Scary Anatomy Museum
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHOUZHUANG, no. 42
Another thing that I did not understand, in addition to the legend of Wansan pork hock and the location of tea plantations, is why on the return trip from Zhouzhuang to Shanghai our next stop was The Museum of Mystery of Life. The bus group disembarked at a warehouse-style building. Tickets were arranged and a guided tour began, this time entirely in Chinese. The first exhibit of a flayed open mouthed shark was an incongruous segue from charming historic river town to aquarium, but not particularly unsettling. That changed quickly. The exhibits were equal parts fascinating and terrifying. A complete inventory of real animal and human parts followed. A small sample of the marvels the museum contained are below. Despite knowing that a similar human anatomy show traveled in the US in 2011, this installment of my China photo essay is the first one that I considered censoring, not due to Chinese sensitivities but to American.
laterally sliced dolphin
sliced dolpin with eggs in utero
goat skeletons
the geoduck clam
the breast of cattle
the uterus of cattle, the uterus of dog, the uterus of goat, the uterus of monkey (counterclockwise from top)
the penis of horse, the penis of pig, the penis of rat, the copulatory organ of lizard, the penis of dog, the penis of mankind (left to right)
fully flayed woman in dancer pose
fully flayed man in running pose, with da Vinci drawings of foot bones on the wall
fully flayed man holding man-sized skin
fully flayed woman with fetus in utero
the conjoined fetus, the anencephalus with spina bifida, the meningocele, the malformation of body (left to right)
fetal development in one month intervals
two young women contemplating fetuses
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