韓國都市傳說：香港婆婆

on October 28, 2014 at 10:19 am

In honor of the year’s spookiest day, Halloween, we hereby introduce you to two other Korean urban myths this week, following the ‘fan death ’.

為了向每年最詭異的萬聖節致敬，繼「開電風扇睡覺會死」，這個禮拜我們將再為大家帶來另外兩個韓國都市傳說。

As weird as it might sound, the ‘Hong Kong Grandma’ is a Korean myth, popular in the 90s among children. The name originated from a myth during which a grandma died in a Korean Air flight crash bounded for Hong Kong. She became half cat-faced and half grandma-faced because she shared half of her soul to the dead cat who was on the crashed plane with her.

聽起來有些怪異，但其實「香港婆婆」是韓國九十年代在兒童間十分流行的傳說，傳說一位婆婆在乘搭大韓航空前往香港的航班遇上空難，她與一隻同樣遇難的貓交換了一半靈魂，成了半貓面半人面。

The Hong Kong Grandma has superhuman abilities, such posing the ability to run 100 meters in 10 seconds. She is known to target only young children. Why? There are no specific reasons for this. This myth created a slew of taboos, such as not using the fourth toilet booth, not answering phone calls until the fourth ring, not looking out the window even if someone calls your name and many more.

「香港婆婆」有著超乎常人的能力，能夠在10秒內跑上100米。她的目標只有小朋友，為什麼？暫時還未有原因可以解釋，但已經造成一些傳言，例如不用第4個格廁所、在第4次鈴聲響之前不接電話、有人叫你也不要往窗外看等等。

This myth became widely spread among Korean children in the 90s that some children refused to go to school. This has been even featured on prime time news as triggering social panic. Then how to survive from her? You have to answer in the opposite way for every single question she asks, and add the word ‘Hong Kong’ at the end of your answer.

這傳說開始在兒童間流傳起來，令到一些小朋友拒絕上學，甚至在新聞的黃金時段被播放出來，造成了社會恐慌。要怎樣才可以逃過她的魔掌？很簡單，你只要以相反的答案回答她的問題，並在答案後加上「香港」二字便可。

One explanation for this myth is that it was a stretch of ongoing flight crashes in the 90s. Ironically though, there were no flights headed to Hong Kong on the alleged day of the plane crash, and cats were not allowed on board. Another explanation is that it was a way to make children stay at home to study or to make them return home early and away from dangerous places. This period accordingly matches with when Korea saw an education boom and thus countless accidents of kidnapping and human trafficking were reported.

So if you ever see Korean celebrities shouting ‘you look like a Hong Kong Grandma’ on TV shows, you know what they’re talking about.

不過就有人指因為九十年代發生不少空難才會有這個傳說，但諷刺的是，當時韓國根本沒有前往香港的班機，而且動物也是禁上登機的，而另一解釋就指這是因為當時發生了多起綁架和拐帶事件，才要小朋友留在家溫書或是早些回家，避免逗留用在危險地方，這個傳說才會應運而生。

下次當你在電視節目聽到有人說「你好像香港婆婆！」，你就知道他們都說什麼了。