Chinese water torture is the popular name for a method of torture in which water is slowly dripped on to a person's forehead, driving the victim insane. This form of torture was described by Hippolytus de Marsiliis in Italy in the 16th century. The torture in dripping water is the slow rate at which the water flows. The victim can almost predict when the next drop will fall and a sense of tension builds up. When the drop finally does fall, a sense of shock and relief follows, only to be replaced with more tension about the next drop. The release of tension (no matter how small it is) prevents the victim from withdrawing inside themselves. As the torture does not require interaction on the part of the torturer it can be done continuously, without breaks.
It is unclear whether this form of torture was ever used by the Chinese. The popularity of the term "Chinese water torture" may have arisen from Harry Houdini's Chinese Water Torture Cell (introduced in around 1913: a feat of escapology which entailed Houdini being bound and suspended upside-down in a locked glass and steel cabinet full to overflowing with water, from which he escaped) together with the Fu Manchu stories of Sax Rohmer that were popular in the 1930s (in which the evil Fu Manchu subjected his victims to various devious tortures, such as the wire jacket).
"Chinese water torture" may also refer to forms of torture (also known as the water cure and water boarding) in which a person is placed in a closed box and water is slowly dripped into the box until it fills up and the victim drowns, or a rag is stuffed into the mouth of a prisoner and water is dripped onto it until the rag swells and suffocates the victim, or a heavy cloth is draped over a persons head and water is dripped onto the cloth so it adheres to the victim's head, also causing suffocation.
External links
