Summary of the Rumor:
There are several versions of this Rumor. Some are regarding China. Others are regarding Taiwan. They all claim that aborted fetuses are being purchased for cooking and eating. Many of the Rumor emails include pictures of an Asian man who appears to be eating a barbecued baby.
The Truth:
These Rumors about babies being a delicacy in Taiwan or China are a hoax. The realistic looking pictures are of a controversial Chinese Artist from Shanghai named Zhu Yu. According to the Taipei Times newspaper, he has an artistic performance titled "Infatuation on Injuries." A part of the presentation is a scene he calls "Man-Eater" during which he appears to be eating from a cooked human fetus. In his interview with the Taipei Times, he admitted that it is a real fetus that was stolen from a medical school and that he cooked himself.
A Malaysian tabloid paper titled Perdana published pictures of Zhu Yu's performance but claimed they were from a Taiwanese restaurant that served the fetuses to customers. The article infuriated Taiwan, which does not condone eating human flesh, and the government demanded the paper print a retraction.
It should be pointed out that even though this story about fetuses being menu items and sold for food us not true, there are cultures, including Asian ones, that believe in magical powers of ingesting various unusual biological substances such as placentas, umbilical cords and stillborn or aborted fetuses.
Last updated 12/31/01
A real example of the story as it has been circulated:
I got this message from my friend and here I am forwarding to all of you to see some facts going on in this world. Hope u all co-operate in eradicating this evil thing.
What u are going to witness here is a fact, Don't get Scared!
"It's Taiwan's hottest food..." In Taiwan, dead babies or fetuses could be bought at $50 to $70 from hospitals to meet the high demand for grilled and barbecued babies ... What a sad state of affairs!!
Please forward this message to as many people as u can so that it can be seen by the world and someone takes action on the same. It is a thing against human race and unless we people of the world put hand to hand to eradicate this custom this will not end. Even the word impossible says i m possible.
So friends hope u spread this message as far as u can take care.