The Mystic Falls High School’s new semester started and a handsome mysterious student Stefan just came there。 Elena and Stefan fell in love with each other at the first sight。 Although Elena felt more and more confused about Stefan’s behaviors, for he suddenly showed up in her parents cemetery and his sometimes turning bloody red eyes。 Elena had no idea about them。 And Elena didn’t know that Stefan had a dark secret, he was a vampire。 After Stefan’s arrival, his vampire brother Damon also came, carrying some evil purposes。 Damon laughed at his young brother Stefan for he gave up their violent and fierce tradition, but he understood his brother’s love for Elena。 Because Elena just looked almost like the girl they deeply loved before one hundred and fifty years ago。 The vampire brothers then fought for Elena and her friends and all the folks in town。 This quiet and small town began to be restless。

This essay is based on the TV series, resulting relevant information。 Try to compare and study the differences between Chinese and the western ghost culture。 Try to figure out the charm of this kind of series and fiction。 Why this series attracts so much attention? For one reason is that, the image of vampire has totally changed than it was before。 The crazy, bloody and horrible one turned into an elegant handsome boy or a charming beautiful girl。 The audiences can no longer be aware of the vampire’s danger and aggressiveness, even felt hatred for the hero and heroine。 The roles have became some kinds of perfect images in young people’s minds。 Since I Have An Appointment with Zombie, people have changed the view of vampire。 Even a vampire can be a good policeman。 (Wei 168) As Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries inflows, such series with the theme of youth, campus, magic and idol have received an unprecedentedly popular。 To some extent, we can regard it as a new mixture, ghost culture and modern commercial system。 From the point of view of popularity, no matter literature, movies or TV series, the infiltration of ghost culture to culture life is multifaceted and multi-angle。 Furthermore, ghost culture became less non-mainstream culture than it was before。

2。 Literature Review

To understand the meaning of ghost culture, we should separate the phrases into two parts, which are “ghost” and “culture”。 What is “ghost”? Broadly speaking, Chinese ghosts can be monsters and celestial beings, which can also expand to the soul of all things。 (Ma 61) In the narrow sense, ghost means the existence of death。 In China, the evil spirits after people’s death is a kind of ghost。 Sometimes, we say a house is haunted。 In other words, some evil spirits occur in the house。 Ghosts are always mean evil ones?  The answer is no。 Ghost can also be the soul of  our ancestors。 And sometimes we can hear this word in our daily life, especially when we accuse someone of his bad deed。 The people who are extremely stingy, in Chinese ,we call them“xiaoqigui”。 “Gui”, in Chinese , means ghost。 The people who are randy, in Chinese, we call them“segui”。 Even sometimes,  we use this word in racial discrimination。 In the past, Chinese called Japanese  “ribenguizi”, called western people “yangguizi”。 (Wei 254) Therefore, we can easily know that “ghost” also stands for people with bad quality or people we don’t actually like。 In the west, the definition of ghost concludes demon and soul。 Apparently, the definition was influenced by Christianity。 What’s more, when we look up Bible, you can never find out the word “ghost” either。 Besides, western ghost is not only the soul of dead people, but also all of the paranormal phenomena。 In the TV series The Vampire Diaries, the vampire brothers Stefan and Damon are regarded as ghost as well as werewolves。 Anyway, there is the definition of ghost coming from Baidu: Ghost is the illusion made up of by our brain, especially when people are sick or they are under pressure。 Science field has a variety of interpretations of the ghost: Ghost is a psychological effect, including hallucinations and delusions caused by cognitive errors。 Another explanation is the damage of brain organs, which caused amnesia, mental disorder phenomena。 从美剧《吸血鬼日记》浅析中西鬼文化异同(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_197513.html