Since orangutans are scientifically known to have lived in China until 10.000 years ago and I always assumed they survived actually much longer, I always thought the Chinese Yeren is a continental species of orangutan. But is this confirmed ?

Are there any source to suggest it is a hominid ? Obviously bipedalism in itself is not enough because most great apes started as being bipedal like Hylobatids.

While not even a mere report, but just an element of the cultural influence the Yeren gad in China, I found this...

Among the more popular was Song Youxing's A Yeren Seeks a Mate which erotically described an attractive female yeren with big breasts and long hair, as such a subject is often portrayed both in literature and by eyewitnesses. It was particularly significant as the yeren was described as a loving wife (to an abducted husband) and mother, and the story juggles feminine sexuality with traditional family values, concepts under much discussion and evolution subsequent to the egalitarian and sexually conservative Mao Era. Ascribing such qualities to a normally savage subject makes for easy contrast with "civilized" people with differing values, popular in the midst of the "primitivism" trend of the 1970s and 80s in China, which celebrated "primitive" ethnic minorities.

I find the bit abput big breasts very interesting because the Almas, the much more humanlike cryptid of the not so distant Mongolia, is mostly represented as female, with large breasts and sometimes even interested in raping male humans and nurturing human babies. The Almas's own babies are also said to be identical to regular human babies.

It could easily be however the Almas legend influenced the way the Yeren is represented since Mongolia has governed China for nearly a century, and it did so well before Qing China conquered Mongolia itself.

While in China it was popularly associated with Gigantopithecus, which at the time was associated with Meh Teh, totally ignoring the quite average size of the Himalayan semi bipedal pongid, sometimes, likely due to the popularity of Peking Man as the "regional model theory" ancestor of East Eurasians, the Yeren was represented as Homo erectus, such as in this statues

According to Chinese researchers most of the Yeren sightings were misidentified bears, gibbons and rhinopithecus or macaques.

On the opposite side, a new study concludes the Yeren were West Eurasiabs with read beards

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Ffigure%2FChinese-drawing-of-the-yeren-dated-1986-16_fig1_350021271&psig=AOvVaw2yp4-DNA__7UW-xfh4gD2y&ust=1723140329956000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjhxqFwoTCMi5wo3W44cDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

I would argue if anything they would have been the Tarim Basin North Eurasians, a 4.000 years old people of 6 feet+ tall light haired barbarians clothed in fur, with 70% ANE admixture, rather than regular Europeans.