China Gets Its Very Own Octomom [Video]

When Nadya Suleman had her 8 children she was given her own television show. China, which limits couples to just one child, probably isn’t going to have the same reaction to its own octomom.

The Washington Post reports that a Chinese couple paid two surrogates to help them have four boys and four girls. The couple paid nearly a million yuan ($160,000) for their octuplets and have started a debate on the use of surrogates, which China forbids, and how rich Chinese are able to skirt the countries laws.

But most of the Chinese population is too bewildered to be angry. Chinese Central Television news anchor Bai Yansong said at the beginning of a 20-minute report on China’s octomom:

“Heavens. To have one family with eight kids … in an era of family planning where most people have just one, the contrast is just too much… It doesn’t sound like news. It sounds more like a fairy tale.”

The Chinese media is referring to the mother as “babaotai muqin,” or “octomom,” a reference to Nadya Suleman.

Details about babaotai muqin are scarce at the moment. The Guangzhou Daily, a government paper, reports that the biological mother carried two children while the two surrogates carried three apiece. The babies were born in September last year, and according to the paper, they have been taken care of by 11 nannies.

Some, of course, say that the story is a hoax. The Guangdong Health Department says that China’s octomom is real, but refused to identify the couple due to privacy concerns.

Here’s a video about China’s Octomom from the Associated Press.