The Ghost of Hoa Family, Vietnam

The Ghost of Hoa Family-Hui bon hoa was moved to Saigon from China in search of work. He started working in a pawn shop and learnt French so that he can build better business relations with the French. He started his own real estate business and soon became one of the biggest and wealthiest merchants in the area. He had three sons who came back to help his father in the business and a daughter named Lan whom he loved and treasured.

Front view

Marufish

Unfortunately, the daughter contracted leprosy which had no cure at that time. The disease can spread easily and the patient has to be isolated. The disease was considered more of a curse by the people at that time and due to the Hoa’s family influence and social status they could not let society get wind of this. As a result the daughter was kept locked in a private room and the maids went there day and night to give her food. The Hoa family even prepared a fake funeral for her daughter and it was told that she died from an illness so that nobody says anything about her missing from the social gatherings. The daughter used to cry from loneliness and people used to hear her cry thinking that it was the ghost of the dead daughter.

Hoa family house

Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên

The daughter was ultimately driven to insanity because of the loneliness and she committed suicide. Hui bon hoa was devastated but he couldn’t bury her daughter outside now, so he made a cement coffin inside the room and was buried there. Due to his love for the daughter he couldn’t come to the terms with her death and still had the maids bring her food everyday.

On the one year anniversary of her death the maids saw something terrifying. When they came to pick up the rice plates, they saw that the rice was half eaten and the daughter was sitting on top of the coffin. She screamed and ran to get others. The family came and witnessed the whole event with their own eyes. Later the daughter was buried outside privately. Since that time, the daughter has been said to roam the halls of the house. People even saw shadows moving in the windows and heard the crying of a girl.

The house has now been converted into the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts museum. People visit the place to know more about historical events and facts but they leave with more than just historical facts.

Fine arts museum

Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên