Mommy, where do babies come from?

A recent CCTV segment focusing on the lack of sex education in Chinese schools featured a reporter asking people in the street where they were told they came from when they were children.

Some of the replies were nothing short of hilarious, if not wildly bizarre, including "sprung from a stone" and "flipped out from underneath the bed."

But many of the foreigners living in Beijing faced similar confusion when trying to grasp the birds and the bees as children.

So Metro Beijing took to the phones and streets to find out what foreigners were told when they asked the age-old question: "Where did we come from?"


Name: Fernanda Morena

Age: 28

Origin: Brazil

Occupation: Journalist

Lives: Gulou

My mother had a book, called Where Babies Come From. She would show it to my sister, but she wouldn't show it to me.

Sometime after, I saw a chicken and a rooster getting it on. The rooster jumped on the hen, and bit her on the head. I asked myself, "Why wouldn't my father do it like that to my mother?"

Then they showed me the book. It felt weird because I couldn't understand how animals did it one way and my parents did it another way.


Name: Alexander Glazer

Age: 40

Origin: Germany

Occupation: Architect

Lives: Near Sanyuan Bridge

My parents were very matter-of-fact with what they told me, very Germanic. I was very young, maybe 5 or 6 when I asked and they told me about the flower and the honeybee. They said, "It's very simple. There are flowers and there are honeybees. The honeybee will look for the prettiest and sweetest flower. It will sit on it making the honey and shortly after will collect the baby."

I didn't know what to think but I guess I understood the analogy.

It's a good analogy.


Name: Emre Omakapu

Age: 27

Origin: Turkey

Occupation: Research Engineer

Lives: Wudaokou

I must have been about 6 or 7 when I first asked my father where I came from. The first time, he just pretended to be preoccupied with something and I dropped the subject for a day or two. Finally, I managed to corner him and I asked him again. He didn't say anything but just sort of did a 360 degrees pirouette on his feet like a slow motion Michael Jackson dance move or something.

He clapped his hands once as he came to face me again. Then he said, "That's where babies come from." I was stunned. I knew he was lying. It had to be more complicated than that. I mean according to his theory, he should have created a baby on the spot right there and then, right? I was too young to be able to argue with facts against him, so I just left it, but I knew something was up.