January 18, 2014

"Claim: Photograph shows a man eating a dead baby served at an Asian restaurant."

"The photographs" — shown here —  "were taken seriously by a number of law enforcement agencies who viewed them, and both Scotland Yard and the FBI investigated this matter, trying to determine when and where the pictures were taken and the identities of those appearing in them."
The origins of the images were quickly uncovered: The man in the photographs is Chinese performance artist Zhu Yu, who staged a conceptual shock piece called "Eating People" at a Shanghai arts festival in 2000. Maintaining that "No religion forbids cannibalism, nor can I find any law which prevents us from eating people," Zhu Yu acted out a performance in which he appeared to eat a stillborn or aborted child (likely constructed by placing a doll's head on a duck's carcass) and said that he "took advantage of the space between morality and the law and based my work on it."

The controversial photographs have since been part of a number of art exhibits and caused another stir in 2003 when they were aired on television in the UK as part of the Beijing Swings documentary...

17 comments:

Bob Boyd said...

I didn't find this believable because who drinks orange juice with baby? Yuck.

F said...

Bob: Would you recommend a merlot?

Bob Boyd said...

A nice Malbec. Or a diet Coke.

Chef Mojo said...

A nice Chianti...

CWJ said...

Orange juice? No, It's Tang.

tim maguire said...

If it's legal, why were Scotland Yard and the FBI investigating?

Bob Boyd said...

Tang was the baby's name.

CWJ said...

Family name or given name?

madAsHell said...

To paraphrase Obi Wan:
These are not the comments that Althouse is looking for.

Uncle Pavian said...

Actually, the Torah forbids the eating of humans, on the basis of how we cheweth not the cud, nor divideth the hoof. Leviticus chapter 11.

Uncle Pavian said...

Actually, the Torah forbids the eating of humans, on the basis of how we cheweth not the cud, nor divideth the hoof. Leviticus chapter 11.

dbp said...

On the subject of baby-eating, here is my anecdote...

I was in the Marine Corps Reserve for 11 years, but never got to be in a war zone. The closest I ever got was in the first gulf war; my unit got deployed, but not to the gulf--to Japan.
So I have no direct war stories, but I have heard plenty: My Dad was a career Air Force pilot and he went to Vietnam a number of times and came home with stories. Also, I joined the Marines in 1981, so a lot of the men I worked with had been in Vietnam too.

One guy had been in the infantry in Vietnam, but when I met him he was going through electronics school and joining the Air Wing. He was the kind of guy you didn't know whether to fear or not: He had a round and innocent-looking face, but had biceps the size of my thighs. Also, he was a Sergeant, and supposedly this was the third time he had earned this rank, having punched-out superiors and been busted back to private twice. He had some great stories though.

One went like this:

When on patrols he and his fellow Marines would sometimes shoot game to eat. Well, they had shot a monkey, skinned it and had it on a spit over a fire and one of the guys observed that it looked like a baby. So, our friend took a Polaroid picture of it (the old fashioned kind where you peel the paper off after a minute--or whatever). Then, when he got back to the base he wrote on the back of the picture, "See Mom! Marines really do eat babies". Put it in an envelope and mailed it to his Mom.

After we all had a good laugh, one of the guys inevitably asked, "What does monkey taste like"? "Just like baby, but a little more stringy."

Actually, I made-up that last part. But that is only fair, the older Marine probably made up his whole story too.

Bob Boyd said...

CWJ said...
Family name or given name?

Tang He Chow

cassandra lite said...

Whether or not it happened, it does seem odd that the authorities are more exorcised about eating a dead child than the (possible) abortion that made it dead.

FWBuff said...

"The history of the world, my sweet,
Is who gets eaten and who gets to eat.
But one thing certain is also clear
That everybody goes down well with beer!"

-- Sondheim, "A Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd

Jason said...

I don't like to eat Chinese fetuses. The problem with eating a Chinese fetus is that it tastes good when you're eating it, but half an hour later, you feel diabolical all over again!

CWJ said...

"Tang He Chow"

So family name then.