There were a handful I didn’t like at all, but more than half that I did. There were a good few stories that have really stuck with me. I took my time reading this to allow each story to sink in and it was worth it.

LOVE that this had content warnings for each story at the start. That must have taken ages to do but I really appreciated it.

I deffo think this could have been separated into two books because some of the stories were really long and made this collection drag.

Here are my individual ratings for each story:

The Girl in the Rain 4/5
This was great story and was well told. There were parts of it toward the end that were a bit too tell and not show and I think it would have worked better to leave some things open to the readers interpretation.

The Waking Dream 3/5
I liked the point this was making but I found the world building was lacking a bit which meant the point was a bit blurry.

Immortal Beauty 2/5
I didn’t really vibe with this one. I liked the editorial notes, but the story itself was lacking for me.

Those Who Walk at Night, Walk With Ghosts 2/5
This one was too long. It had the right vibes but there was too much happening outside of the main point and I found it distracting.

The Yin Yang Pot 5/5
I will surely never forget this story. Chuan honestly gets what he deserves…but it doesn’t make it any less horrifying lol

The Shaxiao 2/5
It had some interesting ideas but it wasn’t memorable imo

Have You Heard of ‘Ancient Glory’? 2/5
This was ok but again I don’t think I’ll remember it

Records of Xiangxi 1/5
I truly did not care about this story 🥴 it was far too long!

The Ghost Wedding 2/5
I thought I’d enjoy this one more than I did. It was ok.

Night Climb 4/5
Short and sweet (or bitter!)
Could have done with a little bit more suspense, but overall a really good vignette.

Forbidden Rooms 4/5
This earned its length! It wasn’t boring for a second and I was compelled to stay awake to keep reading. It really made its point and I’ll think about it for a long while!

Ti’naang 4/5
Dammit I knew where this was going and it still hit hard. A LOT to explore here around mother x daughter relationships, women’s agency (or lack thereof) over their bodies and familial sacrifice.

Huangcun 4/5
Another solid story. I liked the layers in this and there was a lot left open to interpretation which also liked!

The Death of Nala 4/5
Oh :(
This could have used some more depth but overall it delivered.

Major kudos to Xueting Christine Ni, the editor and translator of Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror for a stellar job of compiling an amazing anthology of Chinese horror and tales of the supernatural. This collection is a labor of love, and Ni starts the book with an introduction of how she started the monumental task of reaching out to Chinese authors because she wanted to bring these tales of horror to light, as the genre is often neglected even in Chinese culture. Unfortunately, she also notes that many of the submission she received were heavily misogynistic, so I actually appreciate the feminist works in this book even more. She not only wanted to showcase acclaimed Chinese authors but also support new and budding authors too.

Translation is an underrated art, and Ni does a beautiful job of maintaining a composed and descriptive writing style throughout the anthology and showcasing the original author’s work. I usually have a little trouble with anthology works because of the drastic change in tone, style, and writing talent between different authors and stories, but here is a great example of how having the same translator can really make the work cohesive.

Each story really resonated with me in an impactful and different way, and I had to pause in between some of them to recollect my thoughts - much in the same way as after watching an episode of Black Mirror. This compilation is very well curated and each story includes a wonderfully written editor’s note on the story’s background. My personal favorites were The Yin Yang Pot (as I’m partial to any story about love and food), Ti’Naang, and Forbidden Rooms.

These stories are much more complex than the scary stories most of us grew up with. Some tales illustrate the changes between ancient and modern China and provide background and commentary on mental health issues, geographical conflicts, feminism, parental-child conflicts, and the societal effects of long working hours and sweeping political decisions like the one-child policy. On the horror side, there are tales of psychological thrillers, survival horror, ghostly beings, supernatural beasts, and elements of the Chinese Gothic genre.

I’m not someone who usually seeks out scary stories (or actively avoids them), but this book caught my attention because of the introduction to a different culture’s interpretation of the horror genre. I think Ni did a fine job of celebrating Chinese horror stories and makes me look forward to the future of horror, feminist works, AANHPI stories, and translated literature.

Thank you to NetGalley and Solaris for providing an ARC for review.

Unfortunately, none of these stories clicked with me. The introduction was very interesting and I believe I reviewed a science fiction anthology from the same editor which if I remember was very good and I called for more multi-cultured anthologies in the publishing world. Although this was not to my tastes, as much to the editors disappointed, no story stuck with me, no story scared me, thrilled me or had any effect on me, I still believe we need more translated fiction. We need new ideas, new cultures etc in the publishing world. And I have no doubt this editor will impress me with their next anthology.

4.5/5 rounded up.

eARC gifted by publisher and NetGalley in exchange for honest review.

This is an excellent anthology of horrorstories from the Chinese culture. Not only just stories about unseen beings, this anthology also includes “horror” stories that brought forth the struggles, plight and the bizarre climate in current China, for eg one child policy causing the many kidnappings of young women from the city as brides, expensive cemetery lands in Beijing causing wealthy people to buy apartment complexes to keep their loved one’s ashes, etc etc

And my favourite stories among all is the “red-white Hotpot”!!
I can never see my favourite Mala ying yang hotpot the same ever again 😂 such a bizarre but wonderful folklore.

I am reading this during the 7th lunar month. 😂
Will totally recommend!!!

From the book, “[n]obody [in China] wants to publish horror.” I could speculate on why that might be, but because I’m hoping to somehow slide into heaven I will not. I did learn some things here, for example, “the most common term for Horror as a whole is kongbu wenxhe, the same kongbu that is used for Terrorism.” Therefore, to say that horror has a bit of an identity problem in China is understating by a hundredfold.

“The Chinese view of Horror has always struck [the editor] as being unique where nearly every horror myth [she] has come across in the West is a cautionary tale, China has a long tradition of journal and documentational style writing, referred to as the “zhiguai” or tales of the strange, that mixes history with legends and hearsay. Much of that style is seen here in the book.

Given that there’s not much history nor much output of horror in China it’s not surprising that the stories included here are the most innovative or riveting, but as a huge fan of the genre, I love seeing what is being done in other countries and want to support those writers who are working in the genre. Plus, some of the stories are quite interesting from a historical perspective and I will be curious to see how the genre develops as time goes by. Writers in China definitely have a unique perspective on the world today.

The editor discussed that she had a digging time getting contributors for the volume, especially women, and God bless her for the lengths she went to to find them. There’s a fair amount of misogyny in some of the stories…equality between the sexes has far to go in China.

I was unsurprised that I had not heard of any of the authors included in the anthology. Cai Jun is, apparently, probably the best known writer of horror in China and he has a story here. My favorite story was “Forbidden Rooms” by Zhou Haohui, but several were good. I would encourage serious horror lovers to take a look at this, just to support the work being done, and so that we see more books like this.

I loved this book. Foreign horror is amazing and eye opening. It is interesting to see what is considered horror from various authors perspectives!