Urban Legend: Baozi Bun Biohazard Part 2 or Mongolian Death Meat
Another version of yesterday’s delicious legend comes from Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Taking place in the 1980’s as well, it tells of a Chinese woman named Miss Wang who drove to work in Chifeng. But, one fateful day she was in a tragic auto accident and died. Her parents were notified and they went to go oversee the memorial services.
As Miss Wang’s mother was about to push her daughter’s body into the cremation chamber she felt the cover and noticed something amiss. She felt further up and the cover pressed down all the way. She pulled the cover off to unveil a horrible sight; her daughter’s body was missing a leg! She alerted the authorities and went to speak to the crematorium owner, Mr. Lee.
Mr. Lee eventually admitted that he removed the leg but he was no longer in posession of it. He explained that his brother was a popular chef in Beijing and because of the planned economy in China (I’m pretty sure they mean “communism”) pork tickets were very limited and his bun shop was failing.
So in order to make up for the ingredients he would often ask Mr. Lee for filler meat. Mr. Lee admitted that this had been going on for seven years. The police searched the brother’s resturant and found the leg in the freezer. The resturant was a very popular eatery and even had a franchise in Chifeng.
Those who found out why the place closed where most likely very grossed out at the whole situation. But, you, dear reader, can rest calmly knowing that this legend, while based on true events, is just a legend.
Urban Legend: Baozi Bun Biohazard
Since I did a Japanese urban legend yesterday, I’m going to do some Chinese urban legends today. So, I’m going to circle the globe, one urban legend at a time!
Today’s legend comes to us from Xidan, Beijing. In the 1980’s, the chef of a well known baozi resturant got into a fight with somebody and accidentally killed the person. The chef didn’t know what to do with the body so he decided to chop it up and use the meat for filling.
He opened the resturant the next day like normal and served the human-filled baozi. People liked the new “recipe” so the chef resorted to murder to keep his resturant on top. The sordid secret ingrediant in the baozi buns would eventually be unveiled when a doctor stopped at the resturant for lunch. He thought that the buns had a weird taste and smuggled some of the meat to be tested.
The tests came back and confirmed the doctor’s fears; the meat was indeed human. The doctor reported his findings to the police and the police searched the resturant to find a human leg in the freezer. The chef was arrested and the resturant closed down.
This tale probably sounds familiar if you saw Fruit Chan’s film “Dumplings”. The most chilling part about this tale is that by all accounts in China, this actually happened.
So, not so afraid of eating dog, cat or rat in China now are you? Maybe you should do what I do in Asian countries and just go vegetarian.
These are what baozi buns look like, by the way.
Day in the Life of an Aspirer 