Asian vampires in Vampire: the Masquerade have been getting an unofficial facelift

Take a bite out of literary vampiric lore and you may think of the classic Bram Stoker villain: dark-haired, nocturnal Europeans with a thirst for human blood. But while tabletop RPG Vampire: The Masquerade has largely driven the stake through the heart of this archetype, the series has not always done this so tastefully. One example: the Kuei-jin, the so-called Asian vampires of its gothic-punk universe, as this clan is referred to by the studio and the series’ very own fans.

For some fans, the Anglocentrism was strikingly obvious – it’s in the clan’s very name. A portmanteau of the Chinese word for ghost (“Gui”), and the Japanese word for people (“Jin”), Kuei-jin makes little sense in either language. That’s why some see Kindred of the East, the sourcebook the Kuei-jin originated from, as tinged with orientalism. Hsienfan, the writer behind a series of unofficial Vampire fan books, told me they believe “the name Kuei-jin is ridiculous.” But rather than dismiss the sourcebook entirely, they decided to do something about it. “That [name] immediately changed in my books; I called them The Hungry Dead.”