The Ghost Bride

The Ghost Bride (2013) is the first novel by Malaysian Chinese author Yangsze Choo. The novel bridges multiple genres, including mystery, ghost story, and coming-of-age romance to explore the rich and complicated world of colonial Malacca at the end of the 19th century, the relationship between life and death, and how the afterlife can contain just as many complexities as the living world. Widely praised, the novel was adapted into a Netflix original series in 2020, created by a Malaysian production company and scripted in Malay and Mandarin.

This study references the first edition of the novel, published in 2013.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide reference suicide, self-harm, and drug use.

Plot Summary

In the city of Malacca in British colonial Malaysia in 1893, Li Lan is the only daughter of the once-respected Pan family, which fell upon hard times after smallpox killed Li Lan’s mother and left her father with scars. To help the family financially, Li Lan’s father asks her about becoming a “ghost bride,” a living person who is ceremonially wed to someone who has died. The Lim family, another prominent Chinese family, wants to wed her to their deceased son, Lim Tian Ching. Li Lan is repulsed by this offer. Later, at one of Madam Lim’s Mahjong parties, Li Lan meets a handsome young man whom she assumes is a servant: He is repairing one of the many watches and clocks that fill the mansion. Before she goes home, Madam Lim asks Li Lan for one of her ribbons, secretly intending to offer it to her deceased son to enable his connection with Li Lan. That night, Lim Tian Ching visits Li Lan in her dreams, declaring his intention to court her.

Li Lan attends a performance at the Lim mansion during the Double Seventh Festival, which commemorates a myth of star-crossed lovers. There, Li Lan meets Yan Hong, the eldest daughter of the Lim family, whose mother was the now deceased Second Wife. The handsome servant from before is really Yan Hong’s cousin—and the new heir to the Lim fortune—Tian Bai. At the end of the celebration, Li Lan wins a needle-threading competition. That night, Lim Tian Ching visits her in her dreams again and asks her to marry him. The dream is so vivid it makes Li Lan ill. While recuperating, she receives a piece of batik fabric from Yan Hong as her prize for winning the competition. Folded within the fabric is the same watch that Tian Bai was repairing when they met. Li Lan’s father reveals that she was once betrothed to Tian Bai, but after Lim Tian Ching’s death, this arrangement was overlooked. Li Lan receives another dream visit from Lim Tian Ching, who is frustrated about her feelings for his cousin and threatens to haunt her family. Ill again, Li Lan barely leaves her room until she catches Tian Bai leaving her house, and the two share a tender moment.

Li Lan’s superstitious maid servant, Amah, encourages her to seek out a well-known medium, who gives Li Lan a powder to prevent the dreams. The medium’s concoction is effective, but soon the front door to the Pan house, smeared with pig’s blood, flies open on its own. In another vivid dream, Lim Tian Ching admits that he vandalized the door and that he can exert his influence in the material plane. He also claims Tian Bai murdered him. The next day, Li Lan learns that Tian Bai is betrothed to another woman. Devastated, Li Lan takes an especially strong dose of the medium’s concoction and effectively falls into a coma.

Unable to rejoin her body, Li Lan ventures into the world of spirits. At the Lim mansion, she overhears that Lim Tian Ching may have been poisoned and later learns that Yan Hong is hiding the teacup in her bedchamber. Li Lan takes refuge in a nearby shop house, where she meets another ghost named Fan. Li Lan finds ox-headed demons guarding the entrance to her home; they were sent by Lim Tian Ching to look for her. Old Wong, the Pan family’s cook who can see spirits, agrees to help Li Lan by burning offerings for her but cautions her to rejoin her body quickly. Li Lan finds Tian Bai by following a thread connected to his pocket watch. Li Lan enters his dreams and they share a passionate kiss before the dream dissipates.

Li Lan walks further from town. She spies a strangely dressed man, whom she saw in the medium’s shop and follows him. He meets with one of the ox-headed demons; they are working to uncover some wrongdoing by Lim Tian Ching in the afterlife. The man, named Er Lang, is an official of an afterlife organization that oversees the Courts of Hell. Er Lang decides Li Lan will make a useful spy. He tells her to seek out the Lim family at the Plains of the Dead since he cannot go there himself. He gives her a large, shimmering scale and tells her to blow on the ridged edge if she ever needs his help. The next day, she seeks out Fan, who guides Li Lan through a doorway and across the Plains of the Dead.

In the ghostly version of Malacca, Li Lan runs into a lecherous old man who asks her many intrusive questions. She visits her ancestral home, hoping to find her mother. Instead, Li Lan meets the Third Concubine of her grandfather, who reveals that she was once the lover of Lim Tian Ching’s father, but he rejected her in hopes of marrying Li Lan’s mother. The Third Concubine fell to her death while trying to push Li Lan’s mother down the stairs, then made a pact with a demon in the afterlife for the fatal plague of smallpox to descend on the household. Once Li Lan’s mother died and learned what the Third Concubine had done, she took up residence in the Lim’s ancestral home.

Li Lan finds the Lim estate and joins the household staff. Auntie Three, a kind older spirit, warns Li Lan not to get on the bad side of the Second Wife, whom Li Lan suspects is her mother. One night, Li Lan is recognized by a dinner guest, the same old man who asked her probing questions. His name is Master Awyoung, and he convinces the Lim family to imprison Li Lan. Li Lan calls Er Lang with the scale, and he materializes and helps her escape. Er Lang decides she should stay to find concrete evidence of the connection between the Lim family and Courts of Hell. Li Lan explores Master Awyoung’s chambers but has to hide when Second Wife appears. Master Awyoung arrives, and Li Lan overhears that they are engaged in an affair and that Master Awyoung bribes one of the Nine Judges of Hell in exchange for privileges in the Plains of the Dead. Lim Tian Ching is their messenger, and, in exchange, Li Lan will be his reward. Auntie Three enters to deliver a message. She sneaks Li Lan out of the room, and they make a plan to help Li Lan escape the Lim estate once she finishes her mission for Er Lang.

Li Lan spies on Lim Tian Ching’s great-uncle and glimpses a letter that incriminates the sixth judge of the Courts of Hell. She steals the letter but she is caught while escaping and faints from fear. She awakens in Lim Tian Ching’s chamber; he intends to proceed with their marriage. Li Lan calls out to Er Lang again, and he creates a distraction to enable her escape. Li Lan runs to Auntie Three, who reveals that she is in fact Li Lan’s mother. When she learned of the Third Concubine’s curse, she traded her youth to ensure that Li Lan did not succumb to smallpox. Li Lan begs her mother to come with her, but she says she would only slow Li Lan down. Li Lan is journeying back across the Plains of the Dead when an injured Er Lang falls to the earth in front of her, followed by monstrous birds sent to stop Li Lan. Er Lang reveals his true dragon form, taking to the sky to fight the birds. The birds overtake him and Li Lan assumes he is dead. Fan guides Li Lan back to the living world, but tricks Li Lan and leaves her at a random location instead of Malacca.

On her journey back to the city, Li Lan enters Tian Bai’s dreams again. He reveals that he is soon to be married and that she is the bride. Li Lan senses something is wrong and rushes home to discover that Fan took over her body and is now masquerading as Li Lan. Li Lan tells Old Wong about the impostor. He promises to try to inform Amah. Li Lan’s spirit grows weaker. She calls out to Er Lang who, surprisingly appears. Er Lang breathes some of his qi, or life force, into Li Lan to save her, and they share a passionate moment of connection. When Li Lan confronts Fan, an ox-headed demon appears, saying he seeks the daughter of the Pan family. Amah uses a spell paper to cast out Fan’s spirit, and the ox-headed demon takes her away. Li Lan reunites with her body at last.

Li Lan visits the Lim household, intending to ask Yan Hong about Lim Tian Ching’s death and her possession of his teacup. Yan Hong reveals how awful Lim Tian Ching was to her and expresses that it wouldn’t have been terrible if she had killed him. Madam Lim overhears their conversation and takes it as a confession. She pushes Yan Hong into an old well. Li Lan tries to catch Yan Hong and is pulled into the well, too. Li Lan helps Yan Hong escape, but becomes trapped herself. She calls out to Er Lang, who jumps down to the bottom of the well. They bicker and share another passionate kiss before he carries her out. He tells her that, in taking his qi, she is forever changed and will live a very long life. Li Lan wants to be with him, but Er Lang cautions her that life with him would be difficult. He says he will return for her final decision in two weeks.

Tian Bai asks Li Lan if, given these difficult circumstances, they can postpone their wedding. Some days later, Li Lan receives Tian Bai’s uncle and Lim Tian Ching’s father, Lim Teck Kiong, as a visitor. He offers to send her to England for an education. Li Lan suspects that he wants to indefinitely postpone her marriage into his family since she knows their secrets. She also visits Yan Hong, who admits she accidentally killed Lim Tian Ching; she had only intended to make him ill. Li Lan weighs the options before her and informs the reader that she is going to choose to spend the rest of her life with Er Lang.