Hong Kong Supernatural Stories

Despite being a modern metropolis in almost every way, many local residents nonetheless cling to long-standing superstitions and believe in masses of unsubstantiated urban legends. Conversations of a morbid nature, though, are often seen as taboo, and spooky stories are rarely discussed openly. We decided to push the envelope and ask local folks whose line of work happens to regularly deal with death—from a paper-offering maker to a psychic to an expert in exorcism—about their most eerie experiences with the supernatural. Read on for their terrifying tales, and see if you can’t be inspired to spot a ghost yourself this Halloween.

The Paranormal TV Show Host

The host of iCable’s long-running paranormal program, “The Unbelievable,” local TV personality Spencer Leung has a scary story or two to tell. While the show often features mind-boggling happenings, in 2007 a 10-episode special titled “After Life” was filmed for the show, in which Leung lived through his own funeral. The series showed Leung lying in a coffin at a funeral home, after which a Taoist ceremony was conducted; Leung was subsequently “buried.”

The special attracted a fair amount of debate. “A lot of people were surprised that I did it,” Leung explains. “No one knows exactly what happens after we die, and no one who is reading HK Magazine would have ever died before. After someone passes, their body is identified by a number, and then sent to the mortuary. After that, various procedures happen depending on the circumstances, such as the cleansing of the body, or perhaps an autopsy. I wanted to be able to tell everyone what it is actually like after you pass away.”

During the filming process, Leung says there were a few inexplicable occurrences that baffled not only him, but also the Taoist masters on set. He recalls: “There were two incidents that day which were very odd, one of which was actually captured on film. The first happened inside the funeral hall. During a funeral ceremony, there are often large flying insects inside the hall—a whole lot bigger than ones you would normally see. These insects are seen as the spirit of the departed coming back to bid adieu to family members. That day, there were two massive butterflies there that were each probably about the size of a palm, sitting in the hall throughout the ceremony. Obviously, I didn’t actually die, so that was the oddest thing—I didn’t need to come back to say goodbye in the form of an insect.” The Taoist master had a possible explanation for the occurrence, though. “When I remarked on how weird that was, the master explained that sometimes, when a family decides to carry out a funeral ceremony in a religion other than that of the deceased, the spirit cannot depart and reincarnate properly,” Leung says. “When that happens, the spirits—attached to insects—have to fly to other funeral halls to listen in on the ceremonies performed in their own religion.”

The other unsettling incident occurred during Leung’s “burial.” With Leung inside a coffin, the funeral procession went up to a gravesite. “It was a very sunny day. When I was being ‘buried’, it started to rain—but only on the patch of land where the grave was. When we were filming this scene, we actually had to do it three times, because the crew had to capture it from different angles. And it rained on the patch every time we filmed it. We were astonished.” Leung says that sometimes, when a burial is taking place, gods can commiserate with the death and show sympathy through such natural occurrences as rain. But it is inexplicable that it rained during a fake funeral, too.

The ultimate goal of the “After Life” special was the spread a message. Leung says: “My original intention was that, from watching the show, people would realize they should cherish their family, as well as everything they have.”