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'{{Cleanup rewrite|date=July 2020}} The practice of cannibalism (喫人) has a peculiarly rich history in [[China]].<ref>{{cite book|title=支那人の食人肉風習|url=http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000372/files/4270_14876.html|author=Kuwabara, Jitsuzo (桑原隲藏)|year=1919|accessdate=2007-10-30|language=Japanese}}</ref> ==Cannibalism as medicine== In the iconic novel "Medicine", written by the famous Chinese literator Lu Xun (1881-1936), we learn about an executioner, who secretly sold steamed bread soaked in the blood of executed prisoners (血饅頭) as a cure for "consumption".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lu|first1=Xun|title=Call To Arms|date=2014|publisher=Foreign Languages Press|isbn=9787119087641}}</ref> The [[Ming dynasty]] polymath, [[Li Shizhen]], had detailed the use of human body parts for medical purposes, but condemned the use of human meat for medical treatment, calling the practice of cannibalism "stupid" and "foolish."<ref>Li Shizhen, ''Bencao Gangmu: Compendium of Materia Medica,'' 6 vols, tran. Luo Xiwen (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003), 4189.</ref> In 2004, ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'' reported a Chinese man in [[Beijing]] was arrested because it was believed he stole multiple corpses from nearby graveyards in order to make medicine for his sick wife out of a soup made by cooking the flesh of the corpses, and crushing the bones.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/28/1083103549255.html | title=Man snatches 30 bodies | date=April 29, 2004 | accessdate=2007-10-30|publisher=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]}}</ref> In 2003, reports of some restaurants serving dead babies cooked into soups in Guangdong were sought to be blocked by the Provincial Public Security Bureau of Guangdong, with the police stating that these reports had been fabricated. 1990s [[Guangdong]]: Trafficked fetuses were boiled and sold as beauty treatments.<ref name=aisanews>{{cite news |url=http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5825 |title=Gansu police discover remains of cooked children |date=April 5, 2006 |accessdate=2007-10-30 |publisher=AsiaNews.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080405003704/http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5825 |archive-date=April 5, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> As of 2012, [[human placentophagy]] is reported as "not uncommon" in China.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/54285/eating-placenta-an-age-old-practice-in-china/ | title=Eating placenta, an age old practice in China | date=June 25, 2012 | accessdate=February 2, 2017 | publisher=[[inquirer.net]]}}</ref> Arthur Waldron, professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, has linked the notion of cannibalism to recent charges by [[Harry Wu]], that the Chinese government is [[Organ harvesting in China|transplanting organs of condemned prisoners]].<ref>{{cite journal | author=Arthur Waldron | title="Eat People" - A Chinese Reckoning | publisher = [[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]] | issue=104 | pages=28–33 | date=July 1997}}</ref>{{clarify|reason=how is it linked, seems like a trivial association and rather undue| date=August 2020}} ==Cannibalism for ideological purposes== {{See also|Guangxi Massacre}}There have been some reports of cannibalism for ideological reasons during the [[Cultural Revolution]] and [[Great Leap Forward]]. The most well documented example is in the village of [[Wuxuan]], [[Guangxi]] Autonomous Region where in the local officials began to [[Guangxi Massacre|practise cannibalism]] between May and July 1968 during the [[Cultural Revolution]], resulting in the imprisonment of 15 local officials. Although the Party and the relatives of the victims are aware of this, it has yet to be made public in China. In 1986 and 1988, Zheng Yi (郑义), a former [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guard]] and the author of ''Scarlet Memorial'', went down to Guangxi where he obtained documents detailing the cannibalism. "For the first time in our long history Chinese ate people, not because there was a famine and they were starving to death, but for political reasons. I think thousands participated in the cannibalism and at least many hundreds were eaten. The Party knows all about it," said Zheng.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Media Perception of the PRC | author=Jonathan Mirsky | url=http://www.ondist.net/Media%20Perception%20of%20the%20PRC-%20Sigyn%20Center%20-%20Jonathan%20Mirsky.doc | publisher=The Sigur Center for Asian Studies | date=October 8, 1999| accessdate=2007-10-30 | format=DOC}}</ref> According to Cheng, hundreds of men, women, and children deemed enemies of the Revolution were killed and eaten by the perpetrators, who even gave comments on the best way of preparing the meat – apparently by broiling, not boiling.<ref>{{cite book | title=Cannibal Banquet - Modern Chinese History Erased (食人宴席—抹殺された中国現代史) | author=Zheng Y (Cheng I) | year=1993 | isbn=4334005438 | publisher=[[Kodansha]]}}</ref> ==See also== *[[Organ harvesting in China]] *[[Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body]] *[[Great Chinese Famine#Cannibalism|Great Chinese Famine]] ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== *Zheng Y (Cheng I), ''Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China'' ([[Westview Press]], 1998) {{ISBN|0813326168}} *Gang Yue, ''The Mouth That Begs: Hunger, Cannibalism, and the Politics of Eating in Modern China'' ([[Duke University Press]], 1999) {{ISBN|0822323419}} ==External links== *[http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-3-29/53482.html Hong Kong Reports Mainland Chinese Eating Infants] ([[Next Magazine (Chinese magazine)|Next Magazine]], Mar 29, 2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chinese Cannibalism}} [[Category:Cannibalism in Asia|China]] [[Category:Chinese culture]]'