At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, China was in a state of war, and everyone only cared about the rural refugees. And no one will help others collect the body.
Moreover, environmental sanitation and medicine were generally underdeveloped at that time. Besides, in nine cases out of ten, it is very common for the dead and the living to live in the same room.
It is said that there were fewer zombies until the 1930s and 40s of the Republic of China, for many reasons. However, it is said that the zombies who survived on the mainland are thousands of years old and are not easy to be found.
Zombies are a very popular theme in Hong Kong movies in 1980s. In the movie, zombies are dressed in official uniforms of the Qing Dynasty, with their hands straight and their feet together, jumping like sparrows, and they can tell their directions by their breath. Another notable feature is that putting a symbol on their foreheads can make them fall asleep. Because zombies always jump forward, in the geomantic custom of Chinese architecture, a wooden board (threshold) about 15cm high is usually installed under the gate to prevent zombies from jumping into the home.
In The Hook Girl of Real Wei Xiaobao, Dicky Cheung came back from the Qing Dynasty and saw Tony Leung Chiu Wai (Wei Xiaobao) being beaten and asked: Where did you find the zombie costume I was looking for? It can be seen that wearing a zombie suit at that time was as cool as wearing Spider-Man's clothes now!
But why do zombies always wear clothes from the Qing Dynasty? I admit that I am bored, so I looked up a lot of information and found that I can answer this question from many angles.
Economy: Clothing in the Qing Dynasty was abundant and cheap, and zombie movies were generally low-cost movies. For the sake of cost, the producer changed the zombies into clothes of the Qing Dynasty, and because there were the most court plays in the Qing Dynasty, there was an alternative uniform temptation in the film.
Time angle: the time of death is less than 100 year, which cannot be refined. If you die for more than 500 years, you will become a devil. Therefore, only people who die between 100-500 can become zombies, and finally become zombies, so they can't help being impetuous and showing off. In this way, only people born in 1500- 1900 may become zombies, and almost all people born in this period are from the Qing Dynasty. According to this estimate, in a few years, the zombies in film and television works will be wearing Chinese tunic suits, suits or Nike, with three watches, and their briefcases will contain toothpaste recommended by Durex, the Dental Prevention and Treatment Group. Moreover, it is said that people in the Qing Dynasty wore official clothes when they were buried, which was decent.
Judging from the national sentiment, anti-Qing restoration has always been the mainstream thought in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was carved up by Britain in the Qing Dynasty, so Hong Kong people were resentful, so it was part of Hong Kong culture to make fun of the Qing Dynasty. As for why the official uniform is chosen, it is because of the performance of anti-Qing and anti-corruption among the people, and it is the imagination and social sustenance of the literati.
From the perspective of film and television, the official uniforms of the Qing Dynasty are more in line with the image of zombies in shooting effect. Because the official uniforms of the Qing Dynasty are relatively straight and dark in color, and the shape of official hats is different from that of Hanfu, the whole costume has a depressing and dull taste, which makes it stiff to jump, so it is most suitable for shooting zombies. It is not impossible to shoot with costumes from Tang Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Han Dynasty, but because the color of Hanfu may be lighter (such as white) and wider, it is not appropriate to shoot zombies as official clothes, but there will be a kind of elegant fairy spirit in it. Therefore, shooting beautiful female ghosts usually wears ancient Hanfu, and there are a series of classic female ghosts such as ghost stories. Imagine letting Nie Xiaogan put on the official clothes of the Qing Dynasty. What kind of effect would that be?
Folklore: In the Qing Dynasty, there was a Taoist named "corpse trainer" who had a spell to guide corpses. There are many people with status and wealth. After they die, they want to go back to their roots. When the bodies are not corrupt, they will be driven back to their hometown for burial. At this time, it is necessary to dispose of the body. Taoist priests usually use their own skills to make the body stiff and easy to walk, and then dress up. At this time, it is also important to put on official clothes. The corpse driver is called "corpse driver". Corpse hunters and magicians travel in small groups. Some of them tied the bodies with ropes every few feet, and then put yellow paper symbols on their foreheads. Others knock gongs to clear the way and draw night walks. Throw away the stack before dawn, uncover the paper, stand against the wall and continue on the road at night. It was also pointed out that the corpse driver actually carried the corpse, but because he was dressed in black at night, passers-by naturally couldn't see the corpse driver and thought there was a corpse.
From the perspective of literary history, zombie theory prevailed after the middle of Ming and Qing Dynasties. On the one hand, there are more records of zombie events, more research on zombies, more exchanges between China and foreign countries, and more importantly, literary forms such as novels and readers rose to a climax in the Qing Dynasty. Folk popular literature will give different explanations for such strange things around us, and zombies are one of them. These things have also been recorded in more books and folklore, and are used in the material of some movies now. Most people recorded zombies in Qing Dynasty, and Yuan Mei's Woods Language and Ji Xiaolan's Notes on Reading Wei Caotang were the earliest. These two books can be said to be the complete works of zombies. Most zombie movies in Hong Kong come from these books, so it is natural for zombies to wear clothes from the Qing Dynasty. China Qing Dynasty was the most insulted period by foreigners, and go-vern-ment was the most incompetent, so when zombies became officials, those who won the hearts of the people won the world!