Wild animals like these are believed to be the source off the coronavirus pandemic coronavirus cases the growing coronavirus outbreak.

Researchers say it stemmed from this wet market in Wuhan, China.

Images of the market from early December, taken by a concern customer, indicate it was apparently selling other live wild animals, including skin, birds, snakes and raccoon dogs.

And now that the virus has become a worldwide pandemic, we're hearing this question a lot.

Why do Chinese people eat everything?

Do Chinese people eat everything?

I think that really depends on who you're talking.

Teoh.

This is why Chinese a Siri's where were debunking common stereotypes about Chinese people?

One Google search at a time.

There's a saying in Chinese Fiji, Zhang Tian Zhen, Xiu Xiu It means that if something's back is facing the sky, it's for people to eat on.

What might not seem like food to you could be a delicacy to the Chinese.

She's a Taiwan trio.

So we got some non Chinese people to try some common Chinese dishes.

Yeah.

Ah, sweet baby.

Jesus.

Okay.

Is it snake soup?

How did you know?

I e mean, I just figured adventurous like.

All right, Well, I'm gonna trust him.

Snake them.

Not bad.

Not sure if I eat again, because it's kind of scary doing something I would say.

Like like e Don't know an egg you would find in your attic like a nice like, musty like ancient like like an egg your grandmother bequeathed to you sort of fast.

If you had, like, a wet socks that's dirty and it's been sitting in your laundry basket for a week.

That's what it smells like.

I know it's gonna be something weird.

This is made from a turtle shell.

Forgive me.

Does the turtles stay alive after we take the shell?

That's a no.

I'm eating a murder turtle right now.

To a person who is not familiar with Chinese cuisine, it might seem like the Chinese palette knows no bounds.

So why do Chinese people seem to eat so many more types of meat than the rest of the world?

Here are some reasons sure, in the D.

V one gene woman, The one China Woman number one.

Geography.

China is a vast and geographically diverse country.

It has nearly 10% of all plant species and 14% of animal species on Earth, uh, with a, uh, dd quite in the profit.

So if you're, uh, for the your, uh, tha tha tha tha tha has resulted in very different diets across different parts of the country.

If you're, you know, talking to your average city person and some higher Beijing or 10 new you know, chances are they're very similar, Thio say, like an American, the only pork, beef and chicken Um, but if you go into more rural places, they will probably eat more adventurous things.

The province of Sichuan consumes the most rabbit in the country, and rabbit head is a delicacy.

There's not much meat to it, but people like it for the texture.

Number two Traditional Chinese medicine Many plants and animals end up being used in traditional Chinese medicine doing it inside life.

So here are a few examples.

Bear bile is used to treat liver and gall bladder conditions.

Fat meat is good for asthma.

Donkey hide or Tokyo, is believed to improve blood circulation and treat conditions like anemia.

Texts on traditional Chinese medicine identify more than 1500 animal species that could be used for medicinal purposes another reason is religion.

90% of Chinese people consider themselves irreligious and don't have the kind of food taboos you might find.

And faiths like Judaism and Islam Institution.

Uh huh.

Sure, Uh, Kendra, Ohio is not how you want to share with you Soothe.

So it took a scythe.

On top of these three reasons.

Just a few decades ago, one big law really shaped China's wildlife industry.

In 1988 the wildlife protection Law encouraged the domestication and breeding of wildlife for various purposes, including for food.

About 30 years later, in 2016 the government limited wildlife breeding the only scientific research and preservation.

But by then, the wildlife farming industry was already booming, employing millions of people and feeding millions more.

To this day, wild animals can still be found in wet markets and restaurants across China.

But even though they might be available on Lee, a minority of people are consuming them.

Less than 1% of people said they would still eat wild animals in a survey conducted this year by a wildlife conservation agency in China.

Sure, Chinese people eat everything, but so do many other cultures around the world, or once upon a time, everyone ate everything.

It's just with industrialization and how we've domesticated.

A lot of farm animals that are protein choices have become more limited.

So even though there are weird and bizarre dishes in Chinese cuisine, and the ingredients are more diverse than in most of the world in their day to day lives, most Chinese people eat pretty much the same meats as most of the world.

So why is there this global fascination with the weird fringes of Chinese cuisine?

Accusations of Chinese people eating questionable meat date as far back as the time of Marco Polo, when he called Chinese people barbaric for eating snakes and dogs.

It continued into the 19th century, when Chinese immigrants started moving to the United States.

Their eating habits became yet another way to alienate them on the stereotype continues to this day.

I think just growing up and even bringing Chinese, which is school people, are all that's gross, and I remember during Show Intel during seventh grade, I all I had to do was like, Oh, my dad eats sea cucumber and everyone was absolutely fascinated on the dog.

Trump does come up every now and then, but I think growing up in California, people have tired of that joke.

I think when people have these, um, remarks about, Oh, do you guys eat dog?

I think it's just born out of ignorance, and they know very little about China or have never been to China.