The idea of the use of ‘ghost’ image in films and culture realm is introduced and analysed by the article ‘Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City’ by Ancuta K. It is surprising to observe that common thought of ghost is often purely related to the feeling of horror and thriller is a plain idea contrasted to underlying meaningful identity of ghost applied in films story-telling. The birth of ghost comes from the material formation of the inner loneliness, fear, anxiety or other negative unstable emotions of the livings. For its use for films, it is a cultural product under the specific social and economic contexts. Specifically, the birth land of most Chinese ghost films, Hong Kong, was experiencing the rapid economic success and generated prosperous financial property during the last half of 20th century, is also where the dark era of the lower and middle class livings in cities. Ghost as a metaphor, not only depicts the alienating character of moderne urban communal lifestyles, the sense of loneliness and isolation, but also represents the corresponding failed dreams of economic success by the immigrants who were driven by better economic opportunities and higher standards of living of the Hong Kong city under that particular context. Ghost represents their wandering spirits which fail to move onto the afterlife because it is attached to the material world.
The article is also insightful in terms of analysing comprehensive connections between ghosts and its applied space/architecture, such as public housing(apartments in Hong Kong) in films to form a classic type of movie style resonating the livings during that period.
Xingquan WANG
UID: 3035980742
Good summary with appropriate personal reflection! You have incorporated complex concepts of the reading in your response and demonstrated contextual understanding of the Chinese and HK social realities. It would be even better to see more of your own thinking included in the response rather than dedicating most of the portion to summarizing the reading.