Jiangshi

A jiangshi is a dead body that becomes active again. Modern portrayals often show it moving with rigid limbs and outstretched arms, dressed in clothing associated with Qing officials. Accounts and adaptations differ over its movement, powers, and ways of attacking the living.

Jiangshi traditions involve anxieties about corpses, burial, and the boundary between life and death. Hong Kong cinema helped establish the internationally familiar hopping figure. That screen image is only one version: older accounts can describe much more mobile and formidable beings.

Mr. Vampire and its sequels helped popularize the comedy-horror portrayal of jiangshi and supernatural specialists confronting them.

• Wikipedia contributors, “Jiangshi,” consulted September 28, 2026; secondary overview of folklore and cinematic portrayals.