The Little Girl in Red (Taiwan)

A Taiwanese urban legend that began with a home video of a family outing in Taichung in March 1998, broadcast on a TV paranormal show. A figure in red at the back of the group later became the subject of a 2015 film.

Chinese Wikipedia says the story comes from a video a viewer sent to Shen Chu Gui Mo (神出鬼沒), a paranormal programme on the GTV channel, which broadcast it in 1998. A family filmed their outing on 1 March 1998 at the Fengdongshi rock in the Dakeng scenic area, Beitun District, Taichung. On the tape, behind the line of hikers, walks a small girl in red children's clothes whose face looks like an old woman's. The family sent the tape to the show asking for an explanation. The China Times recalled in 2020 that the story frightened viewers.

The tape set off a public argument. Chinese Wikipedia says some viewers called the girl a mountain spirit and others a vengeful ghost looking for a substitute. Those taking a scientific view said she was simply a hiker from another group who had fallen behind, and that light and shadow on the camcorder made her face look grim. Pan Chien-chih made a similar case, reported by ETtoday in 2015. He pointed out that the footage is poor, shot at noon but under trees in dim light on a low-resolution camera, and that in freeze-frames of the path almost every face looks ghostly.

The story has since been retold on screen. According to English Wikipedia, the legend was adapted as The Tag-Along, a film by director Cheng Wei-hao starring Hsu Wei-ning, which opened on 27 November 2015 in Taiwan. The Tag-Along closed that year's Golden Horse Film Festival. The China Times says the film version also led to further research into the mosina (魔神仔).