Once, in art school, my animation class had a class session on horror movies. We watched a clip of a Hong Kong horror film titled The Eye 2. During the discussion portion of class, my professor remarked, “There seems to be this recurring thing with hair. Does anyone know why?”

I raised my hand.

“It’s because in Asian culture, dead women and ghosts are portrayed as having long black hair that covers their faces.”

Ah, yes, if you have seen Asian horror films, frightening sights of women with long, straggly black hair that obscure their faces are a common motif. You may think that all the directors of these films may be just ripping off the infamous The Ring, but these unsettling apparitions have deep folkloric roots.

In Chinese culture, these ghosts were called “Nǚ Guǐ” (女鬼), which literally means “female ghost.” They were known to be seen in white dresses (white, in contrast with modern-day Westernized funeral etiquette, was the traditional color of death) and long black hair. Sometimes, they may even wear red dresses, or may have committed suicide while wearing red dresses. They are often spirits of young women who had been somehow wronged or faced sexual abuse when they were alive. Their anger still lingers postmortem, and their spirits stay in the living world as beautiful, but vengeful ghosts that will not rest until they have attained their revenge.

These female ghosts are a staple in Asian horror stories. Perhaps it’s because of the tragedy that they embody to remind society that tragedy and traumatic experiences cannot simply be ignored. Or else, they will come back with haunting consequences.

In addition, in Japanese Noh theatre, there is a character archetype known as the Onryo. This character often appears in performances in a long white burial robe, white makeup, and long, unkempt black hair. Male onryo exist, but the majority of onryo are women. Like the Chinese nu gui, they return to the living world as ghosts to seek vengeance. In one story, a samurai vows to his dying wife that he would never remarry. However, after her death, he breaks his promise, and finds a new bride. The dead wife, in anger, beheads the new bride.

Oftentimes, onryo can also provoke natural disasters, such as fires, hurricanes, or earthquakes, to gain revenge against not just one person, but an entire society.

So, maybe next time you watch a horror film that features a female character with long black hair (with some the most famous of these movies being The Ring, The Grudge, or Dark Water) you may want to consider that these creepy young women with long black hair have folkloric history, and are not cheap rip offs of one another.

Trending Articles: