The Chinese Ghost
As we all know, different cultures see the world uniquely through their own beliefs and customs. One of the greatest things about our world is the countless number of philosophies around the globe. Its very interesting to see how the culture of the teller colors their ghost stories and adds a unique twist from their customs. Sometimes this adds a little comedy relief to some pretty scary ghost stories! Here's just one example:
In the United States, a lot of us grew up being afraid that Freddy Krueger will jump out of our closets at night. Or maybe the Blair Which or Jason will get us when we're enjoying our camping trip. Of course in other parts of the globe (where Freddy Krueger may be laughed at!) the mysteries of the unknown are colored by their own stories. This means that ghosts from different places have differing characteristics.
In China, people believe that ghosts don't have chins. I'm not sure if American Ghosts have chin's but this is believed by some people in China. Growing up, this was always one funniest things I've heard and helped to calm us down for the ensuing ghost story. Also, you can only see ghosts out of the corner of your eye. The following story was told to me by my grandmother and also by my father.
After my grandfather came to the United States in the very early part of the 1900's, he took a job as a grocery store attendant in New York City's Chinatown. Like many of the stores in the city, there was a cellar directly below the store. The style of these cellars are the same ones used today. The entry is on the sidewalk in front of the store If you've ever been to a big city, then you've surely walked over these metal doors on the sidewalk. These cellars were, and are still used today, used as stockrooms for the stores inventories. It was in one of these basements where a very strange thing happened.
One day, my grandfather (who was a very young man at the time) had to go down to the grocery store cellar to set up boxes (or look for something) by himself. Midway between moving boxes, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the figure of a man standing in the darkness. This figure gave off a very malevolent and evil presence. My grandfather noticed it out of the corner of his eye.
Knowing that there was no one else in the basement with him, he continued to face away from the figure but kept looking at the figure out of the corner of his eye.
"Who's there!" my grandfather bellowed out. In the direction of the figure, came a low and undistinguishable mumble. My grandfather knew that the figure would disappear if he looked straight at it, so he tried looking at it to get more detail of its appearance. The low voice showed that the presence was a man and his figure was a dark and shadowy. But the one thing he noticed was that the presence had no chin.
Giving in to the urge, my grandfather finally turned his head to look. Sure enough, there was nothing in the spot where the figure was standing. After this incident, I'm sure all of my grandfather's co-workers secretly hated the idea of having to put things in the basement. I'm not quite sure, but there must be earlier stories of ghost sightings in that cellar before my grandfather saw it.
This is one of the stories that my grandmother and family members told us when we were growing up. It was always fun to hear this story because they'd always make light of the fact that the ghost had no chin! According to them, however, this incident really took place.
For those of you who live in the New York City area, you might be interested to know that the grocery store is still around. Instead of selling groceries, its now a gift shop. The original woodwork has not been changed and the store looks the same as it did when my grandfather worked there in the early part of the 20th century. Its located on ## Mott Street. I wonder if the current owners know of the ghost in their stockroom! I hope they don't read this web page!
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