Olympic “King Kong”
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 2nd, 2007
Yu Zhenhuan, above, wants to carry the Olympic torch before the Beijing Games. One of the world’s hairiest men, who nicknames himself “King Kong”, has launched a campaign to carry the Olympic torch during the relay ahead of next year’s Beijing Games. (Reuters: Claro Cortes IV)
Occasionally skeptics will try to debunk a Bigfoot case from the past by pointing to abnormally hairy people or feral human beings as a solution. Is this possible? Feral adults and wild children certainly have existed and have been found. The Tenth Edition of Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae (1758), lists seven cases of “wild children,” and down through the years real historical incidents of dozens of feral people have filled the pages of psychology journals and natural histories. Deserted children raised by wolves and bears are more than folklore, but they have little to do with our survey of undiscovered primates. Misidentifications of “wild children” and “wild people” seem highly unlikely since the individuals are often dirty but not hairy, often elusive but not uncatchable. These individuals are more a matter for human psychology than primate biology. Likewise, on very rare occasions, otherwise normal humans will display a recessive gene that leads to an excessive amount of body and facial hair. These hirsute anomalies became the “bearded ladies” of former circus freak shows. But there really is no foundation to arguments about feral or hirsute people being mistaken for the hairy bipeds of this field guide. The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates, page 164.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Are they sure he is not a bigfoot/Yeti or Neanderthal? Look at his face it’s not just hair that is a difference!
Feral humans are, I think, a remarkable and very scary picture of how when left with nothing we will revert back to our animal instincts to survive. I have seen shows on feral kids and it is just creepy to watch.
As for “King Kong”, let him run. What harm could it do?
Very strange. He actually looks like the subject in the Patterson-Gimlin footage, particularly in the face.
Funny how he would nickname himself that. I mean, it shows that he doesnt mind too much and he is willing to joke about it, right?
Why shouldn’t he be able to run? Looks like he’s in pretty good shape to me. As far as mistaking this guy for the Big Guy, possible but doubtful. He doesn’t have the body mass. I think even juvenile Bigfoot would make this guy look small. But if it was dark and at a distance, I could see someone mistaking him for the Big Ones.
Hair alone doth not a bigfoot make. The sheer size, massive muscularity and strength, the sometimes overwhelming odor, the peculiar sounds, animal like actions and features-could this be accounted for by merely some extra hair? It all goes back to what has been discussed on previous threads; on the whole, how reliable is eyewitness testimony-re: a squatch or a giant bird? Oh-and this guy doesn’t look like an otter either. Of course, if he decided to go out for a swim…
I think it’d be interesting to see what would happen if that guy ran around campgrounds in a fur-covered Speedo. It’d be a good way to test how well people are at reporting details, size estimates, etc.
Could his hair catch on fire?
I seem to recall that he’s of average Chinese height, making it unlikely that someone could mistake him for a massive, 800-pound primate. Now, if Bao Xishun (World’s Tallest Man) and Yu Zhenhuan had a love child, then we might be onto something…
hey loren wow very interesting article about olympic king kong. thanks bill green
The title and brief blurp about feral people reminded me of the X Files looking for the New Jersey Devil where it turned out to be a woman. I had a roommate that was almost as hairy. It was scary. Was his mother abducted by an Almas or Wild Man of China? For a Chinese person to be that hairy, it’s amazing. The Chinese are almost as hairless as the Native Americans–connection? I wonder. Let him run. There shouldn’t be any shame (which is what would make the Chinese government decide not to let him run) in letting the world see a hairy Chinese person, especially a man. If he was a she, I could see their reasoning in saying no.
I don’t think he would make a good bigfoot either but I recall Colonel Fawcetts encounter, (In one of Sanderson’s books I believe).
Those definitely seemed to be people but they were hairy.
Can a legend derive from just one isolated incident?
Hyperpilocity (is that the term??) is an EXTREMELY rare condition, about 1 in a billion I heard (can’t recall where I read this).