ASSIGNMENT 1-3 DATE: 2/8/2008

GHOST STORIES AND HIDDEN MEANINGS
The article “Young People’s Ghost Stories in Hong Kong” looks at the cultural popularity of ghost stories and their hidden meanings. In Hong Kong ghosts are said to haunt the older colleges. During the freshman orientation at the college they tell ghost stories. The orientation takes place during the “ghost month” which is the seventh lunar month. According to Chinese popular religion the ghosts are released from hell during this month to roam free. In every culture it seems you will encounter the popular telling of ghost stories. Stories tend to be passed down from generation to generation. Were any of the ghost stories based on reality? That is the question most skeptics ask themselves. Belief in ghosts is very important in Hong Kong; they truly believe that ghosts exist. Most students when being told the ghost stories become extremely scared and they avoid the area where the ghost is said to haunt.

THE STORIES (directly quoted from article)
“Single Braid
Single Braid Road is located behind the Chung Chi Canteen. Some
male students when walking by there at night have seen a girl3 with
beautiful braided hair; when they approached her to get a good look
at her they were shocked to discover that she did not have a face,
that in front there was another single braid. It is said that this girl
was an illegal immigrant from [mainland] China, and that she came
with her boyfriend surnamed Lau from the mainland on the train.
Because she was afraid that if she went to Kowloon she would be
checked [for an ID], she jumped from the train near where the
university is today. She jumped first but her hair got stuck in the
train door so that her hair and face were ripped off and she died. Her
boyfriend saw this and did not dare to jump. He went all the way to
Kowloon before getting off the train, entered the city and after
getting work, went to find the girl but could not find her. Later
people often saw her near there walking to and fro.
There are two versions of this story; in one the girl has no face, while in
the other she has another braid in front of her face.

Oxtail Soup
A male and female student lived in Bethlehem Hall in United
College. By coincidence, she lived in the room one floor above the
boy’s.4 The girl often cooked soup for the boy [and lowered it by
string outside his window]. One day they agreed that they would
not see each other during the exam period, but the girl continued to
cook soup. Later, the boy found out that the girl had died, but every
evening the soup was still lowered to him.

The Lotus Pond
A couple planned to elope. They planned to meet at 10 P.M. one
night by the Lotus Pond. The girl arrived and waited for her boyfriend
for a long time but he did not show up. She thought he must
have broken his promise and was so angry that she jumped into the
pond [and drowned herself ]. After that, when a boy passes by the
pond at night, he will encounter a girl he does not recognize who
will ask him the time. If he answers that it is 10:00, she will pull
him into the pond.

The Little Finger
A student often studied in the University Library until it closed.
Then he walked back to Chung Chi College. Every time he passed a
small park he saw a young girl sitting on a swing. Finally one day he
went up to her and started talking with her. From then on, he would
talk with her for a while before going back to his hall. Later when he
talked with his friends about this, he discovered that the young girl
looked like a teacher’s daughter who had died in a traffic accident.
That girl had lost her little finger. The student was very curious
and wanted to know whether the girl was missing her little finger.
When he found out that the girl did not have a little finger, he was
very scared. Later when he went by there in the evenings he did not
see the girl again.

Room 111
In room 111 of Grace Tien Hall, a student did a crazy experiment. He
wanted to go to another dimension of space. He used an electric wire to
coil around his body. The end of the wire was attached to an alarm
clock. When the alarm rang, he died immediately of electric shock. His
roommate did not know he was dead. He just saw a message left by
him the night before which said, ‘‘I will come back soon.’”(Bosco, 2007)

HIDDEN MEANINGS
In Hong Kong soup is an important part of a Cantonese meal and is a symbol of domesticity. The girlfriend makes soup every evening and this is a symbol of devotion. Soup also has a sexual meaning in Hong Kong. So in the Oxtail Soup story “the girl dies as a consequence of her breaking the norm against having sex before marriage,” (Bosco, 2007). A few of the stories involve young people committing suicide over love. Dating as a student in Hong Kong is frowned upon. Dating is viewed as a distraction that can ruin their studies and career. “Many parents are explicitly opposed to their children dating while at university,” (Bosco, 2007). These ghost stories are like urban legends; people do things that they typically would not do. In Hong Kong a male student would never approach a girl student in broad daylight. All the ghost stories told at the orientation are about the danger of premarital sex and the danger of the opposite sex. The stories also take place in the dark which symbolizes the fear of the unknown and of death.
In the story the Single Braid the girl is seen without a face. It is common for girls faces in ghost stories not to be there that is what makes you realize this is in fact a ghost and not a real person. Another hidden meaning in the “loss of face” is that it suggests she lost her virginity and her life. In the story the Little Finger, the ghost is missing a finger. Chinese funerals require a body to be whole otherwise the spirit will not rest.
The symbolism of these stories is that women are vulnerable. They also symbolize the sexual tension between students of the opposite sex. These children are experiencing their first time away from home and freedom. This is a very confusing part of their lives being at the university. They are forbidden to act upon any feelings they may have toward each other. In the United States we are free to date people and not marry them. In Hong Kong they date when they have finished college and have a steady job, then they look for a suitable person to marry, they do not shop around like we do here.

CONCLUSION
Ghost stories are becoming a more popular stigma in the United States and around the world. Many countries have believed in ghosts for centuries and actually worship spirits of animals and humans alike. In a world that is constantly changing it is nice to see that people can open up their minds and think maybe there is something more to this life. To believe that we were born and then we die and that is it is unnatural. If you believe in GOD you must believe in the spirit world because isn’t that what GOD is a spirit? Ghost stories may be based on real life activities that happened and they could be just tales made up to scare people. Many stories hold some sort of hidden meaning even if you do not realize it. Next time you hear a ghost story told, stop and think about what hidden meaning the story is telling you.

REFERENCE
Bosco, J. (2007). Young people’s ghost stories in Hong Kong, The Journal of Popular Culture, 40,5. Retrieved January 28th from the OhioLink database.