Yeren (Chinese Wildman)

The yeren, which means wild man in Chinese, is a legendary ape-like creature said to live in remote mountain forests of China. It is most famous in the Shennongjia Forestry District in Hubei Province. Nobody has ever shown that it is real.

Stories of hairy wild men in China go back to about 340 BCE. After 1976 the Chinese Academy of Sciences sent large expeditions to check reports, but every hair, footprint and body part they gathered came from known animals such as bears, monkeys and gibbons. The yeren has become a symbol of wild nature in China, and it is sometimes used to talk about protecting forests.

The legend

Chinese writings and folk tales have described wild men for thousands of years. Yeren are usually described as strong, fast, hairy and living in mountain caves. Scientific interest in ape-men rose in the 1950s and 1960s, partly because of excitement about Bigfoot and the yeti. Some people guessed the yeren might be a far-off human relative, such as Gigantopithecus, a giant ape of the past.

What the evidence shows

After 1976, scientists with many local volunteers searched the forests and collected evidence. All the proof pointed to ordinary animals, and scientific interest faded by the late 1980s. Some people still search today, but no serious scientific institution accepts the yeren as real. The Shennongjia forests are a World Heritage area and really are home to a rare primate, the golden snub-nosed monkey.

On the globe

The model shows the legendary yeren in the forest, as the legend describes it.