Abstract

This paper first makes an introduction to the US TV series The Vampire Diaries. To some extent, the TV series arose my interest in studying the ghost culture. Besides, when we talk about the “ghost”, there must be something different and splendid in China and in the west. Ghost culture, which is a part of human civilization, we can never ignore or leave out of it. In other words, to research the ghost culture, somehow, we can enrich the theory of human civilization. As long as human beings appeared on the Earth, some kind of mysterious power just came after them, or, at least, our ancient ancestors thought so. In the writer’s opinion, ghost culture runs through the whole human’s history, from ancient people to modern ones, from the ignorant to the knowledgeable. People gradually get rid of ignorance and embrace science. Besides, there is a saying: Fear comes from ignorance. Therefore, nowadays, just because some people lack the knowledge of “ghost”, which result in the misunderstanding between superstitious and ghost culture. However, the misunderstanding can be reduced after learning ghost culture. What’s more, no matter what kind of culture we face, we should always insist the principle: Selecting the essence and discarding the dross.

Keywords: The Vampire Diaries; ghost culture; civilization

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

3. Compare Ancient Chinese Ghost Culture to Ancient Western Ghost Culture-4

3.1 The origins and the initial development of Chinese and western ghost culture-4

3.2 The classic literature characters of ancient Chinese ghost culture and ancient western ghost culture-7

4. Compare Modern Chinese Ghost Culture to Modern Western Ghost Culture-9

4.1 Regional differences in popularity-9

4.2 Market economy and ghost culture-10

5.Conclusion-12

Works Cited-13