Yeren

Inscription at the entrance to the "Yeren Cave" in western Hubei Province.

The Yeren (Chinese: 野人; pinyin: yěrén; literally "wild-man"), variously referred to as the Yiren, Yeh Ren, Chinese Wildman, (Chinese: 神农架野人; pinyin: Shénnóngjiàyěrén; literally "The Wildman of Shennongjia"), or Man-Monkey, (Chinese: 人熊; pinyin: Ren Xiong; literally "Man Bear"), is a legendary creature said to be an as yet undiscovered hominid residing in the remote mountainous forested regions of western Hubei.^[1]

Description

Witnesses typically report the creatures to be covered in reddish colored hair.^[2] Some white specimens have also been sighted. Their height is estimated to range from six to eight feet, although some colossal examples allegedly in excess of ten feet tall have been reported. Overall, it is smaller than the American Bigfoot. Like Bigfoot, the yeren is peaceful and will generally quietly walk away when encountering people^[3] in the Zhejiang province.^[4]

Explanations

Some cryptozoologists have drawn a link between the Yeren and the extinct hominid Gigantopithecus, which formerly inhabited the general region.^[2] It has also been suggested that the Yeren is actually a new species of orangutan, one that is ground-dwelling, bipedal and native to mainland Asia instead of Borneo or Sumatra.

It is also thought that the Yeren might just be a legend. The Yeren apparently dwells in a region already rich with superstition and strange phenomena, including an inordinate occurrence of albinism in the local fauna, adding to its mystique. It has been connected with ancient Chinese legends of magical forest ogres and man-like bears.

Most reputable scientists, Chinese and Western, who have studied the Yeren case agree that almost all the physical evidence and sightings claimed by local people are unreliable and often fabricated, and that given the absence of any reliable evidence pointing that the yeren is likely to not exist

In popular culture

• Wildman of China is Monster in My Pocket #119.
• The Chinese Wild Man shows up in John Carpenter's film Big Trouble in Little China.
• Yerens appear as monsters in Iron Lore Entertainment video game Titan Quest. They can be found in Act III(Orient mission) of the game.
• The Syfy channel's show Destination Truth searched for the Yeren in episode 12 of season 3.

See also

• Almas (cryptozoology)
• Bigfoot
• Bukit Timah Monkey Man
• Orang Mawas
• Orang Pendek
• Pangboche Hand
• Wild man
• Yeti
• Yowie

References

1. ^ Frank Dikötter (1997). The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 30–31. ISBN 1850652872. http://books.google.com/books?id=T7AL_qGOBsYC&pg=PA30&dq=Yeren&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "The Yeren". monstrous.com. 2009-11-24. http://cryptozoo.monstrous.com/the_yeren/all_pages.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-02. 
3. ^ http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/leftcoastleaner/yeren.jpg
4. ^ Mysteries of the Unexplained. Reader's Digest Press. 1982. p. 164. )

External links

• Wildmen of China
• Yeren: Chinese Bigfoot Reports
• Yeren