{"id":2792,"date":"2014-10-26T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=2792"},"modified":"2016-10-25T21:32:15","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T04:32:15","slug":"a-foreign-ghost-in-a-wartime-cemetery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/tiger-tail-soup\/a-foreign-ghost-in-a-wartime-cemetery\/","title":{"rendered":"A Foreign Ghost in a Wartime Cemetery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eugene<\/a>

Eugene and his sister<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Do you believe in ghosts? Do you think there are some people who can see spirits that are invisible to the rest of us?<\/p>\n

Do these so-called “ghost whisperers” possess a special sensitivity? Or are they just more imaginative than we are?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. But if such people do exist, my late husband Eugene was one of them.<\/p>\n

Eugene saw his first ghost when he was still a child. It was wartime and he lived in a war zone\u2014a place with more than its share of people who’d died before their time, more than its share of discontented, angry spirits.<\/p>\n

Enemy troops occupied his island in those days. Still, little Eugene wandered the lanes, watching the flow of life, playing and talking to the shopkeepers. One afternoon, he found himself far from home as the sun was sinking into the sea, and he realized he\u2019d never make it back before curfew unless he cut through the cemetery.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0631\"<\/a>As he sprinted down the lane, shopkeepers on either side were pulling their metal shades down for the night. The cemetery was all long shadows and pools of darkness. He heaved open the iron gate and darted inside. Then, skipping and dodging around the tombstones and newly dug graves, he raced into the spreading darkness.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when he saw the ghost. She was floating over the graves, a tall, shining woman in a flowing white dress with the long nose and round eyes of a foreigner.<\/p>\n

He froze for an instant. Then he ran as fast as he could, stumbling over grave markers, rocks, and uncut grass. He didn\u2019t stop until he reached the gate on the other side of the cemetery. Looking over his shoulder, he saw her. She was close behind, floating between the trees, watching him.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop following me,\u201d he shouted.<\/p>\n

She reached her hand toward him.<\/p>\n

And he took off again.<\/p>\n

When he told his mother and grandmother what he’d seen, his mother scolded him for staying out late. His grandmother simply asked if he’d ever done anything to harm a foreign woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Grandmother,\u201d he said. \u201cNever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you needn\u2019t worry. Next time you see a ghost, remind her you did her no harm during her lifetime, and she will leave you alone.”<\/p>\n

It was useful advice since the white woman in the cemetery was not the last ghost Eugene was to encounter. I’ve written another post, Eugene and the Angry Bangladeshi Ghosts<\/a>, that tells the story of some ghosts who interfered with work at a cement plant in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Happy Halloween.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a>P. S.- Eugene’s stories about his childhood in China inspired me to write my novel, Tiger Tail Soup. <\/em>If you’d like to take a peek inside, you can read a few pages at Amazon.com <\/a>or\u00a0barnesandnoble.com <\/a>with their “Look inside” option. The book is also available at dogearpublishing <\/a>and in bookstores.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Do you believe in ghosts? Do you think there are some people who can see spirits that are invisible to the rest of us? Do these so-called “ghost whisperers” possess a special sensitivity? Or are they just more imaginative than we are? I don\u2019t know. But if such people do exist, my late husband Eugene […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,583,755,6,87,437],"tags":[586,584,585],"class_list":["post-2792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-ghosts","category-holidays","category-tiger-tail-soup","category-war","category-wwii-in-china","tag-foreign-ghost-in-chinese-cemetery","tag-ghosts-in-china","tag-wartime-angry-spirits"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-J2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5596,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/tiger-tail-soup\/the-true-story-of-a-foreign-ghost-in-a-chinese-cemetery\/","url_meta":{"origin":2792,"position":0},"title":"The True Story of a Foreign Ghost in a Chinese Cemetery.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"October 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We're fast approaching that time of year when souls and saints appear. A time for recalling and repeating tales of the unexplained. So come along, I invite you to revisit this true tale of a little boy who encounters a foreign ghost in a Chinese cemetery. My late husband Eugene\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eugene and Anna 002","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Eugene-and-Anna-002-e1413832203959.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2813,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/ghosts\/2813\/","url_meta":{"origin":2792,"position":1},"title":"Eugene and the Angry Bangladeshi Ghosts","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"October 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 My late husband Eugene had worked on Bangladeshi projects before but none that involved a cement plant. So why, he wondered as he stepped off the plane in Dhaka, had the plant\u2019s management asked for him by name? Borrowers seldom cared which officers were sent. 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I should have celebrated the anniversary of my blog on August 7. But the occasion totally slipped my mind until one day I clicked on Timo\u2019s post, \u201cSecond Blogaversary.\u201d You see, Timo started his blog Crazy Chinese Family a few days after I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blogging"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Celebration","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/celebrate.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3117,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/vanuatu\/vanuatu-vanuatu\/behind-the-story-a-review-of-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":2792,"position":3},"title":"Behind the Story, a Review of 2014","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"December 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The WordPress helper monkeys put together a report that shows some basic statistics about my blog during the past twelve months. Here's an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 19,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vanuatu"","block_context":{"text":"Vanuatu","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/vanuatu\/vanuatu-vanuatu\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1616,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/this-is-not-a-ghost-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":2792,"position":4},"title":"This is not a Ghost Story.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"May 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When war invades a country like China and many people die before their time, ghost stories multiply. They become part of the landscape. So it was inevitable that in my novel, Tiger Tail Soup, I would mention ghosts. They\u2019re not a big part of the story, but I couldn\u2019t avoid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The ghost of Yue Fei","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/The-ghost-of-Yue-Fei-wikimedia.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4937,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/tiger-tail-soup\/translation-is-that-what-i-wrote\/","url_meta":{"origin":2792,"position":5},"title":"Translation: Is That What I Wrote?","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"April 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"My novel looks so different in translation. I look at all those Chinese characters and I wonder, is this really my novel? If only I could read Chinese! I did study it for a while. But that was years ago, and with the passage of time, the words just slipped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "books"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"by Gracenotes","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/by-gracenotes-Wikipe-tan_shocked.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5590,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions\/5590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}