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Today’s Beijing News reports about controversy regarding a sign that hangs outside a lavatory door. It reads: “Workmen Strictly Forbidden to Enter”.
The toilet is for those that wander between the shops of Sanlitun Village – Beijing's lavish outdoor shopping mall that is home to Nike and Adidas stores as well as China’s first official Apple shop. According to one member of management, the toilet is there exclusively for the use of customers and explains that “the breeding of some of these workers is pretty low; they will only make the toilet dirty which will affect its use for our customers”.
I often wonder what it must be like for these men to see things so close, yet so far out of reach. In Sanlitun, such contradictions could not be more striking. The goods for sale in the very shops they build and decorate cost several times their monthly wage. Likewise, these migrant workers - tanned skin and dusty shoes, ripped trousers and bad teeth - would not attract a second glance from the young ladies that parade down the neighbouring bar strip. And now it seems these "have-nots", who are owed so much from China's capitalist revolution, must now be content not to piss alongside China's new generation of "haves".
Today’s Beijing News reports about controversy regarding a sign that hangs outside a lavatory door. It reads: “Workmen Strictly Forbidden to Enter”.
The toilet is for those that wander between the shops of Sanlitun Village – Beijing's lavish outdoor shopping mall that is home to Nike and Adidas stores as well as China’s first official Apple shop. According to one member of management, the toilet is there exclusively for the use of customers and explains that “the breeding of some of these workers is pretty low; they will only make the toilet dirty which will affect its use for our customers”.
I often wonder what it must be like for these men to see things so close, yet so far out of reach. In Sanlitun, such contradictions could not be more striking. The goods for sale in the very shops they build and decorate cost several times their monthly wage. Likewise, these migrant workers - tanned skin and dusty shoes, ripped trousers and bad teeth - would not attract a second glance from the young ladies that parade down the neighbouring bar strip. And now it seems these "have-nots", who are owed so much from China's capitalist revolution, must now be content not to piss alongside China's new generation of "haves".
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Of course, “To get rich is glorious”. And sooner or later, like piss on pristine porcelain, wealth always trickles down, right?
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5 comments:
No kidding! Well written and thoughtful post! Its not a good direction for China to start going towards... Can you post a picture of this sign? Would like to read in Chinese how it is written. Thank you, Mark
Whereas in Londinium, we have to pay to take a piss. Surely this is similar to "Workmen Strictly Forbidden to Enter”. Except it is a very British way of keeping "low breeders" out.
Mark - According to the article, the sign read: 严禁施工人员进入.
Wainwrizzle - But that's fine in Britain, a place where "low breeders" can afford a twenty pence piece (or should that be a twenty pence piss!?).
Personally I always make a point of jumping the barrier in places where they try to charge 20p, on grounds of principle of course, not because I am cheap. Pissing is a basic human right in my eyes, if you don't piss you will eventually die of poisoning from the urea that your body is trying to get rid off, so the government should be responsible for providing free urination facilities in busy public areas to ensure the health of their citizens. I once argued to the attendant in a train station who tried to bar my way out of the toilets whose barrier I had jumped. My argument (apparently known only to me as far from watertight) worked.
And now it seems these "have-nots", who are owed so much from China's capitalist revolution, must now be content not to piss alongside China's new generation of "haves"..Of course, “To get rich is glorious”.
So, do you think about those poor men while you are fucking those great Chinese women?
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