It used to be cards for fun. Now, it's creepy games.

It used to be ballroom dancing. Now, it's blood and gore.

Yes, a "horror culture" has taken grip in Xi'an campuses.

And here's a typical scene:

The dorm light goes out promptly at 11:30 pm and a busy day of study is over. But it's the beginning of another session - ghost stories.

"I just heard a new creepy story. It happened a few years ago in a classroom on our campus..." comes the opening salvo.

But that's just the bedtime stuff. Other horror genres are more blood-thirsty and just as popular.

"A bag of popcorn and a creepy movie." That's how Liu Li, a junior at the Xi'an Institute of Post and Telecommunications, gets his kicks at weekends.

Many students have seen the more popular horror films, like "A Chinese Ghost Story".

Books that raise goosebumps are a hit, too.

And, of course, there are the PC games with bloody scenes and horrible monsters like "Realms of the Haunting", and "American McGee's Alice".

And if you thought it was just the guys doing it, you'd be labelled sexist. Girls love the stuff as well.

So, why do students like being scared?

"Fear can be a kind of enjoyment," explains Liu. "Horror movies give me a great visual punch. The worst parts of a horror movie are like an electric shock to my heart and can make me scream like a child. It's fun!"

Another Xi'an student Lin Xing has set up a horror website and attests to the fact that fear can be fun.

His friends expressed a great deal of interest and word got around.

"Life sometimes is little bit tepid, and we have to find something interesting and exciting," he said.

Not all students share that enthusiasm. One girl, Li Yalan, says she doesn't dare look at terrible things and thinks that "it's stupid to watch untrue stuff to frighten yourself".

Luo Wenhua, a psychology counsellor at Chengdu University of Technology, said students are just curious about the unknown and have a desire for adventure.

So, "the horror culture can meet those needs, which accounts for its popularity".

Luo also explained that playing games with fear could actually help.

"To believe we have control over situations gives us a feeling of power. One major kind of stress comes from not feeling in control," he said.

So is there any danger here?

Luo said that college students were not likely to try to imitate the violence they saw because they are not children any more. He did caution, however, that, "too much horror will surely not be good".

Now We Know What They Did Last Summer.

(China Daily December 11, 2002)