Monkey brains: Difference between revisions

[[File:Monkey brains.jpg|thumb|250px|Simulated monkey brains displayed at the Tao Heung Museum of Food Culture, in Hong Kong, depicted as part of athe [[Manchu Han Imperial Feast]]]]

'''Monkey brains''' is a supposed dish consisting of, at least, partially, the [[brain]] of some species of [[monkey]] or [[ape]].

[[Image:Hericium erinaceus (GB= Lion's Mane Mushroom or Bearded Tooth Mushroom, D= Igel-Stachelbart or Löwenmähne, NL= Pruikzwam) is nearly at its end at 30 September 2014 at Planken Wambuis - panoramio.jpg|thumb|140px|AnThe edible fungus species, ''[[Hericium erinaceus]]'', alsoknown calledas the monkey head mushroom, which bears a superficial resemblance to the fur of certain Asian primates such as [[macaque]]s.<ref name=mark/>]] Initial confusion over a translated term for the edible monkey-head mushroom (''[[Hericium erinaceus]]'') may have played a part in the belief that monkey brains were used in Asian cuisine,. Known as this mushroom is called ''hóu tóu gū'' in Chinese (simplified: [[wikt:猴頭菇#Chinese|猴头菇]]; traditional: [[wikt:猴頭菇#Chinese|猴頭菇]]; lit. "monkey head mushroom").<ref name=mark>{{cite web|last1=Schreiber|first1=Mark|title=Debunking Strange Asian Myths: Part II|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2002/08/08/issues/debunking-strange-asian-myths-part-ii/|website=The Japan Times|publisher=The Japan Times Ltd.|accessdate=9 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710135859/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2002/08/08/issues/debunking-strange-asian-myths-part-ii/|archive-date=10 July 2018|date=8 August 2002}}</ref> Thethe mushroom itselfreceived bearsits amoniker owing to the superficial resemblance toit thatbears ofto the fur of certain primates found in Asia, such as [[macaque]]s.

Actual monkey brains were historically part of the [[Manchu Han Imperial Feast|Manchu Han Imperial banquet]] of the [[Qing dynasty|Qing Empire]] held during the 17th century,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gayley|first1=Holly|title=The Compassionate Treatment of Animals|journal=Journal of Religious Ethics|date=1 March 2017|volume=45|issue=1|page=42|doi=10.1111/jore.12167|language=en|issn=1467-9795}}</ref> where they may have been eaten directly from the skull.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gayley|first1=Holly|issn=1076-9005|title=Reimagining Buddhist Ethics on the Tibetan Plateau|journal=Journal of Buddhist Ethics|volume=20|date=2013|page=264|s2cid=26874914|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a5c0/42fb9382e07232fcb962f77082370b607ec8.pdf|quote=Each dish is described in excruciating detail, including the infamous case of eating live monkey brains right out of the skull.|access-date=24 April 2018|archive-date=25 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180425114446/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a5c0/42fb9382e07232fcb962f77082370b607ec8.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> One modern account from travel writer [[Leila Hadley]] details a meal in a restaurant in [[Macao]] near [[Hong Kong]] where monkey brains were eaten from a freshly killed monkey's skull,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hadley |first1=Leila |author-link1=Leila Hadley |chapter=Hong Kong and the Wickedest City |page=42 |title=Give Me the World |date=2003|orig-date=1958 |publisher=Seal Press |edition=First Seal Press paperback |location=New York |isbn=1-58005-091-3}}</ref> though there is skepticism as to how common the practice remains today.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Cecil |title=In Asia, do people scoop the brains out of a monkey's skull and eat them? |url=https://www.straightdope.com/21343431/in-asia-do-people-scoop-the-brains-out-of-a-monkey-s-skull-and-eat-them |website=The Straight Dope |access-date=6 March 2021 |date=9 March 2001}}</ref> Official Chinese policy on the [[procurement]] of certain wildlife species in the 21st century makes the serving of monkey brains illegal, with sentences of up to 10 years in prison for violators.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Li|first1=Peter J.|title=Enforcing Wildlife Protection in China|journal=China Information|date=22 July 2016|volume=21|issue=1|pages=76–77, 80|doi=10.1177/0920203x07075082|s2cid=49221536|url=http://animallawconference.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2015/09/Enforcing-Wildlife-Protection-in-China.pdf|language=en|access-date=22 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429121854/http://animallawconference.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2015/09/Enforcing-Wildlife-Protection-in-China.pdf|archive-date=29 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A fictional depiction of the consumption of monkey brains is shown in the 1978 [[mondo film]] ''[[Faces of Death]]'', directed by John Alan Schwartz.<ref name=faces/><ref name=hickey/> The scene depicts an [[Eastern world|Eastern-themed]] restaurant with patrons seated around a table watching a [[belly dance]]. A narrator explains that these are tourists who have come to this location to consume "the house specialty."<ref>{{cite AV media |people=|date=10 November 1978 |title=Faces of Death |title-link=Faces of Death |type=Motion picture |publisher=Aquarius Releasing| author=John Alan Schwartz, director (credited as 'Conan LeCilaire').|others=Written by John Alan Schwartz (credited as 'Alan Black'). Cinematography by Michael Golden. Edited by James Roy. Music by Gene Kauer. Produced by William B. James, Herbie Lee and Rosilyn T. Scott.|isbn=9780788609329|oclc=432163437|quote=Feeling that the foreigners were comfortable within his domain, the waiter signals for the house specialty.}}</ref> The proprietor signals for a server to bring out a monkey, which is then secured inside a [[pen (enclosure)|pen]] built into the table. The tourists are given hammers, and they proceed to hit the monkey on the head until it is killed.<ref name=faces/> The server then cuts open the skull and removes the monkey's brains onto a plate for the patrons to sample. NoIn actuality no monkey was harmed in the making of the scene,<ref name=faces>{{cite book|last1=Carter|first1=David Ray|editor1-last=Cline|editor1-first=John|editor2-last=Weiner|editor2-first=Robert J.|title=From the Arthouse to the Grindhouse: Highbrow and Lowbrow Transgression in Cinema's First Century|date=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|chapter=It's Only A Movie? Reality as Transgression in Exploitation Cinema|isbn=9780810876552|oclc=659730064|page=307|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKhqh3HFH8AC&pg=PA307|language=en}}</ref><ref name=hickey/> as the hammers beingwere made of foam and the 'monkey's head' was a prop filled with gelatin, red food coloring, and cauliflower to simulate brain matter.<ref name=hickey>{{cite web|url=http://deadspin.com/5855402/cut-back-to-a-wide-shot-open-the-skull-the-faces-of-death-guy-looks-back|title=Open The Skull: The Faces Of Death Guy Looks Back|author=Hickey, Brian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424194241/https://deadspin.com/5855402/cut-back-to-a-wide-shot-open-the-skull-the-faces-of-death-guy-looks-back|archive-date=24 April 2018|work=Deadspin|year=2012}}</ref>

Additional depictions in the decade following the release of ''Faces of Death'' contain scenes which reference the practice of eating monkey brains, including one from the 1984 film ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]'',<ref name=rode>{{cite thesis|last1=Rodewald|first1=Lucas Alan|title=Misrepresentation at the Movies: Film, Pedagogy, and Postcolonial Theory in the Secondary English Classroom|chapter=The Adventures of Teaching ''Indiana Jones'' in the World of the Other|publisher=[[Iowa State University]]|id=Document No. 10126564|pages=22–34|date=2016|degree=Masters|via=ProQuest Dissertations Publishing|location=Ames, Iowa|chapter-url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1797613897/}}</ref> the 1981 Japanese crime film ''[[Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (film)|Sailor Suit and Machine Gun]]'',<ref>{{cite AV media |author=Shinji Sōmai, director.|title=Sailor Suit and Machine Gun |title-link=Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (film)|date=1981|type=Motion picture|others=Written by Yōzō Tanaka. Produced by Kei Ijichi. Arrow Films |oclc=1274168469}}</ref> as well as dialogue from the 1985 comedy ''[[Clue (film)|Clue]]''.<ref>{{cite AV media |date=13 December 1985 |title=Clue|title-link=Clue (film) |type=Motion picture |publisher=Paramount / PolyGram|author=Jonathan Lynn, director.| others=Story by John Landis and Jonathan Lynn. Screenplay by Jonathan Lynn. Cinematography by Victor J. Kemper. Edited by David Bretherton and Richard Haines. Music by John Morris. Produced by Debra Hill.|isbn=9780792166214 |oclc=1004377222|quote=Monkey's brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often to be found in Washington, D.C.}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2022}} In addition to their shock value, what these scenes have in common are their representations of [[Orientalism]], which according to one author, Sophia Rose Arjana, work as [[Trope (cinema)|cinematic tropes]] used to "conflate bizarre and vulgarized representations of the Far East".<ref name=arjana>{{cite book|last1=Arjana|first1=Sophia Rose|title=Muslims in the Western Imagination|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199324927|pages=142–145|chapter=The Monsters of Orientalism|oclc=899007876|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHWbBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA143|language=en}}</ref>