When it comes to the topic of monster, “Nian” is usually the first name that pops up in Chinese people’s minds. As a China born kid, i have heard numerous terrifying stories about superb Chinese monster Nian. In Chinese mythology, Nian has a shape of lion body and head of a unicorn. Ordinarily, Nian lives under the deep sea; however, it will come out and eats people, cattle and children in each spring around Chinese New Year time. With its extraordinary strength, lightening speed and the ability of controlling fire,   Nian can easily tear down a village in minutes. Eye of the Cyclops, neck of the titans (from Attack on titan), heel of the Achilles, even the greatests have their weakness, fortunately, Nian has two. This big bad ferocious beast is very sensitive to loud noises  and is afraid of red color (surprise haha).

By now, you probably can figure out why do Chinese people like to wear red color and light up fireworks during New Year time. With the combination of loud drums and red custom body suit, Chinese Dragon/Lion dance was made to scare off monster Nian essentially. Furthermore, the tradition of giving kids red pocket during New Year shares the same ideas. As far as i know, at least half amount of Chinese traditions were invented because of the existence of monster Nian. How lovely, isn’t it?

Along the same lines as the connection between Nian and Chinese custom; ghost, monsters and hallows have conspicuously effects on the eastern tradition holiday Halloween. And With more and more samples coming together, the relationships between peoples customs and the stories of monsters had me thinking, how much percentage of our tradition was based on the stories of monsters? What would our life be without monsters’ stories? Although monsters are precisely not something that we should be thankful to, our life certainly would be less interesting without them.

Whenever i hear the word “king”, i think about my baby monster King Kong. He is the original king of the jungle who can beat a bevy of Tyrannosaurus Rex with one hand, smash fighter jets by the gentlest touch. The image of King Kong atop the Empire State Building has not only permeated the public in popular culture, but also craved in millions of kids’ hearts. Kong was killed by a squadron of military biplanes simply because humans deem him as monster.   

A Legendary animal combining features of animal and human form or having the forms of various animals in combination, as a centaur,griffin, or sphinx is the definition of monster in dictionary. To most people, monsters are demons, freaks who represent dangerous, darkness, psycho and frightening (at least that is what my new college classmate thinks). However, the word “monster” is loaded with misunderstood and loneliness to me. 

As my baby monster Kong, ripped from his home, taken across the world, and forced to life a life in a captivity and as a curiosity, he has no choice but to react to the circumstances trust upon him. Indeed, he is gigantic, extraterrestrial and very different from us, but has anyone questioned themselves what motivated Kong to appear in the city or tried to understand what was this “monster” thinking? If you call a creature who sacrifices its life to rescue the ones he loves a monster, then I’d rather be a monster.  

Accompanied with King Kong, E.T, The hunchback of Notre Dame, Frankenstein, wolf-man are often defined monsters. Stories about these abnormal creatures(oh well, The hunchback is a actually a human being) have me questioning myself what monsters really are? Spare a thought for these poor guys who may look scary and ugly, but whom are merely just misunderstood. What if their views of the world and how to behave are skewed by their interaction with it? Should we empathize with these misunderstood beings?