Ghost stories reflect the thinking, culture, and lifestyles of a given society.
Though both East and West have ghosts, they are very different. For most of mankind, ghosts are fearful and unsightly. Chinese have been no exception. A reason why there are so many female ghosts in the Chinese literary tradition is that women had so few choices in real life, and ghosts could remedy that. One of the most popular ghost stories in Taiwan is the tale of the Lintou Lass, a tragedy that came over with pioneers in the Qing dynasty.