Taiwanese urban legends: formation, characteristics and dissemination

Abstract

This article is based on the first collection of urban legends (ULs) in Taiwan (2019), with summaries of contemporary legends in Spanish, English, and Chinese. The discussion here revolves around how cultural differences reach such an extreme that they tend to make complex, not only the collection of ULs and their variants, but also their very essence and classification. To this end, social, cultural, and psychosocial factors that intervene in the formation, structure, and belief in ULs in Taiwan will be exposed and analyzed. In addition, the research will expose the idiosyncratic characteristics of Taiwanese culture, which favor the spread and acceptance of contemporary legends as part of the empirical reality.