By Tom Bannister
The photo of a passenger peeing out of the window of a public bus in the Fujian city of Xiamen, has been much circulated by Chinese social media users. Unsurprisingly it provoked yet another round of soul-searching about the morality and civic consciousness of the Chinese people. There was much to compare and contrast the incident with, including a recent near like-for-like incident on the Hangzhou subway. The main difference, and best defence, of the Hangzhou accused, was that he was a baby. Many users understood the man’s plight but argued that he should have just wet himself. Many considered this a better option than losing face by being so uncivilised. One (arguably racist but probably not really) user @LR不要曬成黑人 (“I don’t want to tan myself into a black man”) said: ” I really didnt believe that such an uncivilised person could be in such a civilised city” whereas @604三丫头 asked: Is this a wild person who has just come down from the mountains? “. @安静的安静少爷 said：”Peeing on public buses is a real problem. You are not embarrassed by it but I will be embarrassed for you!”.手机用户2359166581 said:
Needing to go for a pee is quite understandable but it is not enough an excuse to be uncivilised. He should have just held it in and if he really had to go then he should have just pee’d inside his trousers – it’s surely better than losing face in front of so many people. An uncivilised disgusting act such as this can suddenly occur in a civilised harmonious society. His suzhi [quality] is too low, how humiliating.
. In contrast @天高云淡0029 empathised with the bus-pee man’s plight：
Totally understand! Once I was standing in a bus for nearly an hour…..when I got off I already started running before the bus doors had shut….my bladder hurt all night! I regretted not going for a wee on the road.
@ZT杨天栋 took a balanced approach：
At first glance the suzhi [quality] of this man appears to be very poor. However if you think about it carefully, are our public facilities reasonable? Do they satisfy our requirements? Anyway I think that in many places the public toilets are too few
