A Chinese herbalist will go without food for 50 days in full public view to prove he didn’t pull a fast one when he performed a similar feat last year, state media said on Wednesday.
Chen Jianmin, who hails from south-western Sichuan province, plans to live in a glass box placed on a stone platform in central Wuhan city from September 8, consuming only water, the Xinhua news agency said.
A Beijing-based advertising company that sponsors the show has promised 100 yuan (about R80) to anyone who can prove the 51-year-old is eating food on the sly, according to the agency.
Chen performed a 49-day fasting stunt last year inside a glass box suspended over a hillside in Sichuan, Xinhua said.
Although he lost 20kg, critics later said it was impossible to survive so long without food, claiming he must have been cheating.
In 2003, American magician David Blaine spent 44 days in a box suspended over the River Thames, surviving without food. — AFP