Amber: BIGFOOT

Amber; May, 22, 2009

Bigfoot

Have you ever heard about any kinds of species who is “as tall as 12 feet and weighing as much as half a ton, who is covered with long hair except for face and hands”, and having “a distinctive human-like form”.(Murphy, Christopher L. “Bigfoot and the FBI”.) It named bigfoot, a popular saying. Because of the sasquatch has many famous stories by different people in different area, bigfoot belong natural have different calling in different area. Such as the popular saying bigfoot only used in north America, a name Sasquatch, which was called by many Australia, named Mapinguar in Amazonas, also in China, because of nation geography facotr, people called bigfoot as Yeti. (JiFand, Zan. “Hubei Bigfoot-Fact or Fiction?”) If bigfoot is not exist, why almost all over the world people try to make a same lie that bigfoot is exist? I mean they are impossible to make a deal to say this same lie, they even don't know each other countries language. In my opinion, I believe bigfoot do exist for a long time.
An evidence shown from the middle 19th century, the huge giant which has similar appearance but actually have no relative society similary with human beings, when it was roaming the earth has been sightings almost every continent.( JiFand, Zan. “Hubei Bigfoot-Fact or Fiction?”) That’s the earlier time have record about bigfoot.

Work Cited
Murphy, Christopher L. “Bigfoot and the FBI”. The Washington Star-News. July 1975. PG1
JiFand, Zan. “Hubei Bigfoot-Fact or Fiction?” Culture. 17 Dec. 2007. <http://www.bjreview.com/print/txt/2007-12/17/content_90934.htm>.

AMBER BIOGRAPHY:

Hi！I’m Amber. I’m a Chinese girl whoes hometown is in the ancient city, Xi’an. Xi’an with Athens, Rome and Cairo, are four famous ancient capital all over the world. And 13 dynasties established their capitals in Xi’an. How wonderful place, isn’t it?
Now I study in Xi’an International Studies University, my major is Journalism, to be an excellent journalist is my dream. Because I love to find out truth espically research something. Therefore, bifgoot is one of my interesting topic, after research so many articles, pictures and some video, I think there are three possible parlances to explain bigfoot existed or not. First, bigfoot is a trick from those boring person. Second, bigfoot is not that bigfoot, it’s only some people whose body type are huge than others, then those eyewitnesses misunderstood the hunge body type people are bigfoot. Third, bigfoot are real exist in the past, just die out recently years. The reason why I said so because I believe bigfoot cannot exist in today’s such terrible environment. And many people with what kinds of high-tech cannot give out any believable evidence to prove bigfoot’s exist. I always think: seeing is believing. Even though I don’t see bigfoot before, I still interested in this secret figure.

Forrest: The Bigfoot Wears Tennis Shoes

Forrest; May 20, 2009

The Bigfoot Wears Tennis Shoes

When i was young, my mom always joked with me that “Bigfoot is coming” if i did not listen to her, then i was scared about this monster at that time, because in my mind, the Bigfoot sames like the monster who have fangs, the big weapons, and they are so angry. When i grew up, i had saw a lot of imformation from the TV programs, the internet, and the exhibition in Hu Bei province. After my research about this creature, i believe that majority of Bigfoot was faked by some one who wanted to make money on this creature.
When people are talking about the Bigfoot, the primary impression of the Bigfoot should be a tall monster with human characteristics. Just like Robert Sullivan said: “Among those who believe that such a thing as the Sasquatch which were called by by the Indians exists.” Sullivan also described the general shape of Bigfoot, “the creature, which probably stands between seven and ten feet tall, weighs between a thousand and two thousand pounds, has elongated arms, is covered with either black or aubum hair. Its feet that may be as long as twenty, so it could walk over twenty miles a day. (Sullivan) Even though Bigfoot have amazing weight and height, but the figure of Bigfoot still have similarities with human characteristics, which include the figure, facial features, and the method of walk, so people consider it “a half man, half beast.”(Goldman) In another word, Goldman wanted to show us this creature looks like a kind of beast, but the action like human being. Therefore, there is a large space for some one who want to make money on this creature, because its subhuman characteristics.
Bigfoot had been recorded in many places in this world, but people cound not find some strong evidences. The scientists who were still sereaching the Bigfoot always said that they had found some kinds of Bigfoot--Snowman, the Chinese Bigfoot, and the native Bigfoot which spreaded in whole Cala.(Murphy) Different Bigfoot came from different places, the Snowman maybe lives in the Himalayas, which is a plateau in Tibet. If the investagitors want to find some evidence about Bigfoot, Shennongjia which is the most famous place that Bigfoot appeared in there is the best place to research. Even though the evidences there were just the news, some drew pictures, and some footprints, but after some witnesses stranded out and gave us some valued information. The situation there was totally changed, because they siad that they had seen “the real Bigfoot which have the red hair and eat for corn on the cob, and it had over 2.5 meters tall.” (Chinese) If the witnesses’ evidences are the truth, Bigfoot would be in Shennongjia, but these evidences are the verbal evidences, some amphibolous picture.
Even though there were lots of hi-tech means to research the Bigfoot, but there was not any strong point to prove the fact. It was reasonable that people could not take photos when they saw the Bigfoot in an incidental time. However, there were many porfessional scientists or the investigators went to the forest with their equipment, such as the camera, portable video, and GPS guide, so they could connect with others on the internet very easy. However, these new equipments did not bring some good luck for investigators, and the witness of Bigfoot became less and less. Now, Bigfoot have become as famous as UFO, which is the biggest mystery in the world. There are many similarities between Bigfoot and UFO, the first one is that there are many people claim that they were the witnesses. The next similarity is that there is no DNA test to proof them. Now, every controversial thing should be proved by scientific basis, so the only thing can prove the Bigfoot whether or not such creature exists is the DNA text. (Regal) However, some scientists have declared that “Bigfoot fails DNA test."(Christie) In this article, a scientist named Curt Nelson said “One of two samples of DNA said to prove the existence of the Bigfoot came from a human and the other was 96 percent from an oppssum.” (Christie) After Bigfoot fails DNA, the only one evidence became failed. Even though there are many scientists used many kinds of hi-tech to prove the existence of Bigfoot, but the result is unsatisfactory.
If some one faked this creature, and made money on its news, it should be terrible. There was an example, an American contractor Ray Wallace, who produced amazing documentary evidence depicting North America's version of the Himalayan abominable snowman. There was a record of sasquatches sounds along with photographs showing Bigfeet eating elk, frogs and even Frosted Flakes cereal. “The capstone was colour movie footage shot in 1967, supposedly showing a female Bigfoot on the move near Bluff Creek, that was the famous Bluff Creek tracks.”(Hebert) However, Loren Coleman, who is the American author of two books on sasquatches, comments that intelligent wild animals can be extremely elusive. "It took 60 years of searching to find a live mountain gorilla in Kenya."(Hebert) He adds an example that he remembers one horrible faked film of Ray. “You can almost see the tennis shoes.” Hebert also siad that “Wallace tried to sell his video productions for up to US$250,000.” On another occasion, “the fraudster offered to sell a Bigfoot to Texan Tom Slick and then backed out when the millionaire made a serious bid.” (Hebert) Now, this became a big joke in Bigfoot reaserching, and the consequence of that man who faked the movie was mocked by people, and this phenomenon was not only affected the scientists who are still working on this creature, but also make common people feel so disappointed. What’s more, Chinese people felt disappointed about Bigfoot too. It is very ironical that the economy of Shennnongjia grow very fast after these “witnesses” claimed they see the Bigfoot there, all these revenue should attributed to the tourists and investigators, so everybody in this county is living better than before—countless new apartment were built by the villiagers, many Bigfoot museums were set by Brueau of culture, hunderd of motels were opened like the mushroom after the rain. However, the Bigfoot were disappeared after this county became famous, and no one standed out to claim it again. Are these the coincidences？I considered that for the benefits of local government, may be these “witnesses” were required to say some words.
Maybe Bigfoot is the legend in everybody’s mind, and when people remember this kind of creature they should know that there were some Bigfoot lives in the forest, they were afraid to meet human. However, when Bigfoot wears the tennis shoes, I have known what’s going on eventully.

Work Cited

Robert Sullivan.”Bigfoot”. Copy right © 2009 Open Spaces Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. April 20, 2009.
http://www.open-spaces.com/article-v1n3-sullivan.php
Kim Murphy. “Science Is Hot on Heels of Bigfoot Legend”. Los Angeles Times Sunday January 21,1996 April 20, 2009
Rick Hebert, “Bigfoot – dead or alive?” Report / Newsmagazine (National Edition); 1/20/2003, Vol. 30 Issue 2, p46, 1p, 1 bw April 25, 2009
\ http://ezproxy.humboldt.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.humboldt.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=8904833&site=ehost-live
“CHINESE TEAM HUNTING A RED-HEADED 'BIGFOOT” San Jose Mercury News June 25, 1997 May 5, 2009
Jim Christie “Bigfoot fails DNA test” REUTERS Sun Aug 17,2008 May 26, 2009

FORREST BIOGRAPHY:

My name is Cao Chen, I am a freshman in XISU, and I am going to HSU in Fall semester. Researching is my hobby, and I am interested in some fantastic things, such as the alien, the water monster, and the Bigfoot.

Vera: Mysterious Bigfoot

Vera, May 24, 2009

Mysterious Bigfoot

Curiosity is such an amazing thing that it always driven people to dig out new things. Once find some unusual things, they will focus on this subjects closely for very long time. This discovery process helped to improve the human’s society greatly, and has become one of the most important characteristics of the human progress. Also, this process is pretty attractive as with the exploration can always bring people exciting new discoveries and better understanding of things even without so many great breakthroughs. It is the process itself and the desire of know better about the world driven people to get close to the world they living and approaching.
From different kinds of historical records, human have been changed a lot since they existed especially physical structure in the long process of development. Although there are many different kinds of fossils of the ancestors of human, people are still very “confused” about their old appearances and life. Scientists and researches have made many experiments to try to find more information on the “cousins” of human—like apes, chimpanzee and some other “quadrumana”. “Human ancestors were believed to have hunted the giant ape species Gigantopithecus Blacki to extinction 500,000 years ago. Present day villagers in the rugged, rain-soaked mountains of Hubei Province report occasional encounters with large animals fitting the description of this species. Gigantopithecus, an ancient cousin of the orangutan, is known to science by the fossilized teeth and jawbones that have been found in this part of China, and in other parts of Asia. Americans and Canadians report observations of similar animals, which are referred to as "Bigfoots" in the U.S., and "sasquatches" in Canada.”(Hubei)
Experiments with the relationship between human and other primates have offered many valuable information and breakthrough in science. According to some historical records and some witness as well as some other materials in different forms, a kind of special creature stepped in to people’ horizon for a long time. This special creature is usually lived in some very secret places and looks very strange, and they are the mysterious Bigfoot. Stories about these mysterious are known by more and more people. Do they really exist? How and why they are can still live in the Earth? Are they special creatures or some crazy people? Why people believe or not their existence.
Like many of curious people, have heard and read some of the stories about these special creatures since I was a child. But I still cannot state whether they existed or not affirmatively, for the information I get is not so strong and reliable which are mostly only witness without academic proofs, even the professional science workers cannot find very remarkable evidence. Some times I think they are truly existed, but sometimes I cannot, because of the unreliable evidence. Even though, the discovery process of collecting Bigfoot information itself is an interesting thing.
The historical records may have some not very true, and many of them cannot be check any longer, but they still offered many hints and examples about Bigfoot. Since the later times of last century, more and more witness have appeared, but there are till not some very reliable specific material, but this kind of small discoveries has attracted people’s attention quite a lot.
China used to be “forbidden” to talk about this topic for some unknown reasons, as I concerned, but the research work of Yeren is never stopped. “Guided tours on the periphery of Shennongjia Nature Reserve, believed home to the "Bigfoot," will be provided in the fall, said Wang Zhenyou, mayor of Yichang City where the Three Gorges Project is under construction.”They will be able to visit the roads where local residents have reportedly seen 'Bigfoot,' but tourists will not be allowed to go further into the Nature Reserve,” Wang said. Researchers and reporters have discovered 40-cm-long footprints, brown hair and chewed corn cobs in Shennongjia last October. The possibility that it was a bear has been ruled out by Yuan Zhenxin, a well-known pale anthropologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)”(Zan)
Different kinds of reports and predictions had appeared in different kinds of media. These mysterious creatures have left so many “miracles” and images to people, especially to the researchers. In the hometown of Chinese Bigfoot (Yeren)—Shennongjia, a nice place in the central Hubei Province, many groups of researchers had stepped in to this holy land of Yeren. Many scientists find some samples, such as the hair. They found that “the hairs are from an animal similar to humans, but as yet not discovered, it would be a major scientific breakthrough” (Zan) “Sighting incidents have been reported in 1976, 1993 and 2003 respectively, all in the Shennongjia area. Although scientists failed to physically see any Yeren, they did collect lots of hair and excrement suspected of belonging to a certain kind of Yeren, and spoke to many witnesses. The findings of authoritative institutions prove that the hair found is not from humans or apes,’ said anthropologist Wang Shan.”(Zan) The reports of Bigfoot have existed in the past years. As one Article titled Bigfoot a myth, China declares published in Independent (a famous English publisher) in 1998,” Searches go back to 1959, mostly concentrating on Shennongjia but also in Tebit, a possible home for Yeti, an ape-man said to inhabit the high Himalayas. According to Xinhua there have been 114”sightings” of Bigfoot in the 70 years in the region. Unfortunately, no one managed to produce any compelling evidence, such as a photo.”(Poole)
With different kinds of explorations and observations, scientists are in different positions.” Zhou Guoxing, a researcher at Beijing Museum of Natural History, who has over 40 years of experience in anthropological study, said that he had researched almost all the sites where so-called yeren had been reportedly sighted, and the results concluded that most of those examinable were bears or monkeys.” (Zan) At the same time another very interesting and special idea from, Yuan Zhenxin, a very famous researcher, compared Yeren and panda. He pointed out that” ‘"If expeditioners had not been to forests in Sichuan and Shanxi provinces, we would not have found the offspring of ancient pandas. It took humankind a decade to discover pandas," Yuan said. It is because of an increase in environmental awareness that more space is now available for these creatures to multiply and survive, said Yuan. He is confident that the mystery of yeren will be unveiled sooner or later.” (Zan) Also, some scientists had changed their ideas with the deeper exploration. Guo Jianwei thinks that “the Shennongjia forest area covers over 3,000 square km, with a complex natural environment and ideal climatic conditions for animals.” It is very possible for unknown species to live in the dense forest or remote caves there"(Zan)
Not only China had found such kind of strange creatures, but also many other parts of the world had found the similar ones. This kind of reports also appeared in many other overseas media, ““Bigfoot” was “born,” at least as a cultural phenomenon, in Humboldt County. On October 5th, 1958, the Humboldt Times ran with a story of giant footprints having been found and cast by a forest road-building crew along the northern border of Humboldt County, up on Bluff Creek” (Bigfoot) “Our stories about Bigfoot, an alleged hominid believers say roams the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and the effects of the full moon on the behavior of animals and criminals alike, held commanding leads until late in the game. The search for extraterrestrial life using radio transmissions from space also made the list.” (Sharks) This kind of “Bigfoot culture” is pretty interesting, from one of the Bigfoot’s scholar’s blog I find some very interesting ideas that he analyses the guessing reasons of Bigfoot, which includes the Native Americans and Cold War. With the continuing heat of Bigfoot, many of the historical reports attracted people again. “ in 1929 anthropologist J.W.Burns, working with Northwest an Canadian Native tribes, was the first to put forth the anglicized term,' sasquatch', derived from the myriad names nearly every tribe from Alaska to California had for the creature.[...] date back to 1840s, many remarkably consistent with reports of today. The legends of back to the dawn of human presence on the North American continent, and were being recorded by European Americans as early a 986A.D. story of Leif Erickson coming to New World and being met and attach aced by a band of stone-throwing hairy giant man-like beasts” (Streufert) this kind of reports also existed in many other media which had fulfilled people’s curiosity but not enough for them still, and most people are still looking for more “true” stories but not only stories and witness.
Although there are many reports about them, and scientists have offered some examples like some big footprints to prove the possibility of Bigfoot’s existence., but the current high-tech checking ways are very limited to ensure the whether these samples are form some strange animals or the Bigfoot. Some people think that they are the combinations of human and some other creatures, like the “wolf girl" in Russia, the “snowman" in the mountainous areas in Southeast Asia and so on. But how and why do human and other creatures be together and make the next generation? If it is not, are they the “relatives” of some huge animals? How to prove this point as people cannot get their information for such a long time with many advanced ways? How to explain such kind of questions?
I think it is still not the right time to state the existence for there is sill lack of the evidence to support this kind of discovery. To made people believe in the theory of Bigfoot’s existence, I do think that there still need more scientific examples. As far, the examples are not strong enough to convince me. I really appreciate the courage and efforts people have put into the untiring discovery, many of the scientists stepped into the Bigfoot’s living areas and undertake many misunderstanding of their crazy actions, but they sill kept on finding the truth. With this kind of efforts, we will get to the truth closer and have better understanding of these special creatures. I wish to get more information about them, and I always imagine that maybe human and some Bigfoots can become friends as they have similar characteristics but living in different environments.

Works Cited

“Hubei Province, China”17Apr2009http://www.bfro.net/GDB/ASIA/CHINA/as_ch001.htm
Steven Streufert “Bigfoot in Humboldt County—Fifty years or 50, 000?” Bigfoot’sBlog29 Dec 2008 17Apr 2009 http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/bigfoot-in-humboldt-county-fifty-years_29.html
Zan Jifang “Hubei Bigfoot-Fact or Fiction?” Beijing review Beijing review 17 Dec 2007 17 Apr 2009http://www.bjreview.com.cn/culture/txt/2007-12/17/content_90919.htm
Ryan Mitchell “Sharks, Bigfoot Lead Our Top News Stories of 2003” National Geographic31Dce 2003 17 Apr, 17 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/12/1215_031215_toptenstories2003.html
Stefan Lovgren “Forensic Expert Says Bigfoot Is Real” National Geographic 10 Oct 2008 17Apr 2009http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1023_031023_bigfoot.html
Teresa Poole “ Bigfoot a myth, China declares” 16 Dec 1998, 25 Apr 2009 http: //
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bigfoot-%20a-%20myth-china-declares-1191729. html

Vera, Biography:

I am a student from Humboldt College，XISU. HSU is the university where I am going to finish my second degree in the next 2 or 3 years, and I am going to major in international studies, globalization concentration. My Chinese name is Mu Xueyun, which is originally from a beautiful poem (but is pretty hard to pronounce for many English speakers), and my English name is Vera. Chinese, history, philosophy, geography, literature are several of my favorite subjects. I really enjoy reading, for I can have access to the mysterious explorations. Music and photography are also very important things in my life. I really like to introduce Chinese culture to everyone. Every time I know more about my country I feel more proud of her. Also, I am sure you will enjoy Chinese culture.
I have gotten different kinds of information about mysterious creatures since I was young. My personal ideas about them are that they exist because of the process of biology, evolution and the strange phenomena of the environment. However, there are still not so many strong and scientific examples to convince us. Like many of the researchers in the US, China also has many fantastic scientists in this field. The hometown of Chinese Bigfoot ( Yeren), Shengnongjia, is not only a great place for travel, but also a very good place to get some exciting information about Yeren, for much of the information on Yeren is from this mysterious land.
I will be happy to answer your questions, and this is my email address: tianyulove718@yahoo.cn.

Panjie: Does Bigfoot Exist?

Panjie, 5/24/09

Does Bigfoot Exist?

There is a kind of thing that famous of almost 400 years. It is still a mystery. Some people said that they have met it before. But nobody can improve it. It is Bigfoot.
Bigfoot appeared everywhere. In different places, it has different names and similarities. In China, it is called Yeren, while Indians called it Sasquatch, which is means “wild man”. Overall, it has same characteristics. It is very large that about 2 or 3 meters high. It has huge footprints that about 30 cm. It is covered with hair and seemed like human. (BFRO)
Though there are a lot of stories about Bigfoot, the most famous place of Bigfoot is northern California. There even built a museum for Bigfoot. There is a large area of forest in northern California, so it seems Bigfoot like to live in forest and away from human. Northern California is Mediterranean climate, which wet in winter and dry in summer. It is very famous for its Redwood Park. The tourists are very many all years, especially holiday. If Bigfoot really exists and wants to live away from people, California is not a good place. Discussing to here, I might think, does Bigfoot exist, or created by American’s great imagination?
There is a famous theory that called Evolution. It mentioned that every creature develop from easy to complex and would be more easy to suit the environment. Also, every creature develop very slowly, but do developed.(Darwin) In that way, it is hard to imagine 400 years ago, a group of creature appeared without any conditions and in nowadays, they hardly being different, as we learned from stories.
Among all of the research, a film that was made by Patterson was attracted by a lot of people who interested in Bigfoot. The film was about a Bigfoot across the forest and turned back to glance them. In Linda Newton’s article, we found the truth of this video,
“Morris says Patterson wanted the suit for a prank when he asked him what the suit was for, "..., but I thought that was pretty odd because these were expensive suits," said Morris.”Our customers were movie studios and famous magicians, the suits cost $450. Back then. That is like over $1,000 today. I thought it was odd to spend so much on a prank, but I sent him the costume."
The research of this video seemed to be a joke. And it also made the research harder, because we don’t know which to believe. Some scientists interested in Hair Identification. In the article of “Hair/Fiber Identification”, the author said,” As with any set of hair/fiber samples collected over a given period by Bigfoot enthusiasts, most will eventually be identified as known mammals or plant fibers”. The analysis of Bigfoot’s so called “physical evidence” has no obvious help on the research. What is more important, nobody has been looks for and truly found the Bigfoot remains.
As to me, I don’t think this kind of creature exists. If they do, why do we only have footprints and stories instead of truly physical evidences, such as the body or true hair? Otherwise, as the number of Bigfoot is so little that we even can’t find them, how can they keep continuity for 400 years? As human being have already develop the earth so deeply, it is so hard for us not notice a kind of animal that so original and live with people for so many years. China has these stories as well. Shennongjia is the famous place of China that has been said there are Yeren there. But in 1977, Chinese scientists did a large-scale of research, including over 100 biologists and anthropologists. But nothing was found. (Yuan, Wang)
The legend of Bigfoot is charming, but that is hardly to say it is the truth. At least, no research shows that there is this kind of creature exists. So, as my point, there must be some mistaken in such things, such as recognize other animals as monster, or even just for fun.

Work Cited

BFRO, “What is Bigfoot?”
http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_FAQ.asp?id=584
Newton, Linda “Lies and Bigfoot” Perry's Newspaper Column, December 03, 2008, AuthorsDen.com
Yuan, Wang “Experts doubt Bigfoot In Malaysia”
http://www.uua.cn/Discovery/show-1149-1.html

PANJIE BIOGRAPHY:

My name is Panjie Wang. I am a student in XISU, Humboldt College. In spare time, I like surf the Internet and read some information about monster, such as vampire. Recently, I am interested in Bigfoot. I think it is a good thing in story, but I don’t think it exist in the world. It is not followed the rule of nature. But, nobody can improve it. I think monsters are more attractive than other things, because they are mystery.