Question Crystal Nuclei in Zombies....how did this trope even start???

I didn’t realize that China had its own zombie internet mythos before I started reading web novels and while I find their novels entertaining, I’m also so curious: how did this trope with the crystal nuclei/superpowered humans start? Is there a Western zombie show that did this that I’m not aware of, or was it a spontanous thing one author did that others began to co-op into their own work?

It’s just such a bizarre outcropping of classic zombie mythos and I can’t find any resources on the English internet to help me lmao it just keeps on telling me about jiangshi.

 

It could be a combination of typical Western zombie story elements and xianxia story elements. Often, there are magical beasts or something similar, which have crystal nuclei (or something to that effect) which will help in people's cultivation in xianxia. If you wanted to combine the exciting action of a xianxia (so it's not just guns against the zombies) along with the idea of characters becoming stronger, it seems clear to me that this element could easily be added into zombie stories.

This is just my guess though. Perhaps someone else knows how it actually started.

 

I believe it came from the zombie ants which parasites from fungus use to control it victims and it is hard to scale fungus dangerousness by looks compared to a rock type where you can separate them by gem characteristics

 

IT's this. Chinese writers are almost annoyingly one track minded and they follow their own tropes more religiously than either Japan or America.

Almost all of their stories HAVE to have cultivation and this cultivation almost always has to involve some kind of core harvested from the monsters.

 

Sounds like something made up just so zombies would have something to loot. Thanks to RPGs we're all used to the idea that the reward for killing monsters is loot and level-ups, but what kind of loot can you get from a rotting corpse? So they make up a nucleus or something similar just so there's something valuable in a zombie corpse to loot, and if the nucleus can be used in cultivation somehow you can have loot and level-ups without turning the story into a litRPG.

 

To each their myth and jiangshi isn't exactly a zombie and more like a combination of both vampires and zombies, besides it seems it is purely a chinese myth and started from the Qing dynasty (according to google ) .
Besides the more the better, let the fantasy continue why bother

 

As the 1st reply said. Made up stuff just borrowing their own trope.

 

I've only read one novel that had that and that was rebirth of mc so this being a trope is kinda surprising.

 

To be fair I seem to notice it most in quick transmigration novels during their obligatory zombie arc
All the replies on this thread seem pretty reasonable haha and I guess it got incorporated into a lot of similar novels over time as authors wondered how to spice up their zombie arc.

 

It's in Dominion's End, The Reborn Otaku's code of conduct in the Apocalypse (something like this), and other BL apocalypse/zombie novels

 

I actually know the second one! But the MC kept thinking that he was going to be the top, those misunderstandings make me cringe so I dropped it (there was also the storyline itself not being interesting~)

 

Like everybody else, i have to agree with this one. there's always cultivation even when it seems like there isnt, it's just hidden outside of story view.

 

I’ve always wondered about that myself, along with a few other tropes that seem to be only in Chinese fiction. What people have been saying makes sense to me. Glad that that’s one mystery cleared up.

 

Somehow, I'm reminded of Kabaneri of the Iron fortress

 

There are two explanations I could think of.
1) From xianxia genre. The demonic beasts would usually have Qi Core or something along those lines. This would help MC and the world to grow as the plot progressed. As time passed, MC would get stronger and the enemies would also become stronger as well.
2) From Litrpg. As you killed a monster, you would gain exp and sometimes items. Exp could be used in improving stats and items would be used as weapons and tools.

 

jiangshi = vampire

nothing to do with zombies and the jiangshi myths/legends/folktales originate way back into the ming dynasty.

but while western vampires are handsome, sparkes in the daylight and suck blood, chinese jiangshi are hopping dead bodies

however, many prominent cn filmakers have introduced their own spin on the modern jiangshi, but they're still not the western vampires that is superman with a thirst for blood

 

Even better , anymore ?