Youth Ghost Hunting Trio: ----Mysterious Water

Author: Mai Jie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: After a busy spell, sweat had already trickled down her body. Ayu raised her bare arm and wiped the sweat from her forehead. At that moment, she was startled to see a layer of dark sand on her arm, as if some of it was still seeping out from her pores, challenging the limits of psychological endurance, giving your brain a jolt! Ghosts really exist in this world, no scientific verification needed. Because they are hidden in people's hearts! From a psychological perspective, horror refers to a highly anxious mental state experienced by people when facing threats such as death or madness. In the broader sense of literature, any work that depicts such a psychological state can be called horror literature. However, as another wave of popular literature following martial arts and romance, horror novels clearly refer to a narrower genre. Another source of horror novels, I believe, is detective fiction. The fundamental aesthetic characteristics of detective fiction—suspense, excitement, and entertainment—are undoubtedly also aesthetic traits of horror novels. In fact, some horror novels follow basic plot patterns that borrow from the classic "raising questions" and "answering questions" model of detective fiction.
In today's popular culture market in China, the prospects for horror novels are not optimistic, or to say, the contemporary horror novel reading market in China is still in a nurturing phase. A simple fact is that it is difficult to name influential domestic horror novel writers and works. The three young writers—Li Yi, Mai Jie, and Liao Liao—have the ambition to cultivate and sow in this unfamiliar land and have already reaped initial fruits. The courage and perseverance of these pioneers deeply moved me.
Mai Jie's and Liao Liao's novels often draw heavily on the archetype of "urban legends." Real-life events in society are replaced by some virtual supernatural elements, depicting absurd and bizarre horror experiences while revealing the evil nature of people with pathological traits. For example, Mai Jie's Day and Night, Hair of Insects, and Liao Liao's Ghost Village. In some of their works, imagination and urban legends play a significant role. Of course, how to set up mysterious and suspenseful storylines that resonate with the reading psychology of contemporary Chinese readers and reach the artistic shore of soul-stirring fear is, in fact, a topic that all aspiring horror novel writers must face.