www.boingboing.net/2009/03/06/biography-of-the-las.html
Sun Yaoting, China's last living eunuch (Left, standing with his biographer, Jia Yinghua). In 1911 when he was eight years old, his father castrated him with a razor in preparation of "an imperial life of riches." After the Communists came to power in 1949, Sun and other surviving eunuchs were despised as freakish symbols of the feudal past. He was nearly killed during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, and his siblings were so fearful of persecution that they threw away his bao, or treasure: the severed genitals that eunuchs kept pickled in a jar so they could be buried as complete men. It was not until the final years of his life that Sun was recognized as a rare living repository of history. A biography based on hours of interviews in the years before his death in 1996 was recently translated into English. The book arrives as a museum dedicated to eunuchs, built around the tomb of a 16th century eunuch, is undergoing a major expansion.
March 6, 2009 11:38 AM Not only he's an eunuch, but also a time traveler? Man, I don't know, I mean I love to time travel, but I also love to have sex with my boner.
GURPS Alphabet Arcane Briefly: There's a bunch of immortal imperial eunuchs wandering about, the last survivors of a lost jungle realm. If you can get one of the jars containing their pickled privates, you command the loyalty of the corresponding eunuch.
March 6, 2009 12:33 PM "Briefly: There's a bunch of immortal imperial eunuchs wandering about, the last survivors of a lost jungle realm. If you can get one of the jars containing their pickled privates, you command the loyalty of the corresponding eunuch." Funny that having them by the balls works even if said balls are no longer attached.
March 6, 2009 1:08 PM #12: Never thought about it that way, but yes. Full disclosure: I got the idea from a scene in The Last Emperor, in which the embezzeling court eunuchs are allowed to keep their ball-jars as they ejected from the Forbidden Palace . because even stealing from the emperor isn't a bad enough crime to deny a guy a chance to have his package in heaven.
March 6, 2009 2:24 PM Castration has a rich and varied history. Until the beginning of the 19th century castratos were opera superstars in Europe. The last known Church castrato actually lived long enough for his voice to be recorded (you can hear him on YouTube).
March 6, 2009 3:06 PM The day before our two male kittens were to be fixed, I had the following exchange w/ my wife: Wife: What exactly are they going to do to the cats?
March 6, 2009 3:28 PM i grew up watching chinese movies. i've always assumed that they were castrated so they couldn't impregnate the females in the royal household though.
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