A review by embellishment
Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror by Xueting Christine Ni

4.0

A mixed bag, but I definitely liked more of the stories than not. The editor's intro and notes about each story elevated the collection, so even the stories I wasn't into still had interesting commentary.

Overall positive feelings on 10/14:

The Waking Dream - I'm biased toward sci fi! Feels like a very real potential future.
Immortal Beauty - rooting for the ghost!
The Yin Yang Pot - descriptions of the shop and its guests were very fun, and the emotions of the characters were strong.
Have You Heard of Ancient Glory - really fun playing with perspective and such a spooky (and apparently real?!) idea.
Records of Xiangxi - took a minute to get into this one, but after the first few pages it sucked me in)
The Ghost Wedding - classic fated tragedy
Forbidden Rooms - a great mystery. Feels like it could be set anywhere, not necessarily China.
Ti'Naang - some of the details trying to explain how this could fit into real history felt unnecessary (although possibly would have been more interesting if I had background in the history?), but the idea was solid and I liked the ending.
Huangcun - wasn't quite what I expected -- not sure why the detail of the town he created "coming to life" was important, but it was good at creating a spooky atmosphere.
The Death of Nala - not a unique story, but well done. I'd like to read a longer version! The gender dynamics are felt very strongly, and I always love a story about a mother with complicated feelings toward her child.

Did not care as much for 4 of them:

The Girl in the Rain - execution of the end honestly confused me more than surprised me. Not terrible, but it's not a strong start.
Those Who Walk at Night Walk With Ghosts - felt soooo long and was not scary. Boring prose.
The Shanxiao - weirdly high number of copyediting mistakes on this one -- even the title is misspelled!! -- and it just wasn't interesting.
Night Climb - very short "whoa isn't that a scary image" without much depth imo.