A Brief Introduction to the Ancient Chinese Folklore and Culture Embodied in Hong Kong Creepypasta

When it comes to the hottest domestic horror game in 2020, it must be "Hong Kong Creepy Facts" without a doubt. "Hong Kong Creepy Facts" is a game developed by GhostpieStudio with the old Hong Kong neighborhood Kowloon Walled City as the backdrop of the story, and the ancient Chinese folklore as the horror elements, and the story integrates a large number of Hong Kong's local urban legends, and also in the game Some of the scenes are supposed to pay homage to many famous Hong Kong ghost movies, such as "Fierce Ghost Buddha Jumps Over the Wall".

The story of the game is about a spiritual program team that went to the Kowloon Walled City site to record a special program during the Monlam Yu Festival, and a large number of people disappeared before the recording even started, and our player has to play the role of Lok to look for his missing friends. In the process of searching, he also discovered many unknown secrets.

Well, after a brief introduction to the game, here comes the main text, because the author does not know much about Hong Kong's architectural features and unique living habits, so this content we mainly introduce the game embodied in the traditional Chinese folklore or culture.

Kowloon Walled City

Because the game takes place in the background, so I think it is necessary to introduce this separately, the history of Kowloon Walled City can be traced back to the Sung Dynasty, today we usually refer to Hong Kong's colonial era is located in the present-day Kowloon City, a walled city, was dismantled in 1993, and now has been converted into a park, the entire park is built with the specifications of the South China Sea, divided into the spring, summer, autumn and winter eight different seasons. The entire park was built to the specifications of a Jiangnan garden and is divided into eight different scenic spots in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Attractions include the Invitation Tower, the Six Arts Terrace, the Returning Wall Stone, the Children's Playground, and so on. There is a picture of "Five Fortunes and Longevity Crane" made of fragments of beer bottles, bowls, plates and leftover garden materials in the Guangyin Garden.

(Location of the park)

Meng Lan Yu Festival

In the game,

the festival is a blood sacrifice to Meng Lan, and it can be learned through the beginning of the game and the quotes of the old lady at the end of the game that the protagonist and his group chose the day of Meng Lan Yu Festival to come to the Kowloon Walled City and encountered a series of strange events.

Meng Lan Yu Festival is also known as Ghost Festival or Zhong Yuan Festival in China, which falls on the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar every year. Strictly speaking, the concepts of Meng Lan Yu Festival and Zhong Yuan Festival are different, as Meng Lan Yu originated from Buddhism, while Zhong Yuan Festival originated from local Taoism, but nowadays, due to the intermingling of some cultures, we often think of them as the same festival. There are 2 types of origins of Manglamon Festival, one is that Manglamon Festival originated from a story in the Sutra: A man named Meilian, after his mother died, "she was in the midst of hungry ghosts, and was not allowed to eat for many years". The Buddha asked him to do the Monlam Bon Festival on the 15th of July, and because of his filial piety and obedience to the Buddha's instructions, his mother was able to "get food", and because he appreciated his filial piety, the Buddha set the 15th of July as the Monlam Bon Festival. Another explanation is found in The Essentials of Interpretation of the Sutra, which states that this man, Megurin, wanted to save his mother, and the Buddha asked him to perform good deeds to help the dead. The other explanation is from The Essentials of Interpretation, which states that this man, Megurien, was trying to save his mother, and the Buddha asked him to do good deeds to help the spirits of the deceased, and so the Menglan Yu Festival was established. As they are both legends, whether they are true or false does not matter, but what matters is that the two legends convey the same meaning, warning people to be filial to their loved ones and pay tribute to their deceased relatives. It is a symbol of gratitude to the parents for their love and care.

On this day, many regions prepare food, wine and paper money to honor the dead to show their memory of their ancestors. At the same time, it is said that this night is the time when the two worlds of Yin and Yang communicate, and the deceased will come to the Yang world to visit their hometowns and loved ones.

Qi Men Dun Jia

In the game, based on the clues on the remnants of the pages collected by the players, it can be deduced that back then there was a man named Qin Ye who practiced the art of Qi Men Dun Jia, and then performed a strange art to make a city of people die, perhaps in order to resurrect the famous prostitutes who had died by jumping from a building.

The art of Qimen has always been one of the more magical arts in traditional Chinese culture, and it is ranked among the three arts of Qimen, Liunan, and Taiyi

The protagonist, played by the player, uses a "Ghost-seeking Compass". To be precise, it should be a "feng shui compass".

In ancient times, our country's ancient people used the compass is mainly a feng shui detection tool, the ancients believe that the "magnetic field" is regular, can be measured, the compass is mainly located in the center of the disk by a magnetic needle and a series of concentric circles, each of which has its own different meaning, referring to the stars in the sky, The earth to the five elements as the representative of all things, the heavenly trunk and earthly branches, etc., the ancient Chinese first compass applied to navigation, seemingly superstitious system, in fact, these responses to the ancients of the world's geographic understanding of the present also has a certain reference significance.

Afterword

The game of "Hong Kong Creepy Facts" in general is still a relatively conscientious work, although there are some minor flaws in the gameplay, but its integration of ancient Chinese culture to produce horror elements which is very worthy of praise, accustomed to playing the western horror of the West, the folklore of the Orient in fact, you can also make a very good horror game. In the end, I hope that the domestic game can flourish and get better and better!