Jenny Lao-Phillips
After my Macao Ghost Tour article a couple of months ago, I received enquires about what other ghost stories there are in Macao. People seem to be intrigued about these stories. But are they real, or just a figment of our imagination? In my experience, the difference between real and imagination is actually not that significant. For what I know, they could be stories spread over time stemming from the tradition and practices of a different era.
One such story is the red shoes in the washroom. It is not only in Hogwarts that there is a Moaning Myrtle. In stories told by people from different schools, there is a female ghost haunting the restrooms in almost every school. The story always begins with a warning: “Thou shalt not stay in school after sundown”. Why?
Once upon a night, some students stayed late to work on a project (or was it for basketball practice?). Whatever the reason, the students stayed late and one of them went to the toilet alone and heard a girl crying. The lone girl called out to ask who it was and if the crying girl was in trouble. Receiving no answer, the student peeked from under the door to see who it was. But all that the student saw was a pair of red embroidered shoes: There was no one in the restroom, but the crying went on.
The origin of the story cannot be traced. I imagine someone created this story to keep students from roaming around the school at night. Or perhaps students created it hoping teachers would not keep them at school too late. Or perhaps someone really heard the crying in the toilet and encountered the red embroidered shoes. No matter how this story began to spread, the same version was told in almost every school in Macao and Hong Kong. Assuming it is an unfortunate coincidence, it raises two questions: Why does it always have to be red embroidered shoes? And why does it always have to be in the toilets?
In my opinion, red embroidered shoes are related to two things in the Chinese culture: weddings and pre-1940s fashion. According to the Chinese horror culture, people who die wearing red come back as the most vicious ghosts. Moreover, a few Hong Kong horror movies from the last century feature a ghost bride who was wronged and killed herself in her wedding dress, creating the impression that vengeful spirits are often female and dressed in red, much like the woman in white in western ghost stories. Furthermore, since the 1940s, embroidered shoes were no longer common. So, seeing a pair of red embroidered shoes – partly burnt in some stories – implies they belong to someone from a different era. I guess that’s how a pair of red embroidered shoes became a scary image corresponding to a female ghost dressed in red.
The setting of these stories in the washroom is probably based on the ‘Ying’ and ‘Yang’ concept. While ‘Yang’ refers to bright and sunlight, ‘Ying’ relates to darkness. It is believed that vengeful spirits roam in places of ‘Ying’ atmosphere. One of those places are washrooms which are often dark and wet. Also, people normally go to the toilet alone, so they are more vulnerable to being attacked by ghosts.
However, with our modern culture of girls who accompany each other to the toilet, it leaves very little space for the toilet ghost stories to survive. Or perhaps it was these ghost stories we hear all the time in schools that led to the need of company whenever one needs to visit the washroom?
