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Posts: 14

Governor

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Q: Why is it common practice to use the streets as toilets?

Was walking home yesterday and saw a girl she was about aged 8-10... with her mom... and the little girl was taking a dump behind a car..

 

Went shopping in Aeon Supermarket... and a mother had her son pissing ... on the floor.... then she used a tissue to clean him up and just threw it on the floor...

 

 

Go to the waterfront in Huangdao and threaded in Human excrement... and also saw another little girl about age 12 taking a dump in the bushes... with her mom standing by with tissues.... There are toilets by the waterfront...

 

but what I wonder is why is it such common practice to use the streets as a restroom? .. I mean I know most toilets here are absolutely fowl and rank! .... but why don't they make an effort to clean them regularly? instead of turning to the streets...

 

 

9 years 39 weeks ago in  Culture - Qingdao

 
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You must be new to China, Mao didn't like toilets, but enjoyed squatting in the gardens' bushes to take a poop, his people adopted his habits. Brainwashing at its best.

876taylormade:

yes I am.... but my Chinese friends back home kind of told me about it.... but I didnt really believe.

 

Seeing it ... and hearing it is very different.... I am just shocked at how common placed it is.... no one even bats an eye lash

9 years 39 weeks ago
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Sinobear:

It's universal, though - dogs always look embarrassed when they have to defecate in public.

9 years 39 weeks ago
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876taylormade:

@Sinobear.. they dont look embarrassed to take shit in the streets... they're quite content and look relieved... 

9 years 39 weeks ago
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andy74rc:

Exactly. Sinobear was talking about dogs.....

9 years 39 weeks ago
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royceH:

Woah....I got into trouble for following this animal/people line a week or two ago.  

Tread carefully.

 

9 years 39 weeks ago
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9 years 39 weeks ago
 
Posts: 2531

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This question is asked a lot... some try say that the toilets are so foul.... or because they are kids it is okay... 

 

but I think some civilizations just developed and evolved faster than others. 

 

Most of the people doing this or allowing their children to do this are from rural China and moved to the big cities within the past 20-30 years. Chinese schools don't teach manners... and these people don't know any better, are too stupid... or just don't care because it wasn't important while trying to survive in the rural areas. 

 

Many of them HONESTLY, lived in caves and mud houses just 20-30 years ago. I am NOT kidding. I personally know some Chinese that were raised in mud houses and caves. I have been to a few myself. So you can't expect much... China is probably the only country that simultaneously has people living in caves while taking the speed train to a metropolis like Shanghai... and then crapping on its streets. Well... maybe India too.

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9 years 39 weeks ago
 
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I don't think it boils down to a single answer, it's a mix of many factors, culture and society with Chinese characteristics. I will try to list all the factors I know of.

- Kids are considered unable to control themselves, it's seems a common belief here. Golden rule, don't make a kid wait, don't require self-control from them, "they are too young for this". If a kid want to pee/poop, the practice is to not make them wait. Thus, those pants that leave the butt and sex free : you just catch the kid and he/she is ready to relieve himself/herself.

- It's how people behaved in the countryside until recently. Remember, one generation ago (the 80's), much more people were living in the countryside. And Chinese countryside was very backward by world standard. At the end of the civil war, Red Army recruits who stormed Shanghai had no idea what a toilet was...

 

- Kids are very often handled by the grand-parents, which tend to behave like in the countryside pre-90's.

- The whole concept of social responsibility, impact of a behavior applied at the level of society, individual responsibility, "what I do might be a problem for others"... all these, either for most people it's a complete alien concept they can't wrap their head around. Or they just don't give a damn. Tend to vary from people to people, usually a mix of both.

- The concept of rule, and rule enforcement is very lax and fuzzy in general. Rules are second to personal goals and needs.

So there, you can see kids pooping/peeing in public space on a weekly basis in 1st-tiers city. I'm not trying to make an excuse here, I just try to find a rational explanation.

royceH:

Father, forgive them.  They know not what they do.

 

9 years 39 weeks ago
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9 years 39 weeks ago
 
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If you asked a local the answer would be as simple as  THIS IS CHINA surprise

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9 years 39 weeks ago
 
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Have you ever been into a public toilet in China? There is your answer

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9 years 39 weeks ago
 
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The category of philosophy known as logic would have us ask what assumption/s do our ideas depend upon.

 

I mean, aren't we making the assumption that homo sapiens sapiens are not animals? I maintain that chinese have never drawn a difference between 'animal behavior' & 'human behavior'.

 

I can cite literally hundreds of examples to back-up my position.

 

:

I totally agree with what you said. The western culture thinks that humans are different. I'm finding my time in China different regarding this thought. Would you mind showing some examples please?

9 years 26 weeks ago
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9 years 39 weeks ago
 
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This has been asked too many times.

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9 years 38 weeks ago
 
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Humans have a natural will to evolve (improve themselves) and think.
Mao saw this as a threat and drilled it out of chinese society through a shatty school system and a pucked up family structure.
The only way to get chinese to improve their behavior is to shine an international light on it and embarrass them out of it.
Look at the improvement s made in the last 35 years, only due to international influence.
I got to cut it short but you get the point

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9 years 38 weeks ago
 
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Governor

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I seen people pee against the walls of the toilet,  or squat in front of the entrance (go figure). I seen women do this too (squat). Why is this?Only they know the answer.

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9 years 38 weeks ago
 
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I'm sure like many I can't count the amount of times I've seen this, from children to adults either 1s or 2s. In the last week or so I have seen 2 young girl's dumping in the street, one was aged around 10 the other 7-8, the older one left the restaurant to do her business outside in broad daylight. The younger just dumped on the park walk way while her grandmother or carer watched there were lots of trees to go behind. Last week a man of around 50 dumped in the middle of the road, Now I understand why Hong Kong natives get angry regards this matter. I find all these acts very embarrassing.

royceH:

Hahahahahahaha........ Good one.

 

9 years 36 weeks ago
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9 years 36 weeks ago
 
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There's not as much of this going on in my city.  Was more prevalent back in the East.

But that said, yesterday I was out and about taking some cool snaps before heading home for a holiday and as I pulled up to the red light a bus stopped along side me, driver switched on his hazard lights and jumped out and had a shit right there next to his bus.  Alongside the traffic lights.  I rode across the intersection and thought to stop to watch him and take a photo.  But I didn't...I just rode on and didn't look back.  

Now, what was that bloke thinking??  Well he wasn't.  Never does.  Him and his billion mates.

 

 

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9 years 36 weeks ago
 
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I've seen two kids pee on the subway in the last two days.  There was someone who snuck a puppy onto the subway on one of the same days and even that was better behaved. At least it's owner didn't let it piss on the floor. 

If you can't afford disposable nappies, why not use the old fashioned cloth ones? 

I don't know what happened this week but everywhere I look kids are peeing on the subway or being held over bins taking a piss or a dump. 

Scandinavian:

I fear, that the parents that hold their kids over a bin, to do this or that, are actually thinking they are doing the right thing.

9 years 36 weeks ago
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xunliang:

I know, right?  The other day I saw it happen, and the kid was embarrassed. It was his dirty grandma who was telling him to do it and even the kid himself didn't want to.  

9 years 36 weeks ago
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Let's just remind ourselves, that even though some of these zombies make the rest of the country look bad, it's still a minority or the population that doesn't even think about hygiene. Many Chinese try to be clean. Often they don't know how, with all the TCM mythology and superstitions and unthinkingly copied behaviour, but they do try. I have it on good authority from some of the more enlightened schools of religion, that God will let you into the Pearly Gates if you honestly *tried*. Let's be glad there is no mention of defecation or hygiene concerns in any of the afterlives I know of. Just avoid stepping on something nasty on that cloud in front of the Pearly Gates...

Scandinavian:

Isn't mankind created in the image of God. I'd say that means there is a likelihood of also stepping in a bad word beyond the pearly gates.  

9 years 36 weeks ago
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coineineagh:

Oh no! Plumbers make house calls when husbands are at work, so many of them aren't getting into the literal Gates because of their frequent visits to figurative 'gates of heaven'. I'm not sure if heaven is such a desirable neigbourhood after all, if they have a plumber shortage...

9 years 36 weeks ago
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9 years 36 weeks ago
 
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the water shortage excuse i hear from chinese does not work anymore and the dripping faucet at night to collect free water does not fly either, my water bill for 2 months has never been over 30 rmb.

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9 years 36 weeks ago
 
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The BBC has some insight on the same problem from india. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-28735449

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9 years 33 weeks ago
 
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