Saturday, July 15, 2017

50 Years Of HK Spooks (鬼故50年)

Within 50 years and among local Hong Kong folks, there are said to be top-10 classical ghost stories: High Street (高街), Admiralty quarters(金鐘兵房), Murray House(美利樓),Braid Road(一條辮路),East Town Theater(東城戲院),Nam Koo Terrace(南固臺), Wah Fu Estate(華富村), Shaw Studio(邵氏片場), Dade School(達德學校)and Lei Yue Mun Barracks(鯉魚門兵房).Some folks added the old Tai Po Police Station (大埔舊警署), old material store of Oil Street (油街舊物料庫), a flat in Tai Hing Estate, Tuen Mun (屯門大興村) etc. to the list. This so-called list varies according to people to people of course.

Stories about post-war Hong Kong haunted houses are mostly related to the Japanese Imperial Army massacre during WWII. Those premises that were the Imperial Army Barracks, detention centers or execution places would believe to be haunted to some degree. For example: the Peninsula Hotel basement (半島酒店地庫),the west wing of Murray House (美利樓西), the old navy headquarter (舊海軍總部), Tamar Building (添馬大樓), Transport Department at No. 2 Murray Road etc. are believed to be old execution place of Imperial Army. So those restless souls of untimely dead would still linger in that area so said.

Another frequent haunted place would be the cinema. The most famous one would be the pre-war Kau U Fong Cinema (九如坊戲院). Urban legend has it that a kid saw many kid spirits in red with ferocious faces and started to cry while asking his father to bring him out.

Consequently, the cinema caught fire and the father and son were the only survivors. This ghost story is quite similar to the 1918 Happy Valley fire incident. Another haunted cinema would be the East Twon Theater (東城戲院)located in Wan Cai in the 50's. Even though after 50 years, the ghost stories remain to be relevant to date.

Some murder or suicide scene is also popular haunted place. The deepest impression one is a unit in a flat in Lai King (荔景) where two sisters were murdered about 30 years ago. After the murder, the unit became haunted and it has changed hands many times but no one could stay too long in the unit until the management sealed off the unit permanently.

Others places of murder scenes such as the Tai Hing Estate (大興村),Sau Mau Ping Estate (秀茂坪村), Lek Yuen Estate(瀝源村), Plover Clove Garden(寶湖花園) etc. also has some kind of similar ghost stories too.

The old hostels of Shaw Studio were once a black spot for ghost haunting. During February and March of 1978, news of ghost haunting started to spread. It was said that the ghost of the late movie star,Lee Ting (李婷)who committed suicide by hanging herself in the 102 basement of the 3rd basement, and the ghost of director Kim Chun (秦劍) who died in 1968 by hanging himself started to haunt the Shaw Studio.

Hong Kong folks always think that police represents the righteous energy and the police uniform can ward off evil. Contrary to this belief, in recent years, the most horrific ghost stories come from this law enforcement agency. For instance, the ammunition store of Building J of the police tactical college of Wong Chuk Hang, the previous Royal Police Cadet School in Fan Garden (芬園) and Dodwell's Ridge (天祥營), and also the so-called the Number 8 Police Station aka the headquarter of Regional Crime Unit (重案組) are thought to be seriously haunted.

A more recent ghost story happened in Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station. Story has it that a sergeant (警長 ) was killed in a freak accident near Lion Rock Tunnel exit during midnight.

The next day, another sergeant claimed to have seen the deceased in the changing room. The news of the changing room haunted by the restless sergeant started to spread.

In order to appease the dead soul and most importantly, the superior decided to employ some Taoists to perform a deliverance ceremony inside the police station. It is due to this ceremony that the news of the Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station made known to the public.

Perhaps Hong Kong has many fantastic ghost stories to tell that Charles F. Emmons has wrote a book titled 'Chinese Ghosts and ESP" some time ago. May be you care to look in your local library. I assure you that you would not be disappointed.

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