See Through Glass Bathroom Walls in Hotels in China

Now this is high quality travel journalism 🙂

Hope you guys are well!

(After a flurry of typing, I read over what I wrote and realized I have went off tangent from the spirit of your article and do apologize from the rant below, I’m pretty sure you did not mean any negativity at China and your article was forwarded to me by an Chinese colleague irritated by the generalization.)

Now to what I wrote:

This article is a generalization of Chinese having no problem taking a dump with an audience. You also mentioned the mother and child scene and left it to infer it was ok for the Chinese mother/son to take a dump in view of each other (the Asian culture) and not so for you (the Western culture). How does that work you ask? They are probably as irked by it as you were and find ways to cover the glass walls. The glass wall bathroom is as much a novelty in China as it is in these upscale hotels in the article I mentioned. But you make it as if its normal. I’ve had my share of travelling to many different areas of China, the spectrum range from Wulumuqi to Hong Kong and have stayed in a fair share of hotels. Some good, some just.. terrible. I’ve encountered more “regular” walled bathrooms than glass wall ones. And the ones I’ve been to have blinds or curtains, inside the bathroom as well as outside. I’ve never seen one without any covers.

I did not say I have never seen the half partition squat style toilets in China. When I first came here and went into the “lao jiu fang” (Old house) community’s public bathroom, I was kind of.. shocked.. But I don’t see them that often anymore. It is not common and are being replaced (if budget in that community allows). (I still go use a public bathroom in a lao jiu fang community as I go learn taichi there. Nope.. no waist level divider).

I will note that I don’t travel to far off places often and my main place of residence is Shanghai (sometimes Beijing), and the people I socialize are mainly in those cities, I don’t see these toilets much in these cities and despite the number of people (and bathrooms) in these cities they are just a sampling of China as a whole.

I’m sure you can point out all those waist-level divider bathrooms, and I can point out the “modern” bathrooms outnumber the ones you are talking about. But your articles makes it as if that is the norm and some (or many) of your readers who never been to China won’t know the difference.

Same goes with the cultural difference of taking a dump. The majority of 35-40 year olds (my generation) and younger will find that type of bathroom you described quite disgusting (from my colleague, “We like to shit the same way Americans do, privately”). I can’t speak of the older generation as I don’t socialize with them as much. I know b/c I was shocked when I saw those first hand I asked my local colleague and friends about it. Yes… I was one of those snooty foreigners that would often make comparison between US and China’s way of life when I first came here. Again, my information are from the people I work with and the people I’ve interacted with so sampling may have some bias. Your article says of the social practice of defecating in China (and the examples and theories your provided) represents All Chinese.

My point is not to argue about the specs of a bathroom, but rather the generalization you make to a country’s mindset as a whole in a country where its mindset, despite progressing like molasses in many many areas, are making strides in others, especially considering the condition they began from the Communist regime. I do agree that, despite the face time that big cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guanzhou gets, most of China still has long ways to go. And sometimes for your readers, these generalization are all they go by. Kind of like basing the history of Pearl Harbor from Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsdale.

“Come on… chill,.. it is just an amusing piece about toilets… really, why so serious?”

Perhaps I’m just a bit sensitive given the recent reaction in the Muslim world about the video or the anti-Japan sentiments in China, but it’s these over-generalized article that builds up resentment from the subject matter’s locals that read it and get agitated by it. By no means is this article in any league with that of the Muslim video, as this article gets more of a chuckle and a “head shake” by me and my Chinese colleague. But I’ve had the same colleague asking me “why you Americans always make general assumptions about us. Like your movies always portray us as farmers in rice patties.” In my mind, I’m like “you guys do it too.” But putting finger pointing aside, I’m an expat that is based here and what we write about overseas affects the people that live in said overseas. It creates resentment, which adds up, and its the expat here that gets the brunt of it.

Take the recent lashing out of all things Japan in China in the past two weeks. China is not a good place for a Japanese to be (nor are Japanese cars and shops) right now. Our company had three of our Japanese-made cars keyed with the words “Chinese Traitors”. I talk among the locals here and I made a comment that what the Chinese do to the Japanese here in China affect the Chinese living in Japan and same goes with however you treat foreigners (Americans for example) here in China is the same way the Chinese Americans are going to be treated in the States.

Again, some may say… “why so serious?” But usually they are the ones in their safe environment. Tell that to any American living in Pakistan or Libya or a Japanese (specifically my colleague) living in Shandong Linyi. They are not exactly parading with national pride right now.

I apologize as this was the place where I ranted and I sincerely doubt the writer had any negative intention and treated this piece as just a fun fun piece. ( I have not seen other articles written by the writer).