Not the best way to improve cross strait relations. A mainland Chinese mother has attracted online outrage after photos emerged of her letting her infant son poop on the floor at Taiwan airport, less than 25 metres away from a toilet.
The photo, published by NowNews, was taken by a Taiwanese tour guide. It shows the woman having spread out paper for the child to poop on, but the photographer said a toilet was less than a minute’s walk away.
One Taiwanese blogger, quoted by the SCMP, said: “There aren’t enough pubic toilets in China and the ones they do have are usually dirty. This might explain mainlanders’ poor hygiene habits.” While this statement, which smacks more than a little of xenophobia, might be true of public toilets in Chinese cities, toilets in Chinese airports are nearly always perfectly clean and hygienic.
On Weibo, Chinese netizens hung their heads in shame at their compatriot’s actions. “This is so embarrassing”, said one Chinese blogger.
A boy peeing out of the window of a bus in Xiamen late last year was later discovered to be an autistic, musical genius. Similar revelations seem less likely in this case.