見鬼了! (chop suey)

Last year when I went to Xian, China, there was a girl in our group who claimed that she can see the beings most people don’t see, i.e., the spirits, or the ghosts. At night when several of us crowded in a room shooting the breeze, she shared with us how she had lived with them around. Most of them were ordinary and ok, who wouldn’t do anything to her, she said. But she also had been “scared” to sick by some of them, who were mean and ill-willed, like people of our world.

This is not the first time I’ve met people with such an extraordinary “power” in person. We call those people with the ability to see ghosts having “yin-yang eyes” 陰陽眼(yin yang2 yan3), for陰間(yin jian) is used to refer to the world dead people live in, while where we’re living is 陽世(yang2 shi4). Personally I don’t take it as a blessing. Curious as I am, I’d rather be “blind” when it comes to this.

“Blind” as most of us may be, we do use a lot of “ghost terms” in our daily life the way we use蛋(dan4), such as 壞蛋(huai4 dan4)，皮蛋(pi2 dan4).  (Please refer to my previous writing Thousand year egg in April.) For example, the counterpart of皮蛋 would be 搗蛋鬼(dao3 dan4 gui3), referring to those goofing-around trouble-makers. And for those alcoholics, it would be 酒鬼(jiu3 gui3), which is also a well-known brand of wine in China.

Recently a CNN website on travel “CNN go” labeled seven Asian cities with the seven sins from the Bible. For Taipei, Taiwan, it’s gluttony. Many Taiwanese are not happy about this. Are we all貪吃鬼(tan chi gui3), gluttons? And for Tokyo, it’s “lust.” Accordingly, are Japanese色鬼(se4 gui3), lechers? Personally I just laugh off the report. That the author chose sins to label the cities has showed his perspective. He did it probably because he wanted to write something stunningly fresh, taking an angle that’s never been taken before. I wonder later if there would be another report labeling these cities with “seven virtues” to make a “balance.”

For men, they might be looking forward to meeting a kind of ghost like what is recorded in the Chinese classic 聊齋異誌(liao2 zhai yi4 zhi4) Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, 艷鬼(yan4 gui3), drop-dead-gorgeous ghosts. The hardworking scholar is suddenly visited by an extremely beautiful woman (who later is proved to be a ghost) in the midnight when he’s working in his study room, and they would have a rapturous night. (Did 蒲松齡(pu2 song ling2), the author, go nuts or get too bored from studying that he created such crazy stories?)

The best-known contemporary艷鬼 would be 聶小倩(nie4 xiao3 qian4) from the movie 倩女幽魂(qian4 nu3 you huan2). Go see the movie you’ll see what I mean. Personally I prefer the old version, where 王祖賢(wang2 zu3 xian2) played聶小倩. She is the best 艷鬼I have in mind.

In the old movies, some women liked to refer to their husband as死鬼(si3 gui3), dead ghost. (Is there any “living” ghost?) For kids, sometimes we call them 小鬼(xiao3 qui3). The movie “Home Alone” was translated as小鬼當家(xiao3 qui3 dang jia) in Taiwan, literally meaning “the kid is in charge.”

Lastly I have to go to my title見鬼了. When someone says something far-fetched, something that is very ridiculous and unlikely to happen, you may say this to him, literally meaning “you’ve seen a ghost!” For example, if you say to me, “Jessie, I think I saw a picture of you online, where you are dressed like Marilyn Monroe standing above a subway grating, your white dress billowing,” I’ll definitely yell, “見鬼了，你!”

p.s. But at the same time I think I’ll add it to my list of “100 things to  do before I’m 90.”

陰陽眼=阴阳眼

陰間=阴间

壞蛋=坏蛋

搗蛋鬼=捣蛋鬼

貪吃鬼=贪吃鬼

聊齋異誌=聊斋异志

艷鬼=艳鬼

蒲松齡=蒲松龄

聶小倩=聂小倩