History Main / ChineseVampire

The monster called a 'Chinese Vampire' (Simplified: 僵尸; Traditional: 殭屍; Pinyin: Jiāng Shī) has also been translated as a ''hopping corpse'' or ''hopping vampire'', among other names. The Mandarin name is romanized as ''jiangshi'', [[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName usually]], which means "stiff corpse". Despite the name, they are much closer in nature to the Western concepts of [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]] or [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] than to [[VampiresAreSexGods any]] common [[ClassicalMovieVampire depiction]] of [[VampiresAreRich vampires]].

Incidentally, in Chinese, the word Jiāng Shī is also applied to the Anglo zombies (alongside 丧尸/喪屍 Sàng Shī which exclusively means zombies), while Slavic vampires use another term entirely 吸血鬼 (Xī Xuè Guǐ, literally Blood-Sucking Ghost). A Chinese man would find jiangshi to be closer to zombies than vampires.

SubTrope of OurVampiresAreDifferent. Compare ClassicalMovieVampire and OurZombiesAreDifferent, LooksLikeOrlok. JustForFun/NotToBeConfusedWith a western-style vampire who is ethnically Chinese.

* ''Anime/TurnAGundam'': Merrybell Gadget is an eccentic Moonrace engineer who dresses and acts like jiang-shi. Her spacesuit has long sleeves, most of her face is covered in stark-white makeup, and she tends to hop around and stick her arms out.

** Chiaotzu appears to be based on these, wearing a Qing Dynasty outfit and having extremely pale skin. His telepathic attacks also require him having his arms outstretched, in a rather jiangshi-esque way.

* ''Manhua/BloodlineTheLastRoyalVampire'': Is a much nicer form of this trope... in a sense. It's played straight with [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Chong Yin and Ye Ren]] in the prequels.

* An optional boss in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'' is a jiangshi. Surprisingly, it's the only boss to ''not'' be permanently destroyed after you beat it; it is frozen by a talisman upon defeat, and if you attack it again, the talisman will break, causing it to revive and attack you, once more.
* Hsien-ko (International) / Lei-Lei (Japan) in the video game ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' is a Jiang-shi; her sister's soul resides in the talisman on her forehead to protect Lei-Lei from losing control of her powers. A special move allows the two sisters to separate momentarily and let Lei Lei enter a kind of reckless state. This is lampshaded in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', where Lei-Lei has to remind [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Chris and Jill]] that she's completely different from [[OurZombiesAreDifferent the other type of undead]] they're used to dealing with.

A typical Chinese Vampire [[LifeDrinker drains life energy]] though more and more ''jiangshi'' are draining blood while they're at it due to cross-cultural influence. Behaviour-wise, however, the Chinese Vampire is [[FeralVampires bestial in its monstrosity]]; it cannot speak, has pale skin, long claw-like fingernails, and a [[OverlyLongTongue long prehensile tongue]]. In what would probably be a particularly huge display of the UncannyValley, it [[ZombieGait moves by hopping and always has its arms outstretched in rigor mortis]]. Often a bit on the decayed side, they typically wear shabby robes of the kind worn by the nobility in times gone by -- nowadays, Qing Dynasty-style robes are the thing. The modern visual depiction of the Jiangshi as a horrific Qing official may have been derived by the anti-Manchu or anti-Qing sentiments of the Han Chinese population during the Qing Dynasty, as the officials were viewed as bloodthirsty creatures with little regard for humanity. Jiangshi were popularized during the jiangshi boom of the Hong Kong film industry, which was partially a response to the preceding wave of western vampire fiction. ''Film/MrVampire'' is the most influential film from this era and is TropeCodifier for jiangshi portrayals.

A person drained of LifeEnergy will become another of its kind -- minus the robes, of course, unless they were actually wearing them at the time.

Typical weaknesses of a jiangshi include the blood of a black dog, a wooden sword made from a peach tree, a hen's egg, glutinous rice (by extension of its use in the attempt to draw poisons from a living body), and the urine of a virgin boy. In case you were wondering, the classic KillItWithFire is implied by the text of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zi_Bu_Yu Zi Bu Yu]]'' to work as well. It's been suggested due to the jiangshi's lack of advanced motor function, one could pull off FlippingHelpless on it if it was knocked onto its back.

* ''Animation/{{Spookiz}}'': Kong Kong is a jiangshi who regularly teams up with the vampire Cula. Kong Kong regularly moves around by hopping, but isn't bound by stiff movement. His talisman enables him to take on the attributes of whatever drawing is placed on it.

* ''Literature/AnnoDracula'': A classic example of a hopping corpse is sent to first threaten and then attack Geneviève Dieudonné.

* ''Literature/GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivationMoDaoZuShi'': The really tall thresholds at the entrances and exits of ancient Chinese coffin homes is meant to prevent them from getting out. See, when the corpse is animated by natural energy, the body is still undergoing ''rigor mortis'', so it can only hop, and it becomes difficult to hop over the threshold. So it hops, it trips, and it falls and stays on the ground until daybreak, where it could be discovered...

* The "Okami" from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', who looks like a growling asian teenager who feeds on people. Apparently, since Western vampires must be staked in the chest, Eastern ones must be impaled with a ''bamboo'' stake. '''[[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill Seven times]]'''. Oh, and the stake must have been blessed by a Shinto priest.

* Konami's fighting game ''VideoGame/MartialChampion'' has a generic ''jiangshi'' character named Titi (Chaos in Japan), although in his ending he becomes an expy of Film/EdwardScissorhands. For some reason, he's equipped with WolverineClaws, which is kind of strange since only half of the cast wields weapons and jiangshi tend to use their own nails as weapons. The game's engine lets him equip other characters' weapons such as nunchucks or [[SinisterScimitar scimitars]], though.
* Li Lin, one of the playable characters from ''VideoGame/MetalSlugAttack'', in a ''jiangshi'' who's part of the undead faction.
* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
** Though this image of him has faded from ''VideoGame/MortalKombatII'' onward, [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1992 the first appearance]] of Shang Tsung matched this trope well. A pale, wizened old man, he looked like a corpse; he didn't hop, but instead floated off the ground. And wouldn't you know it, his whole modus operandi is stealing souls.
** Liu Kang also counts too, since he's killed off by Shang Tsung in ''Deadly Alliance'' and his body was [[BackFromTheDead resurrected]] by Raiden as a [[CameBackWrong Jiangshi]] (Chinese zombie) monk in ''Deception'', complete with a pair of enchanted Houan chains acting as a talisman.

* Tenhou from ''VideoGame/NinjaMastersHaoNinpoCho'' is blatantly based on Lam Ching-ying's stock Taoist ''jiangshi'' hunter of the 80s-90s films, down to the paper seals, wooden sword and ''bagua'' mirror.

* ''VideoGame/PaperDolls'' have Jiangshi overlord as one of it's bosses, dressed in typical Manchurian robes with a horribly deformed NightmareFace when you fight it from up close.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSilkroad'', a game set in the Ming Dynasty in the eponymous road, have ''jiangshi'' as recurring enemies. They're somehow granted the ability to ShockAndAwe, their outstretched hands capable of electrocuting your character if they managed to grab you.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has the trope name as a special skin for Mei that can only ever be obtained from lootboxes during Halloween season.

* ''VideoGame/PhantomFighter'' puts you in the role of a traveling monk who goes around fighting ''jiangshi'' (or "Kyonshies" as the game calls them- the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters for ''jiangshi''). It's also notable for the fact that, with a special item, an UndeadChild Jiangshi is playable. ''Phantom Fighter'' was originally a video game adaptation of ''Film/MrVampire'', which was popular in Japan for a while.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Putty}}'', the Oriental level has caped Chinese Vampires that hop around and drop other enemies.

* "Barfly!" (''ComicBook/Vampirella'' #33): While in Hong Kong for business, the American Ludlow Guthrie meets and marries Ch'ing Shih. Ch'ing Shih is a ch'ing shih and she is after Guthrie's share in a company he runs with Phillip Vandamm, legal access to the USA, Guthrie's blood while she's at it, and later she also sets her romantic sight on Phillip. The men do get a warning before Ch'ing Shih's trap closes but they dismiss it: at a party, the monster movie actor Fortesque Bromide notices Ch'ing Shih's peculiar name and in jest draws a circle around her with rice kernels. However, Ch'ing Shih, being the actual creature, responds to it as if she's being suffocated, which Bromide assumes is psychosomatic. Ch'ing Shih and Guthrie leave thereafter and Ch'ing Shih drains her husband for the last time, after which she drugs him into a heart attack to prevent him from becoming a ch'ing shih too. Then she goes after Phillip and turns him, teaching him that as a ch'ing shih he is immortal, can mentally travel the earth through moonlight, and change shape into a bat-dog hybrid. He rejects her at first, but after two months of subsiding on animal blood with no way out but suicide, he returns to be with her.

* ''Animation/{{Spookiz}}'': Kong Kong is a jiangshi who regularly teams up with the vampire Cula. Kong Kong hops regulrly, but isn't bound by stiff movement. His talisman enables him to take on the attributes of whatever drawing is placed on it.

The monster called a 'Chinese Vampire' (Simplified: 僵尸; Traditional: 殭屍; Pinyin: Jiāng Shī) has also been translated as a ''hopping corpse'' or ''hopping vampire'', among other names. The Mandarin name is romanized as ''jiangshi'', [[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName usually]]. Despite the name, they are much closer in nature to the Western concepts of [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]] or [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] than to [[VampiresAreSexGods any]] common [[ClassicalMovieVampire depiction]] of [[VampiresAreRich vampires]].

As the Chinese are proud to claim, the concept of this monster developed independently of Slavic vampires -- though there are similarities, such that "Vampire" has often made it into the translated name. A typical Chinese Vampire [[LifeDrinker drains life energy]], like the Slavic vamps of old, though more and more ''jiangshi'' are draining blood while they're at it due to cross-cultural influence. Behaviour-wise, however, the Chinese Vampire is [[FeralVampires much more bestial in its monstrosity]] than its Slavic counterpart; it cannot speak, has pale skin, long claw-like fingernails, and a [[OverlyLongTongue long prehensile tongue]]. In what would probably be a particularly huge display of the UncannyValley, it [[ZombieGait moves by hopping and always has its arms outstretched in rigor mortis]]. Often a bit on the decayed side, they typically wear shabby robes of the kind worn by the nobility in times gone by -- nowadays, Qing Dynasty-style robes are the thing. The modern visual depiction of the Jiangshi as a horrific Qing official may have been derived by the anti-Manchu or anti-Qing sentiments of the Han Chinese population during the Qing Dynasty, as the officials were viewed as bloodthirsty creatures with little regard for humanity. Interestingly, a literal translation of ''jiangshi'' is "Stiff Corpse"; being dead, of course, the body is stiff from rigor mortis and has to hop as the subtle motions of walking are beyond it.

In some versions, it detects potential victims by the energy fluctuations caused by their breathing -- one can hide, for a while, from one by holding one's breath. Some of these stories purport that if one manages to suck the creature's dying (and still held) breath out of it, it will fall inanimate and become an ordinary corpse. Folklore may also suggest escaping it by strewing many small objects, such as rice, in its path, which it [[BeatItByCompulsion would feel compelled to count]] (much like [[Series/SesameStreet another vampire]], more familiar to western audiences, although this is a common weakness among Slavic vampires in general as well). It may be controlled with a [[PaperTalisman parchment inscribed with runes]] placed on its head.

Like Slavic vampires and Anglo zombies, a person drained of LifeEnergy will become another of its kind -- minus the robes, of course, unless they were actually wearing them at the time.

* Kong Kong from ''Animation/{{Spookiz}}'' is one. His talisman enables him to take on the attributes of whatever drawing is placed on it.

* ''Manga/DropkickOnMyDevil'' has Kyon-Kyon and her older sister Ran-Ran, the later who was [[ForcedTransformation turned into a panda]].

* In ''Manga/InterspeciesReviewers'', Zel ends up sleeping with one of these when the reviewers (sans Crim) visit the undead brothel Necrowife. He gives her a six out of ten.
* In ''Manga/MonsterMusume'', Jiang-shi are a sub-species to zombies, primarily found in Asian countries like China and Taiwan. They tend to suffer from rigor-mortis almost daily, especially after sleep, locking up their elbows and knees, forcing them to practice tai chi every day to open up their joints. Chapter 39 introduced the first named jiang-shi in the form of Shiishii.

* Ling-Ling from ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'' is a Chinese Jiang Shi, who can freely [[LosingYourHead dismember and reassemble herself]]. She commands an army of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Zombies]], though it's seen that her "friends" have some degree of independence. She's also capable of using the [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Jigen-Tou]], though she's the least skilled of its three users.
* The corpse servants of the Tao family in ''Manga/ShamanKing''. Fitting for a Chinese family of shamans. The family tends to kill people with strong bodies to fill out their army of corpses. Lee Pai-Long, Jun's personal servant, has the full outfit and everything, but is much less stiff, seeing as he's a BruceLeeClone.

* Turn up in ''ComicBook/TopTen'' as the [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad]]-analogue rivals of TheMafia-analogue European vampire mobsters.

* ''Film/CrazySafari'', a Hong Kong-made SpinOff of ''Film/TheGodsMustBeCrazy'' (also known as ''The Gods must be crazy 3, Vampires Must Be Crazy''). The corpse of a Chinese vampire is bought from an auction and flown with a plane to China in order to give it a proper burial. The plane crashes and a group of tribesmen (Bushmen) come across the vampire, and use it to get fruit out of a tree, by having it hop into it repeatedly. Yeah.

* ''Film/TheJitters'', an old movie inspired by ''Mr. Vampire'', involves a jiangshi getting loose in modern America.

* ''Film/TheLegendOfThe7GoldenVampires'' (1974) is a co-production with Film/{{Hammer Horror}}, and features Western ''and'' Chinese vampires in the same film. It has been released cut with various titles such as ''Seven Brothers Meet Dracula''.
* ''Film/MrVampire'' is the TropeCodifier in modern popular culture, and the first film to portray ''jiangshi'' as the central villains. It started off a small craze of supernatural-themed movies in Hong Kong and Taiwan at the time from its release to early-mid 90s, and had five sequels (although only the last one, ''Mr. Vampire 1992'', is a direct sequel to the first one).

* The 2013 Hong Kong film ''Film/RigorMortis'' takes on the daunting task of making a jiangshi actually '''scary'''.
* Chinese vampires occasionally show up in the works of [[Film/GodfreyHoNinjaMovies Godfrey Ho]] but they take center stage in ''Film/RoboVampire''.
* ''Film/TheShadowBoxing'' is allegedly the first Creator/ShawBrothers film to feature the iconic ''jiangshi''. The protagonist is a novice sorceror working at a funeral parlour, whose job consists of transferring bodies from morgues to graveyards by converting them to ''jiangshi''s first. A botched spell results in the ''jiangshi'' getting loose, and HilarityEnsues.
* These feature heavily in the 2004 film ''Film/{{Shaolin vs Evil Dead}}''.
* Another Taiwanese kung-fu film, ''Film/SwiftShaolinBoxer'' (starring Creator/AngelaMao) had a cadre of kung fu fighting ''jiangshi''s who shows up in one scene and quickly disappears, although they're later revealed to be a group of rogue martial artists posing as the undead. Their appearance qualifies as a borderline BigLippedAlligatorMoment. (Yes, it's a rather incoherent mess of a movie)
* ''Film/UltramanGingaSTheMovieShowdownThe10UltraBrothers'': Arisa gets assaulted by a horde of these when attempting to infiltrate Etelgar's fortress, since the fortress feeds on her fears and apparently ''jiangshi'' are what scares her the most.
* This Hong Kong film called [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_Cleanup_Department Vampire Cleanup Department]] combines traits of both types.
* The Hong Kong film ''Film/VampireVsVampire'' also features both types. The jiangshi is a child and friendly (it is shown [[VegetarianVampire sucking a tomato dry rather than drinking blood or lifeforce]]). The Western vampire is dug out of the ground but associated with an old church. [[SubvertedTrope They don't directly fight each other nearly as much as you might think from the title]].
* ''Zombi 56: Hopping Mad to the Sound of Music'', a Hong Kong vampire ''musical'' comedy (of course!) has a jiangshi that can be subdued by music, at which point it goes from hopping to [[InvoluntaryDance dancing uncontrollably]].

* A classic example of a hopping corpse is sent to first threaten and then attack Geneviève Dieudonné in Creator/KimNewman's ''Literature/AnnoDracula''.
* Quite possibly the basis of the little-known Asia-based Jade Vampire Court mentioned in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''

* This is touched upon in ''Literature/GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivationMoDaoZuShi''. The really tall thresholds at the entrances and exits of ancient Chinese coffin homes (like a morgue, except storing corpses in coffins and all) is meant to prevent them from getting out. See, when the corpse is animated by natural energy, the body is still undergoing ''rigor mortis'', so it can only hop, and it becomes difficult to hop over the threshold. So it hops, it trips, and it falls and stays on the ground until daybreak, where it could be discovered...

* One of the short stories from ''Literature/StrangeStoriesFromAChineseStudio'', titled "The Blood-Drinking Corpse", has a woman's corpse reviving in an inn and going on a killing spree, before chasing one of her would-be victims to a garden. Missing a slash with her FemmeFatalons, she ends up being LeftStuckAfterAttack as she embeds her claws into a tree, and is subsequently discovered the next morning, reverted back to a corpse with her fingers still in the bark.

* While not present in ''Series/{{Blood Ties|2007}}'', they are mentioned by Coreen in reference to "Illuminacion del sol," a sun-shaped weapon that paralyzes a vampire when stuck in his or her chest. Despite the Spanish name, possibly given by its previous owner [[VampireHunter Monsignor Javier Mendoza]], it was actually created at the request of a Chinese emperor to battle jiangshi. Given that the weapon works on a Western vampire, it can be assumed that these jiangshi are the same, although the number of supernatural beings in existence in this verse could indicate otherwise.
* Featured in the initial episodes of ''Series/ChinesePaladin 3''; referred to as zombies.

* The mook enemies in ''Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger'', the Rinshi, are based on the jiangshi, though they [[EmotionEater feed off fear]] instead of life energy. That and jumping headfirst into cars and making them explode. A Rinshi that passes through the Chamber of Trials is worthy of becoming a MonsterOfTheWeek. DarkActionGirl main character Mele is a ''really'' strong one.

* Hungry ghosts from ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''.
* One of the many monsters used by the Eaters of the Lotus from the [[TabletopGames Tabletop RPG]] ''TabletopGame/FengShui''. The Architects of the Flesh also use them, modifying them with Arcanowave technology to become Bouncing Benjys.
* Appear as enemies in the Asian film expansion of ''TabletopGame/GraveRobbersFromOuterSpace'' as "Hopping Vampires".
* ''TabletopGame/KindredOfTheEast'', an entire roleplaying supplement in the ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness''. Calling themselves the ''Kuei-Jin'', they are spirits of the dead who fought their way back from one of the 1001 hells and back into their bodies, which they reanimate and keep alive by feeding on the chi of other people. In the setting's present day, they're usually involved in turf wars with western vampires. Only people of Asian descent can become Kuei-Jin. Primarily [[PlotHole another example]] of the setting's many conflicting religions which are [[FantasyKitchenSink all somehow true and mutually exclusive from one another]].

* Ghostrick Jiangshi is a LighterAndSofter version of a Jiangshi in ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh''. He can search out his comrades very easily.
** A straighter example is [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Master_Kyonshee Master Kyonshee,]] a Normal Zombie-Type Monster whose name is a misspelling of "''kyonshi''," the Japanese term for a ''jiangshi.'' Unlike Ghostrick Jiangshi, Master Kyonshee isn't shown hopping, but instead appears as the revived body of an OldMaster of some kind, put to evil use--the paper over his face reads "Cursed."

* ''VideoGame/DemonsWorld'' have Jiangshis in the China stage, appropriately enough. THough for some reason they come at you riding on ''bicycles''.
* Jiangshi appeared as enemies in only one level of ''VideoGame/DoubleDragonNeon''. Coincidentally, the same level has undead versions of many previous foes.

* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' has jiangshi as minor enemies in the Endless Corridor.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'', [=XJ9=] a.k.a. Jenny goes to [[SadlyMythtaken Japan]] and battles a horde of these. They disappear into a puff of smoke when bonked on the head.

* Hsien-ko (US) / Lei-Lei (Japan) in the video game ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' is a Jiang-shi; her sister's soul resides in the talisman on her forehead to protect Lei-Lei from losing control of her powers. A special move allows the two sisters to separate momentarily and let Lei Lei enter a kind of reckless state. This is lampshaded in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', where Lei-Lei has to remind [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Chris and Jill]] that she's completely different from [[OurZombiesAreDifferent the other type of undead]] they're used to dealing with.

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' "Nightmare in North Point" DLC features jiangshi. Wei has to beat them up to get enough magic power to defeat the yaoguai, and throw them into the MookMaker to seal it.