Chinese Zombies Are Hopping Scary

On April 5th, China has a festival called QingMing or Tomb Festival. It is kind of like Day of the Dead in Mexico. I have never experienced it and probably never will since it is for relatives only but I thought I would share an interesting zombie story! 

While talking about the Tomb Festival at lunch my co-workers told me about Chinese zombies called Jiangshi and they are terrifying. 

Image from https://feng-shui.obsidianportal.com/wikis/jiang-hopping-vampires

While both the Western and the Chinese zombies are scary there are a lot of differences. 
Jiangshi are dressed in ancient and formal clothes. They don't eat human flesh but instead your life essence (in Chinese it is called qi). They don't walk but they hop towards you and they hop fast. However, the skin of both of the zombies are similar in that they are rotting corpses. 

The way that these monsters originate are similar to Western zombies in that you can be infected by being bitten or with a virus. However, Jiangshi can also come to life if they are struck by lightning, had a violent death, or were an evil person while they were alive. 

To defeat a Jiangshi you need either a peach wood sword or a rooster. In Chinese superstition it is believed that peach wood can scare off evil spirits due to the fact that peach wood lasts a long time. Peach also is a homophone with the word "scare away"  in Chinese. A rooster is usually a signal of the sun rising, and Jiangshi are afraid of sunlight. You can also set the Jiangshi on fire to defeat them. 
Some consider Jianghsi to be more like vampires than zombies because they can't go out in sunlight or be around mirrors. 

If you are interested in watching films or TV shows based on the monsters you can check out My Date with a Vampire or Mr. Vampire.

If you are coming to China and see an ancient clothed person, just be careful to not get bit!

Sources

Ireland, T. (2011, July 14). The History of Chinese Zombies. Retrieved from The World of Chinese: http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2011/07/night-of-the-hopping-mad/

Monstrum Athenaeum. (2016). The Jiangshi: History Of Chinese Zombies Predates Western Zombie Pop Culture. Retrieved from Monstrumathenaeum.org: http://monstrumathenaeum.org/the-jiangshi-history-of-chinese-zombies-predates-western-zombie-pop-culture/