In the subway this evening I was telling my Chinese partner about a talk I'd heard about folk religion in contemporary Jiangsu. A woman had been suffering from headaches, which neither the western nor the Chinese doctor had been able to treat, so she went to a spirit medium. The medium quickly went into a trance and asked the woman where she lived. When she named a building in a new complex which had recently been built over an ancient village, she said "of course!" as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. A teenaged girl had been killed by the Japanese in the 1930s, she informed the woman, and her grave had been disturbed by the new construction. Upset, she'd possessed the first person she could find, which happened to be the woman with the headaches. The spirit medium would help her exorcise the girl's ghost...
At this point we had to get off the train, but as we were stepping off, a young Chinese American woman who'd evidently been listening to our conversation said something. But what did she say? My partner and I remembered diametrically opposed things! I thought she said "I know it sounds crazy, but I believe it" - meaning the disturbed ghost's possessing a stranger. He heard her say "it's crazy but it really happens" - meaning such episodes of superstitious credulity. What to believe?
The medium, incidentally, arranged to lure the ghost girl from the suffering woman's bedroom with threats and gifts, burning spirit money for her at a crossroads at a river, and set her free. The scholar who'd told us the story, something of an authority on Chinese ghosts, ended his tale there. Did the woman's headaches stop? Need one ask?
At this point we had to get off the train, but as we were stepping off, a young Chinese American woman who'd evidently been listening to our conversation said something. But what did she say? My partner and I remembered diametrically opposed things! I thought she said "I know it sounds crazy, but I believe it" - meaning the disturbed ghost's possessing a stranger. He heard her say "it's crazy but it really happens" - meaning such episodes of superstitious credulity. What to believe?
The medium, incidentally, arranged to lure the ghost girl from the suffering woman's bedroom with threats and gifts, burning spirit money for her at a crossroads at a river, and set her free. The scholar who'd told us the story, something of an authority on Chinese ghosts, ended his tale there. Did the woman's headaches stop? Need one ask?
