts. Although the film is based partly on a supernatural premise, it is more of an action-romance than a horror film. Painted Skin is based, very loosely, on one of Pu Songling’s classic short stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. The performance of famous actors and actresses makes the relationship between human beings and ghosts vividly and is deeply rooted in the mind the audience with the plot that a fox ghost fell in love with a human being and wanted to get true love. But at last, it failed.
The concept of a vampire culture is truly a religion. A religion, in essence, is a spiritual belief that gives a kind of push to the living. Even money can be a religion. It's a belief that pulls one forward or adds paranormal flavor to ordinary life. The vampire belief is closely associated with the traditional Christianity. And Twilight is such a series of four vampire-themed novels by American author Stephenie Meyer with the plot that a girl fell in love with a vampire and she finally got the equal love as an ordinary person. Since the release of the first novel, Twilight, in 2005, the books have gained immense popularity and commercial success around the world. The series have won multiple awards, most notably the series as a whole won the 2009 Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Book. The Twilight adapted from the novels has been the summit of vampire-themed films in recent years.
Undoubtedly, what impressed people most in the two films are the images of vampires or ghosts which are the productions of imagination by people after their death. The kindness and ugliness of humanity reflected in the images of vampires and ghosts are based on the origin of the specific culture. The reason that the images of vampires and ghosts are so colorful and attractive is that they have reflected the quality of beauty and evil upon our human beings.
As to the study, I will focus on the comparison of culture between western vampires and eastern ghosts in both literature and films. Because vampires and ghosts are the paradoxical aggregation created in the literature, which is tightly close to some paradoxical origin of human beings, they represent the typical images of human beings to reflect the real humanity and especially express their pure love towards heterosexual. Though these two images are characteristics in phantom legends, they are the representatives for our society and the reflection of humanity.
Based on the conception, I will pide my paper into five parts. First, I will start with an introduction overall. Second, I will analyze the differences and similarities between western and eastern vampires and ghosts culture. Then, I will combine my idea with the reality regarding entertainment and spiritual sustenance in the contemporary era. Finally, I will draw a conclusion.
2 The Inpidualities of Eastern and Western Ghosts and Vampires Culture
It has been said that ghost culture in the eastern and western is a branch of culturology which has a rich and deep meaning. It starts a peculiar culture phenomenon in the long history of human beings. Not only ghosts but vampires are the essential parts of human traditional culture.
2.1 Different Historical and Cultural Origin
From the perspective of Chinese historical and cultural origin, eastern ghost culture began to thrive in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, which was deeply influenced by Taoist, Buddhist and Confucians thoughts and was generated through the mature farming civilization. In the ancient times, there were no advanced equipments and even scientific theories to explain some natural phenomena about lives and death, so many superstitions came out that human beings must stay in another mysterious space after the death.