"Chinese Hopping Vampires" Topic

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These look great. Anyone know the mythology of Chinese Hopping Vampires? How are they similar and different from western vampires?

The Jade Mummy and the Terrcotta Warrior Zombies look great too.

Click on the product code for more info on the Vampires-hold your beath so they cannot find you use garlic and a Taoist priest and they hop because they are "dread" stiff and proberbly had thier legs tried together as part of the burial-and keep the cat away from your newly dead!

The Chinese hopping vampires might well be a product of the Hong Kong movie imagination. Although it might have some basis in history.

Essentially, the hopping vampires are zombies with a taste for blood, as opposed to brains.

They are actually the corpses of Chinese Imperial officials that have died. In the past, few people have had the opportunity to leave their home towns. The notable exceptions are employees of the Empire, who travel to the capitol to take their employment exams, and get a job posting anywhere in the Empire.

When they die, they need to be returned to their home town for burial. And instead of transporting the corpse in a coffin, a priest is hired to lead the zombies back to their town on foot.

Usually (in the movies), the priest would lead several zombies in a queue. With their hands stretched forward, they hop along, at night, on their way home. A paper talisman is pasted on their foreheads to prevent the zombie from getting out of control. Why they have to hop in such a manner is not known to me.

Considering that the paper talisman tend to be stuck onto the head by way of a little of the priest's saliva, accidents have a habit of happening. Some stories require a little blood to enter into the zombie's mouth to animate it, some just require the removal of the talisman.

Once out of control, the zombie becomes vampire-like. With a limited ability to fly, super human strength, quick thought, and a taste for blood. Apparently dead people's nails keep growing, so that does not help matters. As mentioned before, holding one's breath does stop the zombie from detecting one. But that is a poor temporary solution.

The priest, and usually a few vagabonds that caused the zombie to be released in the first place, will spend the rest of the movie taming the zombie. Either by sticking the talisman back on with the priest's saliva, or by some massive explosion of early 80s movie pyrotechnic proportions.

The zombies are usually garbed in Ming dynasty Imperial officials uniform. A low grade bureacrat's uniform. The talisman are yellow paper with red scribbled spells written with the priest's blood.

Ricky Lau is the High Priest of Chinese zombie movies.

imdb.com/name/nm0490605

I have the terrorcotta zombies. They're half-way painted. The sculpts are really nice and assemble beautifully.

Wikipedia says that what the 1980s HK movies did was to take the traditional Jiangshi (hopping corpse), and change it from absorbing Chi (life energy) to drinking blood.

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But for your main course of research, go and watch Mr Vampire as soon as possible.

Look out! They're still out there:

shaolin-kyonshi.com

Ah, this brings back memories.

Hopping corpses didn't just hop for the fun of it. By Chinese supersition, the energy (yin, qi or other, depending on the source) of the corpse is repelled by that of the earth (yang, etc.), thereby giving it hopping power.

I remember them from a martial art/horror flick. Comical yet terrifying at the same time.

Those terra cotta warriors look an essential additon to my weird Chinese army (along side my unit of Eureka suicide rocket cyclists and Scheltrum wheelbarrow of Doom).

Don't they have a problem with rice, too? I seem to recall that if you scattered rice on the ground in their path, they'd have to stop and count the grains…very Sesame Street of them. :)

Or maybe that was some other supernatural critter?

Terrific figures, but we really need some sinister eunuch sorcerors to boss them around.

Rich

This is the film you want:

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Well done and VERY funny.

Well, if you liked the old 'Mr. Vampire' movie from the 80s, they dislike glutinous rice (uncooked form) for some reason. I need to order a few for a game now, darn it! :) That and they'd make useful Qing Dynasty officials with a bit of conversion, I suspect. Very nice figures.

Michael

Intriguing thread. It got me to order Mr. Vampire:
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I thought I had cruised the whole site and not found the explanation. But it is there as CHANTYAM pointed out. Anyway, thanks to all who added stuff to that description.

I seem to recall that if you scattered rice on the ground in their path, they'd have to stop and count the grains…Or maybe that was some other supernatural critter?

Not sure about Jiangshi. East European folkloric vampires had this obsessive behaviour (though it was usually piles of seeds or some such that were put into garves to keep them occupied, rather than rice, of course).

Mr. Vampire is great inspiration, one of my favourites. Though some of the sequels and spinoffs (as is typical in most HK movies) weren't so good. Ugh…must resist for another month or two. :)

I just ordered two packs (plus the command) of the Terracotta soldiers, and the jade-clad mummy. I think some of my GASLIGHT units are going to be snooping around the Tomb of the First Emperor…

Thanks to TMP to explaining to me something I've been SO troubled about… that card in Munchkin Fu (or is it Munchkin Bites?) about the hopping Vampires..! I wasn't sure which it was, real dumb movie monster or silly pun, and had a short discussion with my fellow inmates about it in the packaging dungeon the other day…

Graycat

On the "Monsters vs. Mascots" episode of MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) on the Spike network (humorously redubbed segments of Japanese show 'Takashi's Castle') there were several people dressed up as the hopping vampires. They had a tough time of it, hopping up a large ramp while someone was rolling boulders down at them.

I used to be scared less as a kid seeing Hong Kong kung fu vampire movies… great minis

Is there no one still selling these?

North Star has one in their fistful of Kung fu line…they have other fantasy ones too.

Impact miniatures has a chibi style one….

Whoa, weird stuff!

Dan