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Bottom-up approach required to tackle problem of China’s filthy public toilets
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IN an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Li Jinzao, head of the National Tourism Administration, announced that a storm of revolution will be sweeping China’s public toilets.
In the interview published last Tuesday, Li responded to long-standing complaints from tourists that public toilets at many Chinese scenic spots are so dirty that people are reluctant to use them. Fetid toilets have been one of the biggest issues holding back China’s reputation as a well-regarded tourist destination, Li said.
He related the story told by an overseas Chinese, who visited the Three Gorges in central China in the fall of 2013, and chanced upon a group of more than 100 foreign tourists. They were effusive in their praise of almost every aspect of China’s tourist facilities and services, with one big exception: the public toilets. One woman recounted the unpleasant experience of wetting herself as she was unable to find a clean toilet seat to sit on.
The general dirtiness of public toilets at many tourist sites undermines the otherwise polished image China’s tourist managers try to portray to the outside world. It threatens to undo all the efforts aimed at promoting the country’s brand of tourism, claimed Li.
The shame evoked by negative stereotypes about Chinese toilets is further compounded by overseas trips that expose an increasing number of Chinese to the immaculate facilities in other countries — typically Germany and Japan — where great importance is traditionally attached to sanitation and good hygiene. Visitors can expect such high standards even in the most unlikely places.
I vividly recall an experience during a bathroom break several years ago in a remote beach resort in the Philippines.
I had expected a primitive latrine on entering a wooden hut with a sign indicating it was the toilet, only to marvel at the polished marble tiles and a shiny white porcelain flush toilet inside. Upon my exit, a woman waiting outside dutifully ladled water from a bucket, poured it on my feet and rinsed off the sand.
During the interview, Li pointed out that a low regard of toilets — seen merely as a repository for bodily waste — is deeply rooted in Chinese culture, so much so that even to mention them is considered crass in civilized discourses. “But toilet is not a byword for filth, nor is it a garbage dump. It ought to be where people go for relaxation and enjoyment,” Li was quoted as saying.
Toilet manners
If only it were the case. Critical of the fact that billions of yuan have been splurged on sprucing up facilities at tourist sites, with the glaring exception of toilets, Li recommended that equal attention be paid to the construction of clean, well-serviced toilets, complete with proper hygiene standards.
But better maintenance is only part of what is needed to make China’s toilets more inviting. “Toilet manners” are just as important — and need to drive home the message of fighting selfishness in using public conveniences.
Many Chinese would feel disgusted at the sight of smudges of excrement clinging to the toilet bowls in their homes, but presumably wouldn’t bother to clean up after themselves in public toilets. Such pervasive selfishness leads to public toilets being trashed, and the large volume of visitors at tourist sites just makes matters worse.
Men using urinals can avoid leaving puddles on washroom floors if they do as suggested by the ubiquitous slogans plastered on toilet walls, which — however ludicrously phrased — do have a point: “One small step forward, a big step toward civilization.”
Rooting out selfish public behavior is essentially at the heart of China’s so-called toilet revolution. That can come down to railing against, say, casually casting cigarette butts into urinals, which will eventually cause blockages. And children need to be taught at an early age to treat public washrooms as an extension of their family toilets.
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