Encyclopaedia Of The Impossible: The Hong Kong Ghost Granny

Previously: Don’t Look At This Picture Three Times.

Type: CC (Corporeally Challenged).

Period/location of origin: Late 1980s, South Korea. Contrary to its colloquial monikers — the Hong Kong Granny, Hong Kong Ghost Granny, or Hong Kong Ghost Grandma (in the original Korean, 홍콩할매귀신)— subject does not originate in Hong Kong.

Appearance: Subject, commonly known as the Hong Kong Ghost Granny, among other similar titles, appears to be an elderly Korean woman who may or may not also have several notable features of a cat. Subject may or may not be wearing a hanbok, and may or may not be carrying a red bag or basket. Indeed, very few detailed descriptions of subject’s physical appearance are available; possibly those who have seen it closely enough to offer such descriptions… did not survive the encounter.

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Modus operandi: Subject selects targets — almost exclusively children — who engage in any or all of the following activities:

• Going out after sunset;
• Failing to go to bed at their designated bedtime;
• Allowing their fingernails or toenails to become dirty, too long, or otherwise unkempt;
• Answering the telephone before it rings four times;
• Or, opening their window or answering a call heard from outside it.

Once subject identifies a target who has engaged in one or more of these activities, subject will approach target or otherwise appear to them. At this point, subject’s course of action depends on the cause of the target’s identification:

• If target has been caught going out after sunset, subject will either attack target on sight, or begin interrogating target about their identity and reasons for being out.
• If target has been caught failing to go to bed at their designated bedtime, subject will attack target on sight.
• If target has allowed their fingernails or toenails to become dirty, too long, or otherwise unkempt, subject will first ask to see target’s nails; if the nails are shown, subject will attack or eat target.
• If target answers a ringing telephone before it rings four times, target will expire, possibly at the hands of subject.
• If target opens their window or answers a call heard from outside it, target will expire, possibly at the hands of subject.

Containment: Subject may be contained in the following ways, depending on the infraction:

• If target has been caught going out after sunset, and is subsequently interrogated by subject, target may survive the encounter by speaking the words “Hong Kong” at the end of every sentence.
• If target has a designated bedtime, target may avoid the encounter entirely by simply going to bed at the correct time.
• If target is asked to show their nails, target may survive the encounter by showing the palms of their hands instead.
• If target means to answer a ringing telephone, target may survive the encounter by waiting for the telephone to ring at least four times before answering.
• If target hears a call from outside their window, target may survive the encounter by not answering the call and keeping the window closed.

Of course, the safest way of containing subject is simply by not engaging in any of the activities likely to raise the Hong Kong Ghost Granny’s ire in the first place: Do not go out after sunset; do not fail to go to bed at your designated time; do not allow your nails to become dirty, too long, or otherwise unkempt; do not answer a ringing telephone before the fourth ring; and do not open any windows or answer any calls from outside them.

The one thing targets should NOT do in an attempt to survive an encounter with subject is run. Subject possesses the ability to cover great distances at great speeds — 100 meters in less than 10 seconds, according to one report — and will thus catch target almost immediately.

Additional notes: Subject’s common monikers — Hong Kong Ghost Granny, Hong Kong Ghost Grandma, Hong Kong Granny, etc. — come not from subject’s location of origin, but from details regarding subject’s alleged origin story. That is, subject is not from Hong Kong; Hong Kong simply factors into subject’s background.

The origin story is typically told as follows:

Sometime in the 1980s, an elderly woman boarded a flight from South Korea to Hong Kong, carrying her beloved cat with her on board. The flight, however, never reached its destination; tragically, it went down, and all aboard perished. But during this terrible accident, something… unusual occurred: The elderly woman somehow fused with her cat — or perhaps their spirits fused together — and now, as the Hong Kong Ghost Granny, subject has returned home to patrols the streets of South Korea and keep unruly children in line.

Stories of subject were spreading by word of mouth at least by the summer of 1989, according to an archived report first broadcast on MBC TV channel 11 on June 24 of that year. According to this report, stories of the Hong Kong Ghost Granny were particularly prevalent at the time in some school districts of Seoul, including those in Sillim-dong and Noryangjin. Sinsangdo Elementary School, Gangnam Elementary School, Noryangjin Elementary School, and Sinjeong Elementary School are named in the report as schools at which rumors of subject had been shared. The report suggested that the stories may have arisen as a coping mechanism in response to recent tragedies at other Seoul elementary schools.

It has also been theorized that stories of subject arose in response to conflicted feelings on the expansion of air travel in the 1980s, as well as concerns about air travel safety. The growing popularity of Hong Kong ghost films (see also: previous Encyclopaedia subject “Nights Of The Night”) also may have contributed to subject’s initial arrival, as well as subject’s rapid growth in infamy.

Subject should not be confused with Turbo Granny, or Turbo Bachan, despite the handful of similarities between the two. This Encyclopaedia has not yet undertaken study of Turbo Granny, but the similarities are largely that A) the Hong Kong Ghost Granny and Turbo Granny both appear as elderly women akin to grandmothers, and B) both possess powers of great speed. Turbo Granny, however, is Japanese in origin, rather than Korean; additionally, this entity and the stories associated with it are perhaps more akin to a highway legend (previous Encyclopaedia subject Kubinashi Rider, e.g.)

Recommendation: Behave.

Or else.

Resources:

Hong Kong Ghost Grandma at Namuwiki. (In Korean.)

Hong Kong Ghost Disturbance At Elementary Schools In Southern Seoul. (1989 MBC TV report. In Korean.)

Nostalgic Special Feature: Why Did The Hong Kong Grandma Come From Hong Kong? (In Korean.)

Korean Ghost: The Ghost Grandma Of Hong Kong. (In Korean.)

Mystery No. 119: Do You Know The Hong Kong Ghost Grandma? (In Korean.)

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[Photos via Pexels, Bessi, jwvein/Pixabay]