This Paranormal Life - #408 The Yeren - China’s Most Wanted Cryptid

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

China is home to innumerable paranormal entities, from ghosts and ancient spirits to cryptids and UFO encounters, but one entity stands out in notoriety far beyond the others — The Yeren. The Yeren has been sighted and discussed in texts for thousands of years, but many people in modern times believe it to be mostly legend. But if that’s the case, why did the Chinese Communist Party spend millions of dollars in the 1970s trying to track down and then cover up the existence of the Yeren? This is the the rarely heard story of a cryptid finding itself at the centre of a political struggle — China’s most wanted cryptid.Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comEdited by Philip ShackladyResearch by Ewen Friers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are orbs ghosts or tiny UFOs? Is there such thing as a reverse centaur? A horse with the legs of a man? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello and welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday we investigate a different paranormal tale,

deciding by the end of that episode whether we think it's real or not. As always, you are joined by me, Mr. Kit Grimm-Albena, number one paranormal investigator in the world and then closely followed by my... Tied only by your co-host. Number two, Mr. Rory Bowers. How you doing, Rory dude? How you doing, my friend? Number two, as in like the same way that two detectives working together, you have to have

one detective and two detectives, both equally reputable detectives. Like Sherlock and Watson. Yeah, exactly. My dear Watson. Yeah, gotcha there, you little bastard. Whenever you're a bastard. Where's that going from us, little left field? a little faster. You know, get an Ivan Osten this podcast for a long time. Who hosted it first?

Oh shit. I guess it was me. So I was probably the number first of the number one paranormal investigator. And then kit was brought on as kind of a number two, just to mix things up every week, you want to be number one. Oh, it's no problem by me. Sometimes Sherlock lets Watson do a case. I'm gonna-

And that's what's happening today. I'm gonna pull a Steve Jobs. If you're number one, I'm zero. That's what I actually had to do. I'm before you. You know that I had to do that with my Halo 3 gaming clan. Yeah.

Where we were called the Bro Clan, very cool obviously. And then one day when I was out at work what they would do is number themselves from one to four I was sneaky to do it while you were away yeah exactly they knew that I would protest if I wasn't bro one so I had to change my name to bro zero can work out who's a bigger douchebag I don't know what I expected from bro clan either but no one was winning in that situation for you guys to be douchebags. Yeah. You know, it kind of checks out.

We are here for this paranormal life. Rory, we talk a lot, Rory, don't we, about secret government departments trying to control the paranormal. Mm-hmm. Whether that be the CIA covering up a psychic program, the FBI shutting down a UFO investigation, or TGI Friday stopping Rory from ordering double lunch. There's always a three letter organisation trying to stop this paranormal life. But for whatever reason, this is usually in America, I think because we speak English. But not today. Today we look at a cryptid, one very far from America and the UK,

but that got in big trouble with the authorities. We're going to find out what that cryptid is. The audience already knows, obviously, because they clicked on the episode and the title of the episode gave it away, but Rory doesn't know. So ladies and gentlemen, enjoy that. Number two doesn't know what the f*** is going on today. Alright. Honestly, if we're being real, number three,

because Phil joined the company, so he demoted Rory a couple spots. That's not fair at all. The order of the company goes, one, Cammie for some reason, two, Kit, the donkey lady crept in there somehow, Phil Rory. If it's order of kind of importance to the company in terms of productivity, it would probably be Phil the coffee machine, the office, and then me and Kit are somewhere at the bottom.

Right. Rory, we are gonna dive into today's paranormal tale right after a couple of words from today's sponsors with a reminder, every single episode of this paranormal life is available ad free right now on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life links in the description of the podcast episode. Or if you're watching on YouTube, click that description. MFers.

Today's case begins in the Shenanjia Forest in Hubei province, China. Ooh, very cool. It's May 1976, and after a long day of meetings, five government officials are driving back to the mountain town of Songhai. Deputy Director of the local party office, Chen Lianchen, doses in the back seat. At around 1am, he's jolted awake. The car shudders to an abrupt stop. We had almost

fallen asleep when the Jeep made a turn and our driver Mr. Kai yelled out, you guys look over there it's an animal. He braked hard in front of it, very close within one meter. It was a peculiar creature, neither a monkey nor a bear. It was on the roadside focusing its eyes on us. In the lamplight we saw brown and red hair grown all over its body. The hairs in its arms were very long. It had two muscular forearms, its thighs as thick as tree trunks. It walked slowly, seemingly pregnant. Oh, it had fat hips, but no tail. The Enchant didn't miss a beat here. We drove straight at it. Though they drove at it, the creature, quote, leaped nimbly aside. We believe that it must be one of the savages that the

locals warned us about. It was the creature's face that disturbed them most of all. Neither human nor animal, something frighteningly hybrid. They said its eyes didn't reflect any light. They were completely black. At this point, three of the men got out of the car, picked up rocks and started throwing them at the creature. Why? Why? Three of the men got out of the car, picked up rocks and started throwing them at the creature. Mr. Kai, of course, stayed in the car and flashed the lights at it and honked the horn to scare it away. Lien Shen described then how it waddled over with a hunched back to a verge to get away,

then fell over a few times trying to climb over it and eventually jumped into the trees and out of sight. It's drunk! It's drunk and pregnant! Yeah, you shouldn't be drinking. Yeah. Rory, this bizarre sighting would change cryptozoology in China forever, in part because of the importance of the men involved. I think if this had just been, you know, some blokes coming back from the pub, hopefully with Mr. Cai as the designated driver, and this had happened, maybe it all just would have been swept under the rug. But these were government officials, and as soon as they could, they urgently telegrammed everything that just happened to both the Xinhua news agency and the China

Science Academy. So news of this sighting spread quite quickly. Wow. Now, after the sighting, the creature was gone and the men got back in the car. But they were shocked by what they'd seen. What was it? It can have been a bear, or an ape, or a bloke. So what was it? Something else? Something much rarer? Well for one, Li Enshan didn't want to forget about it, so the next day he returned to the scene of the crime. And to his surprise, he found some red-brown hairs on the ground where the beast had been. Don't pretend to care about it now. Don't pretend to want to get to the bottom of this. You tried

to hit it with a car and you tried to stone it to death. There was no way they included all those details when they were calling the scientists. When they were like, we think we undiscovered some kind of cryptid, a creature unknown to science. And they were like, it was like, Oh my God, what did you do? Did you manage to get a photograph? Kind of, kind of instead of taking, um, we hit it with rocks.

We did our own kind of little experiment to see how fast it could jump out of the way of a moving Jeep. It was a real dumb piece of shit too, kept falling over. They're like, wow, this sounds like it's hurt. Utterly groundbreaking. I think if you were able to track this thing down, we'd probably name the creature after you. Oh shit, really?

Oh, I'll get a taxi right back. Honestly. Hey boys, get? Oh, I'll get a taxi right back, honestly. Hey boys, get the stones! We go now. He sent off those hares for scientific evaluation. This set off a chain reaction of events that would result in not one, but three full-scale Chinese government expeditions

into the area to find this monster. Oh yeah. But Rory, why would the government spend an estimated 11 million yuan hunting for a cryptid based on a single encounter? Is that a real question? I don't know. No idea. Doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah it doesn't. It's not actually the type of thing we normally see. There's such little value in even finding the creature if it is real. So spending that amount of money hunting it seems kind of silly. It's the same reason why the US government doesn't have a Bigfoot hunting project.

Because they're like, if we spent $2 billion finding the thing, we don't get anything out of it when he's caught. Unless you parade him around like King Kong and sell tickets. Rory, excellent point, even if you didn't mean it to be excellent. All my points are excellent. As number one. As number two. You're right. It's worth, frankly, piss all alive. So that must mean it leaves only one option.

They want this thing dead. That was the opposite. I said it had value alive. No you didn't. I did. You said unless we start parading it around like King Kong. What's the value of it's dead? Because they don't want this thing to exist anymore.

Okay. Why? Why does it make any sense? Welcome to China 1976 Rory. Not a lot makes sense. Hey, all I'm gonna say is, bunch of Chinese guys out in the forest hunting monsters. I need to learn what the Mandarin is for Dad Squad. Right. We need like a remix of the Dad Squad theme song.

This is like a regular dad squad probably with more cigarettes I'll be honest. My brother, he does a lot of work in China, speaks some Chinese. I need him to maybe translate the lyrics to the song so we can have a version for covering this story. We should at least at this point with technology be able to insert here an AI generated voice singing the song. A terrible translation. Rory, this, this is what makes this case so fascinating. It's because we have left the logic that we are now used to in the West, or should I say lack of logic, concerning paranormal policy.

And we are now deep in Mao Zedong's China. It's 1976 and Mao still rules China. And during his long reign, he waged an all outout war on the paranormal. Of course, not just the paranormal, but all unexplained and superstitious beliefs. The government literally went around destroying historic locations and artifacts, which were proof of the country's more ancient and mysterious origins. Hmm, I didn't know that.

It was part of a sweeping massive policy that I guess would have been, in biblical terms, this would have been like when they wrote the New Testament. They were like, everyone round up all the Old Testaments. We gotta see them real quick. And then they put them on a big fire. Yeah. They wanted to make sure the new story of China

was the only story. So I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is exciting. We are dealing with the Chinese MIBs. Right. This is like if instead of seeing the Dublin Gorilla Man, you had seen the Beijing Gorilla Man. Oh god, I don't want to think about that. The Dublin one was scary enough.

You would have had 12 agents knocking on your door with a neuralyzer asking you to kindly point them in the direction of the Gorilla Man. Now time to play the Chinese version of the Dublin Gorilla Man rap. All of our songs are getting remixes. The songs are just way better. It's just with a kind of like beautiful sheen of K-pop style production. But it is mad isn't it? As I say, just because we speak English, we focus so just laser focused on the American political machine and the way it handles paranormal things. And sometimes we dip our toes into, you know, the British system with the Rendlesham forest incident,

things like that. But I guess to be expected and exciting to know that the same kind of repression, even if it's a little different, was happening in China too. Well, the repression of the paranormal that happens in our country and America, kind of all over the West, is really just UFOs and aliens. They're not trying to repress cryptids. They're like, go out, hunt for them them if you can find them that's cool we really don't care. Same with ghosts and all that kind of stuff. The government really doesn't care about that. It's more UFOs and the drones and the weird space stuff. So I think this is interesting from the perspective of you know the Chinese government also caring about cryptids. Yeah. That's really interesting.

It's a good point. Yeah, you never really think why that is. Why do they not like UFOs? And I guess it's because there's a sense that they want to control the release of information. That's why people have always been conspiracy theorists. Because the government is so tight-lipped about UFOs, we assume they know more than we do.

But in China, their motives were utterly, utterly different. But you make a good point. Is it really, even in China, all of the paranormal they care about? Because this strange sighting in 1976 wasn't important just because it was paranormal. If someone had seen a UFO, I don't know if it would have got the same attention. It's because this sighting was of the cryptid of China, the Yeren. Oh, the Yeren translates to wild man and it's sometimes called China's Bigfoot. Oh, very cool. Okay. Really don't like how much he's being referred to as a man, just a guy, just a human. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Right, we're about to hear some stories through the ages of the Yeren.

And maybe you can apply your modern woke brain, uh, woke use positively here, um, to maybe decide whether you think this is indeed man or beast. Okay. That should be a very clear distinction. Because I'm kind of worried we're going to

hear interviews with people who have witnessed them of worried we're going to hear interviews with people who have witnessed them. And we're going to be like, was he tall? Kind of. Five nine. It's like, oh, that's really not that tall. What was he wearing? Oh, it was crazy.

He was wearing like these kind of Levi's that I've never seen before. So jeans? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like these jeans weren't skinny or baggy. They were straight jeans then. Normal jeans. His baseball cap was on backwards.

So a hat. He was barely wearing shoes. I mean, these things were flipping and flopping all around. But flip flops! His fur like a fleece. A fleece. His fur said North Face. The beast's slogan was written on his back. It said Nike just do it.

So we beat him to death with a stick. Like Bigfoot, tales of the Yeren's existence go back centuries. The first written description of the Yiren is in a poem from 300 BC, over 2000 years ago. Don't love this. Then during the Tang dynasty, around 600 CE, writer Duan Chengxi wrote about a terrifying group of hairy men who climbed the walls of his city. He said, quote, it's shape is like that of an ape. It uses human speech. Oh no, it's a man.

It's clearly human. It can foretell life and death. Its blood can dye things dark purple. Okay. Not quite a man. And his hair can be used to make wigs. That is very much a man. That is a man. For sure.

Human wings? Legend has it, get this, that it's heels face backwards. Ooh. Alright. Don't all heels face backwards. Yeah, wait what? I think they mean the wrong way around is what I'm reading out. A heel? They mean the feet?

The back of your feet. Okay. Hunters say that it has no knees, and the stories simply keep going through history. I need a picture. In 15, we're getting there. And it better not be just a guy. I swear to Christ if it's just a man,

a naked man with no knees and backwards heels. In 1555, a newspaper described the Yeren Ape Man living in the caves of Sheninjia, 1555, a newspaper described the Yeren Ape Man, living in the caves of Sheninjia, eating the local people's dogs and chickens. Yeah, look, I think you've earned it at this point. Let's take a look at these things. Please. There's a wide variety of images here.

I'm just gonna warn you straight up. Okay, here's a couple to get you started, and depending on your reaction, I may release more images to you. Oh, all right Holy... hell. Alright, I can see why they're saying this thing is a cryptid. Because it's hair. It's just the hair. That's what's making this thing a cryptid and not a human, is the amount of hair on its body.

We are not even seeing skin. It is a fluffy guy. If this is a guy, he accidentally took all the the hims.com hair growth capsules in one day But it is also you know when we say it's kind of like Bigfoot It really isn't because there's no part of this body that is like I don't know Well, it's not that big no there's actually no frame of reference here So it's hard to say but it doesn't look muscular or large. Yeah.

He's got like a gamer hunch. Like he works at a desk. He works at a call center. He doesn't look like he works at CEX. He actually does. In one of the pictures, he's literally pulling the bangs out of his face. It's like, what's up dude? Yeah.

It literally just looks like a very hairy surfer hippie guy. Yeah, for sure it's a man. For sure, I think these are humans. Well, sorry, sorry. The weirdest thing you just said earlier was that he lives in the woods and he's chicken. To be completely clear though, long, long hair like a shaggygy dog all over every inch of its body. As I said the hair is the thing that is turning this into a cryptid.

Okay I'm going to release more images too. Okay when were these drawn? One is essentially just kind of a Bigfoot yeti style drawing and then what is the other one? The other one is a lot older, you'll notice. The other one says 1596. This is just a naked guy holding the hands of a child. This raises very different questions. Okay, alright, wait. But yeah. Cool it. Why does this one have a mustache too? He has a beard and a goatee.

I noticed under this, this says, this is depiction of a mountain, we just threw the evidence away. It feels like a crime for me to have that. Royce. Yeah, this one says depiction of a mountain wild man from 1596. So.

For sure stop saying man when we talk about it. Could be, could be mixed up with the concept of the Yeren. Yeah, because it kind of feels... Yeah, call him a Yeren, Phil. Feels like Yeren is the scary Bigfoot thing. Wildman is just a guy who never went to school. Yeah, yeah. He just talks like, he just never learned to speak.

A feral human, yeah. Yeah, because it was the medieval times. Yeah. Look, crazy, crazy shit. Okay, so look, sightings and reports of this creature are kind of endless throughout history. We could just keep listing 1896, the year 500 BC, but in this paranormal life we want ideally evidence and ideally fairly modern evidence. Yeah. This is where Mao's war on the paranormal was an issue because they were actively suppressing people's sightings of the paranormal for decades and beliefs in these cryptids. But I mentioned earlier that our first story took place in 1976.

And the timing was poetic. Because Mao died in September that year. Ending his reign of China. Also ending the war on the paranormal. Open the cages! Let them out! We've got like nine of these guys. It's like in a movie when the power grid goes down and just the prison doors open.

Why does that happen in movies, by the way? Don't make that a feature of the power grid. Is it if the power grid goes down, the doors open. Just use a regular lock and key. And the prison guards are like, oh, eh, oh. Guys, guys, guys, I think there's been a big misunderstanding. Rory, you joke that the prisons opened up and all hell broke loose.

This period is actually what historians now call Yeren Fever. Which from what I can gather was China's brat Summer, except they worshipped a large hairy human hybrid instead of Charlie XCX. Sightings and chatter about Yeren and other cryptids flooded the culture. Now one testimony about the Yeren that caused a lot of interest came out shortly after this period in 1981 from an ex-soldier turned hunter, Yuan Yuhao. He was interviewed for China Today, how on a hunting trip with a fellow outdoorsman, they, quote, took the dogs out to hunt while on an expedition. When I walked down 500 meters from the hill, the two dogs started barking. I climbed back to the hillside to get a better view. Then I saw it. This

brownish-red human-like animal. God, stop saying that. That could walk upright and move very fast. Hey, you are one to talk. You talk about the – you'll never shut up about the Dublin Gorilla Man, the Dublin Gorilla Guy. That's true. Yeah, I never called him that. The Dublin Gorilla Fella. Yeah, that's just the name that I gave him. He did not resemble a man in any capacity.

Right, but you understand. I couldn't use his hair to make human wigs. He didn't speak in a human, didn't they say some of them just speak in English? Or Chinese? Yep. They can talk like humans? They spoke English. Yeah.

I'm worried. I'm worried for the wild men of China. This thing could move very, very fast. And it could walk, it could run. You gotta remember... It had a bicycle at one point. Listening to an iPod? You got to remember Yuan Yuhao was in the army. So he didn't miss a frigging beat. He said quote, I locked and loaded my gun and aim to shoot.

But thankfully for the Yeren, Yuhao's partner intervened, grabbed the gun like in a movie and said, It's a man. Don't shoot. He said, he said you can't shoot if you shoot and hit a person instead of a Yeren, what are we gonna do? Oh my God. Maybe sense prevailed. Not today, not today it didn't.

But Yuan said, the creature escaped. The creature got into its 93 Toyota and escaped to live another day. This is wild. His friend grabbed the gun and said, he's wearing shorts. He's wearing shorts, Yuan. That's your mother-in-law. Don't shoot.

But Yuan did notice before it left that it was able to stand well above the two meter tall bamboo field it was running through. Why does, why is Yeren fever starting to feel a little bit like the Salem witch trials? Where anyone that kind of gets in your way or starts to piss you off is looking a little furry to you. Yeah, is this a peach fuzz on that little chin of yours? Your chinny chin chin? I can swear you don't have any knees, partner. Yeah, this seems dangerous. Everyone's doing that thing to each other that you did in school as a little kid where people come up behind you and like poke the back of your knees to make your legs buckle.

Just making sure you got some knees there, stranger. It also sounds like if you did just kill a human, you could kind of just glue some fur to them and claim that it was a Yeren and people would be fine with it. Yeah, I like what you're saying. No, I'm saying that was a bad thing. Call your mother-in-law a Yeren, that's interesting. Okay, Rory, not super about Yuan's story,

but another story from the late 70s was written about in a newspaper in the neighboring Xian province quote an unnamed cow herder in Hubei's Feng Shan County who says that in 1979 a Yeren grabbed his wrist and wouldn't let go for what must have been 30 excruciating minutes that's so much time the scariest bit of all Roryory, this is f***ed up. The man said, quote, the Yeren was laughing all the while.

No! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. They're f***ing with us. What are we doing here today? They are frigging with us. For 30 minutes? 30 minutes. A dude just grabbed his wrists and laughed

yeah and at that point he still after 30 minutes of a human grabbing his no not a human a Yeren this is wild Yeren sounds crazily similar to human as well human sure man Sharon this is crazy it really Rory, the guy was face to face, wrist to wrist with the thing. I think he knew what he saw. I don't think he did. I think he did. I think he was embarrassed to say that he got into a fight and was beaten up by a human who grabbed his wrist and was clearly having such an easy time overpowering him that he was laughing about it. But who are these humans? Covered entirely with hair? Utterly butt naked?

I don't know. I don't know. Wild men? Feral men? Of the woods? Yes, so you agree they're wild men? Men! Men!

Is the key point. Look, encounters have only increased over the years. Some estimating, there have been as many as 400 sightings in the years since the end of Mao China. You're saying if that guy grabs your wrist and wouldn't let go and laughed in your face, you would say, yeah, probably a guy. He's probably called Gary.

Okay, he's showing me another picture. Don't know why we didn't see this with the first one. This is so different than what you told me. This is, this dude looks like he's 10 foot tall. Yeah. Absolutely. He looks like a hairy Chris Hemsworth. Look, some humans are me and some are Dwayne the Rock Johnson. And we're apparently the same species.

I wasn't sure. I got my DNA checked. I am. Yeah, this thing isn't, if it grabs your wrist, your wrist is popping off of your body. Yeah. He's gonna crush it. Yeah, he's grabbing it the same way you would grab a chicken leg out of a KFC bucket. He's grabbing it to eat it. Yeah.

Look, encounters have only increased over the years, some estimating there's been as many as 400 sightings in the years since the end of Mao's China. But I mentioned something earlier that the government themselves conducted expeditions into the woods of Shenanjia forest to find the Yeren. So what did they find? Okay, I'm into this. While some of the research is, as expected, classified, it looks like a surprising amount of evidence was found. Classified it looks like a surprising amount of evidence was found everything from hairs to footprints and even alleged Yeren droppings

Okay, a whole variety of government institutions were enlisted one You did name three things that humans also give off shit footprints and hair So I gotta keep my cool before I grab your wrist footprints and hair so I gotta keep my cool before I grab your wrist I gotta grab your wrist and I'm not gonna let go yeah and you ain't gonna be laughing one report stated it is concluded that savages live in the woods they have long hairs wide mounds but no tail they are over hey over three meters in height all right okay name me a human that's that high. And they can walk upright.

From their excrement, it can be inferred that they eat mostly plant roots, stalks, leaves, and wild fruits and insects like beetles. Their living place is made up of local bamboo wound into a circle. But Rory, they found footprints. It says plaster models taken from footprints show that their foot sizes range from 32 to 37 centimetres. The biggest footprint ever found measures 42

centimetres. Through comparisons with golden monkeys, green monkeys and black bears, it's proved that these savages are quite different. Let's get to some physical evidence. These are plaster casts of those footprints. Yeah, I mean, they look pretty big. I don't know how many centimeters a foot is. I actually don't even know how many feet a foot is. What's a foot? You call out to me the centimeters?

32 to 37. 32 centimeters is one foot. But what was the biggest one? What was the biggest one? There was another 40... 37? 40? Uh, the biggest one ever found was 42. Okay, well, alright, look, it sounds,

yeah, pretty damn close to being a regular human size, but a 32 centimeter foot, that's a size 15. Okay. A human shoe? Yes. So a size 15 okay a human shoe yes so a size 42 42 centimeter would be like a like you are not even in the NBA anymore you're something else but it is a shoe size you can order as a no no it isn't it from

what I can see it is not it is not it would be like a 20 something oh okay okay you know I'm saying yeah yeah it would be like a 20 something. Oh, okay. Okay. You know I'm saying Yeah, yeah, it would be because like the biggest and what's the biggest shoe size you ever heard probably like a 17 or something Yeah, something crazy. Yeah, what's the biggest shoe size? I'm a 12 and even that feels big The largest shoe size ever recorded was a 37 the tallest man in history Holy shit. He was a Y the tallest man in history. Holy shit.

He was a Yeren. I, I, I take that back. Well, yeah. I mean, to give you an idea, the, the guy today with the biggest feet on earth measuring at 40 centimeters. Okay. And that guy is probably a freak of nature. No offense to that guy, but let's face it. That's pretty big. Yeah. All right. So

Almost like everything else to do with the Yeren. Yeah. Weirdly like a human, but yet not. Right? Yeah, yeah. I would say that was the biggest one they ever found. It says most of them are kind of human-sized feet. Alright, I don't know if this next image is gonna help anything, but here's a government official taking a photograph of some poo. They found Yeren. I'm ready for conclusions, I think, if we wanna...

No! No! Because this... Can't you show me a picture of someone in the woods taking a photo of shit? On the floor? But this means something. The fact that- Never before in 400 episodes of this podcast have I been just handed a picture of poo and said what do you think of this? Is this where we're at?

Is this where we're getting to? It ain't human. It ain't human, let me tell you that. Let me tell you that. to? It ain't human. It ain't human. Let me tell you that. Let me tell you that. All right. It ain't human. And I know.

Check out this picture of human shit as a comparison. I took it this morning. I don't want to see any more poo. Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. ACAS powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. If you enjoy detailed, fact-based and empathetic true crime storytelling, you might like Canadian true crime. I'm Christy Lee.

Join me for an immersive deep dive into some of the most thought-provoking crimes in the country I now call home. From the case of headley lead singer Jacob Hogard to the bizarre naked kidnappings in Alberta to infamous cases like Colonel Russell Williams. Go beyond the headlines and get the full story. Find Canadian true crime wherever you listen to podcasts. Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com. Okay, I know Rory's check time.

He's gone mentally. Behind his eyes we can see he's thinking about something else. He's thinking about going on holiday or snowboarding or something. And that's fine. But I think it's cool. I think it's good and wild, like the wild men themselves, that I have photographs of the Chinese government looking for cryptids. That's cool.

That is kind of cool. Yeah. Look, the parts I like about this story is going to a place we don't usually go to. And I also love the, you know, the beautiful thing about this story is that it's a story about human connection. That it doesn't matter where you're from

in any corner of the world, we all believe in monsters. And a lot of the monsters kind of look the same. It's funny that in China, they have a Bigfoot. If you go to the Himalayan mountains, they have a Bigfoot. If you go to North America, they have a Bigfoot. If you go to the Himalayan mountains, they have a Bigfoot. If you go to North America, they have a Bigfoot. This is like a universal human story. I see what you're saying. They're all Yeren.

Nope. I thought what I'm saying. I'm saying... You're saying that the evidence that we've used to prove the existence of the Bigfoot and the Yeti also would prove the existence of the Yeren. This is only frustrating because we did just give the Yeti a double yes. Right? Right? And he is, um, let me think, pretty close to China, kinda? Not everyone was unanimous with these government reports. Some experts dismissed these Yeren sightings as misidentified animals because this area has, yes, things like Himalayan brown bears, Tibetan blue bears, Asian black bears, macaques and many wild goat species that could be

the Yeren culprit. But while no one really thinks the creature's supernatural, many other experts do believe the Yeren could be an undiscovered species or even, and we haven't even thought about this yet, an ancient human relative that has clung on to life in the wild forests of China. Well hey, you said this thing was spotted as early as what 500 BC? Yeah, thousands of years ago. I mean, yeah, it would make sense that this is just, that's one theory. This is just an offshoot of human evolution. We've talked about this theory before.

It's just outliving in the woods. Can I say gigantopithecus again? No, please, no! It's gigantopithecus. Or one of them. It's gigantopithecus or it's Neanderthals or, could be, could be. I wanna go one week without Kit saying gigantopithecus. It hasn't happened.

We have a board in the office that says, how many days since Kit has said Gigantopithecus? Penithagaculothon. I mean, that is a, I guess, a semi-scientific possibility. But it's also tough. It's like, I don't think even it being an ancient human ancestor is even any more believable, than it being a cryptid because ancient human ancestors were around till semi recent times I think in Australia and places like that they were around until I'm not making

a joke. I'm like, they're around last week. There are places in the world where humans and other human species have lived side by side in the last, let's say, 50,000 years. But, hmm, don't know about the 70s. Yeah. My problem with this case is, I think when you're investigating a cryptid that involves the word man, the other part of that name has got to be pretty dramatic. For example, a few weeks ago, we did a case on the mantis man. Essentially a creature that is half bug, half alien freakazoid, but it kind of stood up

like a man and acted like a man. The donkey lady, the goat man, all of these crazy mixes. If the other word in the creature's name is wild, that's not that crazy. So I've seen MTV's Wild Boys. Yeah. I've seen Wild Boys, are these wild men? They were all human, the Wild Boys. So I'm just, yeah, you need a little bit more than wild

to prove to me this thing is a cryptid. There is one final controversial explanation for what the Yeren could be. Some historians have suggested the Yeren could be. Some historians have suggested the Yeren could simply be white people. Oh. That at least in the historical accounts, people in certain areas of China

would have had absolutely no concept of what someone from a different part of the world would have looked like. So when they described red hair, wild looking men who were able to speak a human language? Yeah. Were they describing Irishmen or something? I mean, we can get pretty hairy. I've seen some hairy Irishmen before.

Yeah. But I don't know, not to this level. Have you seen Turkish guys bathing? You know, that is even post-Irish levels of hair. This is a theory. I mean, maybe not. But some of these were spotted in like 1976 did you say? Yeah, as funny as it is, it doesn't really explain the 70s or the 80s. Or 500 BC! Well, explain 500 BC. Well it didn't explain how an Irishman would get there. No

it didn't. Get to China, the force of China! He's all turn it up. Yeah. When did... I need to find that out. When did the first Irishman arrive in China? James of Ireland first visited China in 1320. Okay. Shout out to James. It's still very early to be fair.

Shout out to James of Ireland. Very fitting he was called James. Everyone's f***ing called James. My middle name's James. Look, Rory, it's easy to laugh about this. It really is because it's hilarious. That's why it's easy. But, you know, as we wrap up, we shouldn't underestimate how much people believe in this shit.

Not shit in a derogatory way. I'm just saying... Or a literal way. Because we did look at some pictures of shit. And just to give you an example, here is, I believe, in one of these provinces. It just goes to show how the Yeren is still depicted in modern culture today. Look at this absolute massive gate at an entrance to a forest. Wow. Yeah, this is...

entrance to a forest. Wow. Yeah, this is, they've built a huge kind of gate slash statue of, why is it always old Yeren's kissing baby Yeren's? I guess it's just like the- I think they're always in like a little family. Yeah, the emphasis of like family and these little tribes. Yeah.

I don't like the drawing at the bottom. That looks like a hairy ET. That's one's really disturbing. It's a family of Yeren and they've all got John Lennon's haircut. Yeah. And it's a bit much. And the mother Yeren, there's no polite way to say this. She has her baps out.

She has yiddies, yeah. Yiddies! She's got yiddies. This yeti's got yiddies. Um. I'm back in, baby. I'm back in baby, I'm back in where are the beasts? Mother of pearl It's that X-Files meme. It's Bigfoot with boobs. Hold on. That's what it is. Is that baby Yeren pissing? I just realized this

This is our hand. Yeah, why did they give him a little dick? Why is he peeing? I was literally about to say, I think that statue, that gate is quite cute, it's quite beautiful. And they gave him a little wang to pee out of into a fountain. Anyway, whatever.

I think I need this to end. The Romans do that too, don't they, with their statues. Okay. I mean, that's, that there, that is why it was banned, I think. But it is true, the I mean, I thought this case was fascinating to cover, because it's a rare case that shows how the paranormal intersects with like, politics and culture, because Mao wanted to get rid of the Yeren. They hated the Yeren. They wanted to stamp out the Yeren because the Yeren represented ancient China.

The wild man was a symbol of what China used to be. And they hated that and wanted to stamp it out. And that's why it wasn't that people like thought the Yeren was cool. That's not why Yeren fever came about. It was because Mao was gone. They were excited to re-explore their heritage and their history. And they were like, yeah, fuck it.

Maybe the Yeren's real, let's find them. Absolutely. For me, this story is, as you said, cool to go somewhere we've never been before and see how other cultures and governments treat the paranormal and see what their relationship and governments treat the paranormal and see what their relationship with the paranormal is. Am I a little disappointed that, unfortunately, this is their cryptid?

This is their flagship cryptid? Is that safe to assume? I don't know. Like I just said, it's the most culturally important, but that's for other reasons. Yeah. And that's probably just the sheer amount of the sightings Yeah, I don't think this would be the last time we go to China. I feel like you know if it's anything like The other countries nearby Japan South Korea

We know that there's a huge roster of interesting paranormal stories both linked with folklore and more contemporary stories So this is cool. This is cool to get a taste of one that is both, right? It existed in 500 BC and it existed in the 80s. Yep. And let's not forget, because Rory wants to forget, let's not forget that today I have brought witness testimony spanning 2000 years,

running right up to the 80s, government investigations in which they said they're real. Yeah. witness testimony spanning 2000 years running right up to the 80s. Government investigations in which they said they're real. The savages exist. We found evidence of where they live. They got plaster casts of their footprints that said did not match any other animals. Where's your head at today with the Yeren. Uh, look, I don't know what to say here. This thing is incredibly close to just being a human. You can't have a cryptid that speaks and talks and can communicate. Bigfoot's telepathic.

Well, then, then I would argue he almost isn't a cryptid. He's a supernatural being. Oh, he is. A cryptid, I think, is a very specific, distinct creature. Yeah, I think so. And then there's other kind of spin-offs where it's like they have supernatural powers. I imagine Bigfoot sounds like Hulk Hogan.

Probably, yeah. Hello, brother. Today, this is kind of all over the place. This would have to mean either the Yeren have existed for thousands of years and we've never seen one, or it's one Yeren that can live for thousands of years. Both are equally improbable. Especially if they are essentially just humans.

So it's a no today from me. It's a yes from me. Wild. That's the wildest thing I've heard. It's really not. What are today for me. It's a yes from me. I wild I that's the wildest thing I've heard really not talking about really not because when you when you put a gun to your head You realize I might put a gun to your head. Can't you grab my wrist and start laughing because this is what kind of hypocrite? Would it make me if I gave the Yeti only a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, really saw a video of a Yeti if I gave the Yeti only a couple of weeks ago, a yes. We literally saw a video of a Yeti.

It's true. No video of a... But much, much less sightings. And some footprints, yes. The amount of evidence was similar. It was just the video that was different. We had a Yeti scalp. But the Yeren, that's true.

But the Yeren didn't have the level. You showed me a photograph of some shit. The level of investigation into it was deeper actually than The Yeti so it's a similar amount of evidence So I just think it would be hypocritical for me to say oh yeti school So I think I like that one that's good and then the year and all it's not as good as it Some people said it talked to them. That's not a monster. That's not a creature They said it's hair can make human

wigs. I don't know. I got a good feeling about this one, guys. I'm bullish on the Yeren. I've lost it, I think. And so thanks for tuning into this one. I'm just trying to please my Chinese spy. You know, with TikTok going down. Yeah. But yeah, I enjoyed this. Hopefully if you are Chinese national or you speak Chinese and you, I don't think we have many listeners in China for obvious reasons.

You'd probably be surprised. Yeah, we should look into it. Yeah, I think we have a decent little chunk. Hopefully this is a start of a glorious new epoch in this part of my life history where we take another look at China and its multifarious cryptids and I would love to know what kind of UFO sightings are going down there, too. I would love to visit. My brother just recently did a big holiday in China and man

I would love to go and see some of the big cities, the Great Wall, do a bit of a tour, go on the bullet train, that would be amazing. Problem is for me, I'm going to America soon and immigration's gonna ask me a lot of questions. So I don't love China that much. Not until, not until after I'm finished. I love it a reasonable amount. Just the normal amount.

The normal amount. The people love China. I like the food, the music, that's it, okay. And, but thank you for tuning in. Hope you've enjoyed this investigation into all things Yeren and Wildman. If you are a Yeren, let us know at thispartofmylifepodcast.gmail.com

right in and let us know. Cause they probably have emails. That's how human they are. Yeah, yeah. They have one of those QQ emails. Cool. And it's an interesting thought. Patreon.com forward slash this part of my life

is the place to get kind of the Yeren of the TPL episodes. I think even you're sad you said yes. Like it kinda just happened and now you're like, well, let's move on. Let's keep going. No, no. I wear it with pride, a badge of honor. I'm proud to say, hey, when the Yeren come knocking when they climb our city walls, I'm

going to be the guy that believed in them. So maybe I'm part Yeren. But yeah, the Yeren, that was what I was saying. The Yeren of TPL episodes, the kind of uncannily similar to regular episodes and yet different and scary. Those episodes exist only on Patreon, where for as little as five dollars or five pounds or whatever, you go there and get access to everything instantly. Hundreds of TPL episodes never before heard on the main feed. He summed it up perfectly. You should check it out. Patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life.

Check it out. And at the end of every episode, we like to give a shout out to those people who supported us on the shout out Tier of the patreon. Let's right do it. Oh It's just one for today, which is a special. Thank you to and there's a reason it's only one to Ra That's right. If you're showing our ah, you don't include any other names yeah praise Ra presumably Ra obliterated just evaporated the other people who are on the shout out list such is Ra's beautiful gorgeous power a lot of people have asked us why we've not been talking about Ra as much lately yeah we're scared it's true you know um it's like staring into the sun

isn't it talking about Ra yeah but do Kit and I still sleep every night with a coin in our mouths? You betcha. Yeah. Because I'm pretty sure that's one of the things you have to do. Isn't that right? To cross the river? Yeah, to make sure you get into the afterlife. That's right. Okay, sure. Yeah, I've been doing that. And we can only do that because y'all have been putting coins in the mouths of your paranormal pals by supporting us on Patreon just like Ra. So it's great to see that Ra still supports us too Even though we're not in the afterlife yet. So thank you so much Ra. Thank you to everyone who supports us on Patreon couldn't make the show without you literally.

Yeah, we have we've got some really exciting things planned this year that are all thanks to the Patreon. So we're about to become wild men ourselves this year. Yeah. This is the year of the Yeren. I'm going to go butt naked and piss into a river like that little boy in the statue. I might take a poop in the woods to see how it feels. Go nuts. Yeren summer. Yeren summer baby. Yeren summer 2025. Let's see it. Thank you so much for tuning in. This has been this paranormal life. We're going to be back on Friday with the after party over on Patreon. And of course, back on Tuesday with another paranormal tale. 3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3- I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. We call them clicks at your world tonight. It's the little word we use when someone

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