M&M are certainly sheltered. Never been scared by the known, unknown, themselves, me. I have failed as a parent. Project Hungry Ghost we must embark for the whole month.
1. 1. Watch Chinese ghost movies. 僵尸道长，开心鬼，画皮，倩女幽魂
2. 2. Visit Haw Par Villa - full of 妖 not enough鬼
LX insisted that spirits and ghosts are in the same genre. Dude… what if the spirit does not identify as a ghost? This is 2023 and we got to respect their feelings.
3. 3. Know your Chinese Ghosts.
I asked around what 牛头马面 and 黑白无常 do. Everyone assumes they have overlapping job scope of bringing newly deceased to be sorted. See? Everyone needs a refresher on your ghost folklore.
16 Aug 2023, Wednesday - The Gates of Hell opens.
Introducing the few Key Ghosts - Character Creation
Gates of Hell drawn.
Lily said it looked too 仙门 rather than 鬼门.
Lx complaint “Do something about the pink! Your door hinges are falling off! You drew the door too heavy!! Why no imagery of death? Why no overhanging eaves on your walls? Why….”
Fine Fine. I add more details. Morgan! Get some funeral lanterns done please! Door hinges is a user problem, mad rush of ghosts bursting out, do you expect the hinges to hold?
“Aiyah, lanterns should be hung with metal chains!!! Where is the fire? Need flames. Hell is all about fire. Make it burn!”
Ok fire. This is just a backdrop guys, do we need to go into so many details? With this amount of effort, I need to recycle this backdrop for lantern festival next month then Halloween next next month.
I learnt from M&M today not to judge a ghost from their looks. Side track, both their ghosts are simply disappointing white bedsheets, totally non-Chinese. Sigh. Formal education on Chinese Ghosts features absolutely necessary. So. Turns out that Megan’s happy looking ghost is bad, she claims. Need to go to 18 levels of Hell. While Morgi’s totally out of scale, evil looking ghost is “Mum, he is a good ghost, heaven please”.
Morgi’s ghost then gets channel to Grandma Mengpo to drink the soup of forgetfulness so that he can reincarnate into the next life without the burdens of his current life. He is ready to cross Naihe bridge to the living realm.
“To Heaven?”
Gee… not quite sure. Din prep anything on heaven but don’t think one can be rebirthed into heaven. Let’s just stick to the plot, ok?
Pick a piece to discover what animal you will be rebirth into!
Mimi, Morgi and me are all coming back as humans! Hurray. Meggie is coming back as a pig. Hahahah. Do more good, daughter, do more good.
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If a human dies but refuses to die, he becomes a 僵尸 (Yippe, my fav!!!), hopping around to suck the qi of the living. Only a Taoist priest can stop a Jiang Shi!
The Art of drawing talisman using chicken blood, or your own blood is a must. First the action of biting your finger then in one swift stroke, draw a talisman to protect yourself.
Megan, you be a priest and Morgan you be a Jiangshi running wild. Now do your job Megan! Despite reminders that Jiangshi can only hop because they are stiff corpses, M&M just ran wild trying to escape being immobilised by the talisman. A mad ending to a whole month of ghosts.
