Yeren

The yeren (Chinese: 野人, 'wild man') is a cryptid apeman reported to inhabit remote, mountainous regions of China, most famously in the Shennongjia Forestry District in the Hubei Province.

Sightings of "hairy men" have remained constant since the Warring States Period circa 340 BC through the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), before solidifying into the modern legend of the yeren.

The creature has become an artistic icon of wildness and nature, and was used in the wake of the Cultural Revolution to challenge sexually restrictive and egalitarian ideals, as well as to address deforestation and other environmental issues in China.

Legend has it that its heels face backwards … hunters say that it has no kneesOn account of their "wild" nature, these creatures were often portrayed as lustful, capturing and raping villagers, the latter especially if the victim was female.

The reverse is said for the "wild women" or "wild wives" (Chinese: 野妻; pinyin: Yě qī) or sometimes xingxing, where they would abduct and sling men over their backs, carrying them up the mountain to wed.[3] Her lips had giant bite marks, the area around her genitals was broken open and torn apart [to the point that] all her bones could be seen, and there was more than a pint of blood mixed with white semen on the ground.The exact name "yeren" has typically been used in the mountains of the Shennongjia Forestry District in the Hubei Province, though the earliest written reports of the yeren are from Fang County 90 km (56 mi) north of Shennongjia.

In 1555, during the Qing dynasty, its local newspaper Fangxianzhi published a story about a group of yeren sheltering in nearby mountain caves which preyed on their dogs and chickens.

[5] Testimonies of the alleged creature typically agree the yeren walks upright and stands over 2 m (6 ft) tall; is covered in tawny hair all over the body, especially long at the scalp; and has a face reminiscent of both an ape and a human.

His interest in the topic began when he heard his colleague Wang Zelin's story of an apeman shot dead in 1940 while in the field on behalf of the Yellow River Water Control Committee.

[11] Soviet historian Boris Porshnev suggested these apemen are a relict population of Neanderthals, but Guangnian believed the yeren were far too primitive, more likely a descendant of the giant Chinese ape Gigantopithecus.

As the Mao Era ended on the downswing of the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, the taboo against superstitions diminished, and popular Western works regarding the yeti and the similar North American Bigfoot were translated into Chinese.

[13] In 1977, Zhou Guoxing along with military personnel, zoologists, biologists, and photographers launched a yeren expedition in Shennongjia on behalf of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (though the group size was probably counterproductive, generating too much noise).

[14] Subsequent expeditions comprising scientists, technicians, government officials, and local villagers collected alleged footprints, hair samples, and sightings of the yeren, published in scientific journals, pop science magazines, and newspapers.

[8] In 1981, the China Wildman Research Society formed with the help of the famous Chinese paleoanthropologist Jia Lanpo, and offered a cash reward for a yeren body, ¥5,000 dead and ¥10,000 alive (at the time, $1,750 and $3,500).

[14] Much like Guangnian, the majority of scientists worked to prove these apemen were undiscovered early offshoots of humanity rather than supernatural entities, while a minority maintained they were misidentified ordinary animals.

[22] Following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the government began constricting private organizations and discouraged the ideas and observations of lay peoples (including on scientific matters).

Ascribing such qualities to a normally savage subject makes for easy contrast with "civilized" people with differing values, popular in the midst of the "primitivism" trend of the 1970s and 80s in China, which celebrated "primitive" ethnic minorities.

In Post-Mao China, the yeren became an ideal of humanity in its natural state, untainted by the malices and vices of civilization, especially in reference to the humanitarian crises of the Cultural Revolution.