About Lady’s Red Shoes (紅繡鞋)

 

 

For the old Chinese folks, the sighting of a pair of red shoes is some very interesting phenomena. I was told by an old funeral service provider that when a single young lady died, her family members will prepare a pair of red shoes for her to wear in the hope that in her next life; she will be able to find a good household to reborn to.

 

This is quite different with those ladies who committed suicide by wearing all red including a pair of red shoes. There are cases where a lady died of unknown causes or being brutally murdered, and if her family wanted her soul to take revenge of her death; then the deceased will be worn red and her hands holding a pair of scissors. In both of the above examples; the lady’s soul is believed to transform into vengeful ghost (厲鬼). Such restless spirits are known as ‘lady ghost in red’ (紅衣女鬼).

 

Let me tell you two stories about red shoes:

 

Story 1

 

This story is told by a former actress, Ms Low. According to her it is a taboo for people who worked in a filming studio to look up the film studio during filming. The reason is that the place above the studio is the darkest area of the building as most of the spot lights are directed towards the filming stage.

 

Ms Low didn’t know this taboo when she first shooting in the studio. So she somehow developed the habit to occasionally lift her head to look upwards. One day, right after shooting a TV series; Ms Low habitually lifted her head and to her surprised, she was surprised to see a pair of feet wearing lady’s red shoes hanging on the spot light platform!

 

After the shooting, Ms Low pulled one of the studio old time actors and enquired about the red shoes she saw. The actor said with slumber: “Didn’t you know, the spirits like to look down from higher ground?”

 

Lesson learnt: “Please don’t lift your head to look above you, or you may see what you don’t expect to see!”

 

Story 2

 

Lily is a tour guide. As we know, tour guides are one of few persons who are likely to experience with ghostly sightings due to their professions. Lily told me that one of her unforgettable trips to Soul, Korea where her tour group was put up with a 3 star hotel somewhere in the outer skirt of the metropolitan.

 

During this trip, Lily had to share a room with another lady group member. When the group arrived at the hotel, it was around 9pm. Lily’s roommate wanted to go out for sightseeing as the night was still young; but Lily only wanted to hit the bed as she will have a long day ahead next day.

 

After dropping off her luggage, Lily took a refreshing shower and when she walked out from the bath room, she saw a pair of lady’s red shoes nicely arranged beside her bed. Lily didn’t like the red shoes as her gut feel told her that there was something eerie about the shoes. So Lily stored the red shoes inside a cupboard opposite her bed and hit the hay until…

 

Lily can’t remember how long did she fell into sleep, but some she was instinctively awaken by a long hair lady clad in red who sat beside her bed and ‘smiled’ coldly at Lily. Lily immediately gave a hysterically shout and cover her head with her blanket. However, she can faintly hear the lady in red’s ghostly words: “Where are my red shoes?”