History Behind the Mystery
An Integral Part of Chinese Culture
Chinese Giant Salamanders, or Da Ni, are native to the Qinling mountain region in central China. Many myths formulated about the strange creature. It was considered “dirty”, and was one of the few species in the area that wasn’t hunted for food. It was also often said that the Chinese Giant Salamander sounded like a baby crying, and it was considered bad luck to touch it because of that. (Cunningham, et. al, 2015) Additionally, in 1726, a swiss physician found a Chinese Giant Salamander fossil, and assumed it was the skeleton of a human who survived the Great Flood, and named it Homo Diluvii Testis, or “Witness of the Great Flood.” (ZSL, 2019)
(Ratcliff, 2010)
Stylized Image of a Chinese Village
Many different names came into use. Because of the noise it makes, a common name in the Qinling area for the salamander is Wawayu, which means baby fish, playing into the common misconception held by many farmers in Shaanxi that the Chinese Giant Salamander, was, in fact, a fish. (Cunningham, et. al, 2015)
Paralleling Chinese History
Despite their traditional status of a non-hunted animal, things changed for the Chinese Giant Salamander. A large influx of South Chinese migrants came to the Qinling mountain region, and brought with them a love for salamander. Salamanders (though, not the Chinese Giant Salamander) were often hunted and sold in Southern China, and the Chinese Giant Salamander came as an untapped resource that the Southern Chinese Migrants planned to take full advantage of. (Cunningham, et. al, 2015)
(France-Presse, 2016)
Left to right: Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, Lin Biao
During the cultural revolution, farmers struggled to make ends meet. At first, many farmers tried to feed the salamanders to pigs, leading to a new name for the salamanders: Zhu bu chi, or “pig doesn’t eat.” Because of this, many people, primarily South Chinese migrants, began farming the Chinese Giant Salamander in the 1970s, as an emergency food source. However, the salamander captured the taste buds of people across China, and the world, and it became a luxury food source in the 1990s, and government subsidized farms became the norm, with salamander appearing in high-end restaurants in China, South Asia, Europe, and the United States. (Cunningham, et. al, 2015) It’s popularity has not subsided.