Asian Ghost Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy)

A new collection of stories from submissions and classic literature offering the best and most incredible ghost stories from East, South and Southeast Asia, combining new and classic authors across the region.

Another deluxe edition of new writing and neglected perspectives. Asian ghosts and supernatural beings – from India to Sri Lanka, China to Korea, Japan to the Philippines – can be both terrifying and comforting. Underpinned by strong cultural beliefs in the cycles of life and ancestor worship, the nature of Asian spirits differs from that of their counterparts in other areas of the world. The possibility is more instinctually accepted that ghosts remain with us, as part of the world, whether we can see them or not.

Featured here are all kinds of stories from across East, South and Southeast Asia: classic weird tales by the likes of Pu Songling, Rabindranath Tagore, S Mukerji, Im Bang and Yi Ruk, Lafcadio Hearn and Yei Theodora Ozaki, are complemented by stories by Asian writers of today. An egui (the Chinese version of a 'hungry ghost') is exorcised, a vicious jiangshi (Chinese zombie-like revenant) is encountered in the night, a Bengali shakchunni (the ghost of an unsatisfied bride) poignantly seeks love with devastating effect, a family is haunted by vengeful Korean gwishin, and the iconic Japanese tragedies of Oiwa and O-Kiku are revisited.

New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: Joshua Bartolome, Eliza Chan, the late Eugie Foster, T.M. Hurree, Nur Nasreen Ibrahim, Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito, K.P. Kulski, Monte Lin, Usman T. Malik, Samuel Marzioli, Rena Mason, Lena Ng, Ayida Shonibar, Karen Tay, Emily Teng, Yilin Wang, Alda Yuan, Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum (translating Ji Yun).



The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Dr Luo Hui (Introduction) is a senior lecturer in the School of Languages & Cultures at Victoria University of Wellington. His PhD thesis from the University of Toronto delved into the strange and slippery realm of Pu Songling’s ghost stories, and it has been a topic of personal and academic fascination ever since. He recorded an episode on Chinese ghost tales for the BBC Radio 4 series, A History of Ghosts, in 2020. His creative nonfiction, ‘Ghost Records’, appeared in A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand in 2021.

K. Hari Kumar, a.k.a. ‘Horror Kumar’ (Foreword), is an Indian screenwriter and bestselling author of horror novels. Hari is the first Indian writer to be listed on Amazon.com's top 50 bestsellers in the horror category. He has also written 50 horror short stories that were published in his 2019 book India’s Most Haunted (HarperCollins India), which The Times of India deemed a must-read horror book and which was listed among HarperCollins India’s 100 best books written by Indian writers. His 2018 psychological thriller, The Other Side of Her, spawned the acclaimed Hindi language web series Bhram (2019). Currently, he is producing a series of Hindi-language short horror films based on Indian myths and folktales.

Lee Murray (Associate Editor) is a multi-award-winning author-editor from Aotearoa-New Zealand (Sir Julius Vogel, Australian Shadows awards), and double Bram Stoker Award®-winner. Author of the Taine McKenna Adventures, The Path of Ra trilogy (with Dan Rabarts) and Grotesque: Monster Stories, she has edited seventeen volumes of speculative fiction, including Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women. She is co-founder of Young NZ Writers and of the Wright-Murray Residency for Speculative Fiction Writers, HWA Mentor of the Year for 2019, NZSA Honorary Literary Fellow, and the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow for 2021. Read more at leemurray.info