Chinese Culture Chinese Furniture

Chinese raping chair Wikipedia

The Chinese raping chair is a piece of torture equipment. Built like a modern reclining chair, it was designed to facilitate rape. With spring-loaded bands, it could be used to restrain a victim's arms and legs, then collapse him or her into a horizontal position.

Such chairs may not have been used only for rape—eighteenth century|eighteenth and nineteenth century Chinese novels mention them frequently as "romantic and comfortable chairs", but they are considered to have been originally made for that purpose.

Raping chairs were declared illegal under the Manchu reign and destroyed. The last extant raping chair is believed to have been burned in 1949 after being discovered in a Szechuan province mansion.

Last Modified:   2005-02-26