FIELD FILE · YERENHOMINIDREGIONAL LEGEND

Yeren

Also known as Chinese Wildman, Wild Man of Shennongjia, Maoren (“hairy man”), Shennongjia Wildman

China’s red-haired “wildman” of the Shennongjia forests in Hubei, the subject of state-backed expeditions since a famous roadside sighting in 1976.

The yeren (野人, literally “wild man”) is a tall, upright, reddish-haired creature said to live in the mountain forests of central China, above all in Shennongjia, a rugged, thinly populated district in north-western Hubei. Stories of hairy forest people are very old in China: scholars point to the “mountain spirit” of Qu Yuan’s Nine Songs (4th–3rd century BCE), to creatures such as the feifei and xingxing in early encyclopaedias, and to a 1555 gazetteer of Fang County that complained of wild men raiding dogs and chickens.

The modern legend took shape in the 1970s. Before dawn one morning in May 1976, a jeep carrying five local Communist Party leaders back to Songbai through Shennongjia almost ran into a tall, red-furred figure on the road. Several men jumped out and tried to surround it before it escaped into the undergrowth, and one of the passengers, Chen Liansheng, later reported finding reddish hair at the spot. His report to the Chinese Academy of Sciences set off what historians call China’s “yeren fever”.

In 1977 a search party of more than a hundred people – Academy scientists, Wuhan University staff and soldiers – combed the forests for months. They brought back hair, droppings, footprint casts and what they described as nests, but nothing conclusive. Through the late 1970s and 1980s further expeditions were mounted, rewards were offered for a specimen, and a national wildman research association was founded; scientific enthusiasm faded as the searches kept coming back empty-handed.

The yeren never vanished from public life, however. Locals have continued to report encounters – one tally counts about 200 in the forty years after 1976 – and amateur groups such as the Hubei Wild-men Investigation Institute, founded in 2009 by the veteran searcher Wang Shancai, still hope to capture one on camera. Meanwhile Shennongjia itself has become a nature reserve and, in 2016, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the wildman is part of how the region sells its wilderness to visitors.

Type

Hominid

Status

Regional legend

First reported

1976

Best-known location

Shennongjia Forestry District, Hubei, China

Also called

Chinese Wildman, Wild Man of Shennongjia, Maoren (“hairy man”), Shennongjia Wildman

Reported in

China

What witnesses describe

Typically described as about as tall as a tall man or taller, walking upright on two legs and covered in reddish-brown or chestnut hair, with long arms, a heavy brow and large feet. Witnesses often describe it as shy, fast-moving and silent, fleeing into the brush when approached; a few accounts speak of females with young.

Where and when it’s seen

Steep, densely forested mountains of the Shennongjia area and neighbouring Fang County in western Hubei, with scattered reports from other provinces, including Yunnan in the south-west. Sightings are often reported along remote roads and trails at dusk or before dawn.

Notable sightings

1. 1555A Ming gazetteer’s wild men Fang County, Hubei

   The Fangxian Zhi, a local gazetteer, recorded that wild men in the mountains carried off dogs and chickens. Writers on the yeren often cite it as an early regional record.

2. May 1974A farmer’s report sparks a local search Fang County, Hubei

   A farmer’s report of meeting a hairy man prompted former archaeologist Wang Shancai to lead a 30-member local investigation, collecting testimony from villagers. After about two months Wang was ordered to step down and the probe ended.

3. May 1976The jeep encounter Road through Shennongjia, Hubei

   Five local cadres travelling before dawn saw a tall, red-furred creature walking on two legs. Several tried to surround it but it fled; reddish hairs were later collected from the scene and the sighting was reported to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

4. 1977The great Shennongjia expedition Shennongjia, Hubei

   A state-organised team of more than 100 people spent months searching. It collected hair, droppings, footprint casts and apparent nests, but no specimen or clear photograph.

5. 2008A reserve official’s sighting Shennongjia National Nature Reserve, Hubei

   Luo Yongbin, an administrator at the nature reserve, said he had seen a female wildman with a young one. Critics accused him of seeking publicity, and the claim drew heavy scepticism online.

What could explain it?

• Supposed yeren remains collected over the decades have been identified as belonging to known animals such as bears, macaques, goral, serow – and humans.
• Asian black bears, which can stand upright, and the region’s golden snub-nosed monkeys and macaques are frequently suggested as sources of sightings.
• In 1962 the palaeoanthropologist Wu Rukang investigated wildman reports in Yunnan and attributed them to misidentified gibbons.
• Historians note that the 1970s–80s “yeren fever” was shaped by politics and popular science, and that hair, casts and footprints have never yielded a confirmed unknown primate.
• Some ancient Chinese texts describing hairy men may refer to apes, gibbons or orangutan-like animals known through trade, rather than to an undiscovered hominid.

Legend, culture and tourism

The yeren is woven into the identity of Shennongjia, a district named after the legendary emperor Shennong and famous for its biodiversity. The wildman turns up in local storytelling, tourist publicity, Chinese films and popular-science magazines. It also has a place in the history of Chinese science as one of the few cryptids to receive sustained, state-backed expeditions.

Places to visit

Where it’s reported

China Hubei

Yeren in the news

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First published October 13, 2026 · Updated October 14, 2026