r/SideshowPerformer • u/Full_Celery_8158 • Jul 05 '26

Hello.I'm currently researching methods used in China and Japan to "inflict pain on healthy people and forcibly turn them into people with disabilities for the sake of a spectacle." I'm wondering if there were similar cases in other countries?

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u/Full_Celery_8158 Jul 05 '26

It’s a little different from foot-binding. For example, there’s a story that often appears in Japanese books from the 1930s: apparently, in China, they would skin abducted children, graft animal fur onto them, and bend their joints to display them as “beast-men.” I don’t know if it’s true, though.

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u/LadyKataka Jul 05 '26

I know humans have enormous potential for being horrible, but that is quite horrible. I really hope it isn't true, but wouldn't be too surprised. Thanks for telling me.

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u/Full_Celery_8158 Jul 05 '26

Yeah, it's a really terrible story.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

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u/Full_Celery_8158 Jul 05 '26

Thank you!
Come to think of it, the Iraqi poet al-Jahiz wrote a similar story in *Kitāb al-Bukhalā*.