Wildman Fever!

Part photobook, part dossier, this cryptozoological case file records China's post-Mao obsession with bigfoot-esque mythical mountain creatures

Published with 200cm.

As the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended in the mid-1970s, room for scientific freedom emerged, and Chinese paleoanthropologists turned their attention to the existence of Bigfoot- and Yeti-like mammals. This trend was fueled by widespread enthusiasm in Western countries for the same phenomena. The topic quickly captured the Chinese popular imagination, with scientists descending on mountainous areas of Hubei province to investigate reported sightings of a strange being called the Wildman or "Yeren" in Chinese. Officially sponsored research, followed by stories from amateur enthusiasts, sparked a nationwide phenomenon called Wildman Fever that would last for decades. Wildman Fever tells the story of this search that led a nation into a wilderness of fact and fiction. The images were selected from the collection of Chinese vernacular photography at the Archive of Modern Conflict, London.