Asian Vampire Folklore and its Influence on the Summoning
Kathleen Canel, Marie Bui, Erica Anderson and Toby Le Blanc
11/01/2004
There is not one single conception of vampires. Almost every culture across the world depicts a blood sucker differently. Many Asian countries like Malaysia, India, and China, have a rich repertoire of vampiric concepts. Malaysian vampires are assumed to be male, is enslaved, and handed down from one generation to the next ( vampireaz.com). A vampire from India drinks the blood of its victims through their skulls and then wraps the intestines of their victims around their bodies and performs a ritual dance (vampireaz.com). It is the Chinese vampire however, that Bentley Little seems so interested in. With the aid of his Chinese girlfriend, Wai Sau Li, he was able to incorporate many Chinese myths into his own fictional vampire, in his book The Summoning.
In our own western culture there are many notions that seem to be a priori about vampires. We believe in our own culture that vampires are meant to be stately, intelligent demons that have superior strength and knowledge. Recently we have even seen the rise of a new type of vampire. This new bloodsucker is beautiful and its weaknesses have become more apparent. Eastern culture has a totally different conception of a vampires appearance and its behaviors. Chinese culture dictates that a vampire may develop a covering of long white hair ( Melton, p.115 ). This is very similar to the parasite that Little describes. His vampire had tufts of unnaturally white and unbelievably long hair, that, grew in unexpected parts of the body (Little, p.500). Though Bentley stays consistent with the appearance of his Chinese vampire, he does not stay consistent with its violent behavior. In Chinese lore vampires, ripped off the heads or limbs of their victims (Melton, p. 114 ) whereas the vampire of The Summoning is a passive beast whos followers do all of the violent dirty work. Strictly from this point we can see how Little takes existing Chinese vampire lore and revamps it in order to create a new creature. Even the name of Littles vampire was of his own making. The Cup hu girngsi was translated by Little as the corpse who drinks blood. The actual Chinese vampire had a less elaborate name. Chiang-shih was a result of the irrational soul taking over the body once it was dead (Melton, p.114). These are only a few examples of how Little begins to take existing lore and shape it into a different and condensed version..
In the book jade is used as a talisman against the vampire. Cup hu girngsi cannot exsanguinate any victims wearing jade. These powers come from the ancient myth that jade is a good luck charm used to ward off evil spirits. In fact, infants are not recognized as true humans in China until their 100th day birthday. According to Korean and various other Asian myths they have survived long enough to be counted among the living. They receive on this birthday a small piece of jade to protect them from any harm or evil. Little uses the concept that jade is a guard against malicious spirits, especially vampires. With this in mind, we continue to see how Little takes existing Chinese vampire folklore and manipulates it to create a new Asian fiend.
Although the mirror is important in the myths of the western vampire, the Summoning adds a new dimension to it. The grandmother, May Ling, describes baht gwa as an eight sided mirror that has the ability to ward off the vampire. This same eight sided mirror is exemplified in Dragon: The Bruce Lee story (directed by Rob Cohen). In the movie Bruce Lee uses the mirror to ward off evil spirits in his wifes hospital room after his sons birth. Little embellished upon the effect that these mirrors have against evil by increasing their destructive abilities against the cup hu girngsi.
A stake through the heart would kill most any vampire in western culture. In Chinese lore, the type of wood is very important. IN the Summoning, willow was the only type of wood that had any significant effect on the cup hu girngsi. Though there is no evidence of willow having deterrent or destructive effects on vampires, Little may have transformed previous Chinese literature to create new lore. Pu Sung-ling wrote 16 volumes of short stories named Liao Choi. In his story The Resuscitated Corpse he described four merchants who stopped at an inn to rest. Three were attacked while the remaining merchant watched petrified. As each were killed by what appeared to be the corpse of the innkeepers daughter. He fled and ran to the safety to a willow trees branches. The vampire charged and the merchant avoided her grasp. Her fingernails became embedded in the tree. She was found the next morning dead still attached to the tree (vampireaz.com, Melton p.115). Little may have utilized this lore to further develop his own myth of the cup hu girngsi. Even though there was not existing significance for such a symbol, Little was able to create a purpose for it within his novel.
Vampires have always been known to lack the ability to cross running water. This myth is consistent in most Asian vampire folklore. According to the Vampire Book, Asian vampires had trouble crossing water (Melton p.114). Little added a new twist by requiring that the water flow east for it to exude any power over the vampire. This is symbolic of Littles desire to bring focus of vampire lore from west to the east. Like the water, he hoped that our attention and our passions would flow to the mystery of the Orient.
Little would have us believe that there are only cup hu girngsis (Little, p.422). What he has set out to do in this book is to create a vampire made totally of Asian lores and beliefs. He has tried to destroy our western conceptions of the immortal bloodsucker and replace them with a new and improved vampire. Bentley used the same format that Stoker did in his book Dracula. Many of his characters assumed the same roles that Stokers did. The idea was quite similar as well. Stoker took all of the existing vampire lore of eastern Europe and combined them to create a complete and holistic form of the immortal evil. Bentley also took the ancient lore of the orient and merged many of the ideas so that to create his new fiend. What Little has done is remind us that there are more conceptions of the vampire in our world than out own Western views. Though he may endorse his version more than the Western ideal, he has used a familiar format in order to bring the Asian lore back to life in order to make it immortal.
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