Why do zombies wear official uniforms of the Qing Dynasty?

If you are familiar with the image of Fu Manchu, you will naturally see the clue. Fu Manchu is a character in a series of novels by British novelist sax rohmer. He is the most evil being in the world. The image of Fu Manchu comes from the observation and imagination of the British in the Qing Dynasty in the19th century. Timothy brook's book "Killing a Thousand Knives" is a monograph about China's punishment in that year, which reveals that Europeans are full of interest in the barbaric punishment system in China19th century. Through the narration of journalists in China at that time, the ugly and cruel image of Qing officials gradually became a "prejudice" in the minds of Europeans. Fu Manchu has a far-reaching influence, as if he is an evil ghost, which exists in literature, comics and movies.

Aside from the influence of Fu Manchu, I am afraid that the "Qing Dynasty" zombies designed by local filmmakers may have deeper psychological factors. Nowadays, when it comes to the reasons for the popularity of Hong Kong horror films in the 1980s, it is almost always said that "the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed, and the issue of 1997' s return to China was a' deadline', which invisibly formed a sense of collective fatalism, and paranoia and superstition appeared in society". The uncertainty of the future made Hong Kong people very anxious at that time.

"The official uniform of the Qing Dynasty" is undoubtedly a symbol of the imperial era. It goes without saying where this reckless danger points. In Li Bihua's film Ghost Cadre, this danger is even more obvious. The evil in Ghost Cadres is left by the Japanese invaders, and the "zombie" in I have a date with zombies is also related to the Japanese invaders.

Whether it is Liaozhai or other note novels, ghosts understood by China people are almost all formed by "absorbing the essence of the sun and the moon and the aura of heaven and earth". Such as common foxes, snakes and flower demons. Some practice on their own, some inadvertently absorb the spirit of heaven and earth, become demons, and even become immortals. Or there are ferocious demons, who often think that routine practice is too slow, so they take risks and suck human blood to achieve the goal of becoming immortal.

▲ stills of the movie "Green Snake"

"When the oil runs out, people die." The most direct embodiment of death is the elimination of the body. However, zombies have broken the law of death and become immortal. Zombies belong to neither demons nor immortals. Demons and immortals have a clear pedigree, especially immortals, with extremely strict social system and authority. Zombies should be classified as "freaks", and so should the so-called "children don't talk about Machamp's confusion". The status of "strange" in China's supernatural culture is extremely low, far less than "demon". After all, the demon can still practice this ascending channel and climb to the celestial world through personal efforts.

Zombies are formed because of the transformation of corpses, and there is no purpose of cultivating immortals. This kind of corpse change seems to be a "genetic mutation" in the process of death, which has developed shocking results. Pu Songling wrote a story of "corpse change" in Liao Zhai, which tells the story of four travelers staying in an inn at night. The owner's daughter-in-law died recently, "in the morgue". Unexpectedly, the corpse changed that night. This female corpse smells like a zombie, but instead of sucking blood, it will "blow" on the sleeping person-anyone who is "blown" by it will die.

However, interestingly, the zombies here actually have physical restrictions: "There are poplars outside the door, about four or five feet, because they use the tree Gai Lou themselves, and the right one is the left, and the left one is the right." The body was angry, but everyone was tired. "Tired, is slowly tired. It can be seen that this "zombie" still retains humanity, and it was not until later that it became a veritable zombie. Considering the two contrasting factors of "silence" and "heavy snoring" in the novel, perhaps we can understand that Pu Songling is actually telling a cold joke in horror: snoring too much will cause degeneration of the corpse. However, Pu Songling did not directly explain the reason for changing the body.