Never in my life have I been more dizzied from cultural differences than the afternoon I saw the Girls’ Bathroom in a 4,000-student school of Yunyang, China.
It wasn’t that the bathroom was rather run-down and dirty that shocked me. No — I’ve been a teacher in large urban schools in Boston for seven years and have seen (and smelled) my share of dirty school bathrooms, and experienced all sorts of potties, globally during my travels.
BUT all of those toilets around the world had one blessed perk: PRIVACY. The giant shock for me about the China school toilets we toured was the fact that everyone is supposed to “do their business” with other people walking by and looking!
Study the first photo of this article. See those low walls? Those are the “stalls.” No door. No front of the stall to shield you. You just walk right in and squat, exposed.
Now here’s what REALLY made me almost faint: this is the bathroom the TEACHERS use, too! This would be my absolute worst nightmare: to be squatting, exposed, while my students walked by. It’s like a nightmare come to life for my cultural context.
Now, it would be one thing if this were a poor school we were visiting… but it wasn’t.
Not only did this school have a new computer lab, but it had a gorgeous, 20-foot-tall steel electric entrance gate.
Clearly the school had money… they just chose to spend it on the outer, most visible aspects of the school.
What a massive cultural difference! It’s not necessarily good nor bad; it just highlights what is and isn’t valued by each of our cultures.
What are YOUR thoughts on this particular school toilet situation?
The author, Lillie Marshall, is a 6-foot-tall National Board Certified Teacher of English, fitness fan, and mother of two who has been a public school educator since 2003. She launched Around the World “L” Travel and Life Blog in 2009, and over 4.2 million readers have now visited this site. Lillie also runs TeachingTraveling.com and DrawingsOf.com. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media!
Mia
Friday 20th of October 2023
I wouldn’t put this as a cultural difference. Among the Chinese teachers I personally know, nearly all (if not all) of them would carefully pick the time during the day when it is least possible to have students walking into school toilets (e.g. during classes, lunchtime etc.), to visit the toilets least possible to be visited by students (e.g. those on the floors with mostly teacher’s offices). It is also not uncommon for Chinese teachers to hold all day until all students have gone home or until they are back at home. I even know a teacher who would always walk 15 minutes to visit the bathrooms in a luxury mall near her school, so she doesn’t have to deal with those school bathrooms that are both dirty and having no privacy. She told me, because of this, she had many ‘close calls’, and almost every time I accompanied her to her favourite mall bathroom, she would be like ‘哎呦，差一点 (OMG, that was close)’, as she charged into an actual bathroom stall. Why do they do such things? It is because they value their privacy as much as their American equivalents. If you let them choose between a Chinese doorless stall and an American one, I bet all of them would choose the American stall in a heartbeat. So it is not a cultural difference you see here, but a manifestation of the situation.
Qiyin Y.
Monday 27th of April 2015
I think I once saw these toilets in the Hutong neighborhood of Beijing (or was it Shanghai) but there were no dividers at all. The squat toilets were right next to each other and it was so open.
Lillie
Tuesday 28th of April 2015
Yes! I saw those too! A big difference from what I'm used to.
Nathalie G
Monday 12th of January 2015
I personally would be very,very uncomfortable having to forcfully use a bathroom this way having everybody watching you do your business which needs privacy.Although we are all girlsin the bathrrom having at least one bathroom with a door would really help. Just to say if I was a millionare I would build better bathroom stalls for the school girls. (WITH DOORS)!!!!!!!
Sayraliz Manzanillo
Wednesday 7th of January 2015
Umm... If we had that toilet in our school I would file a complaint. I thought our bathrooms were pretty run down compared to my old school, I think I should be more grateful after reading this. If I went to this school I would probably not use the bathroom until I get home.
Robyn
Sunday 29th of December 2013
Interesting! I have treavlled to America (I'm from New Zealand) quite afew times and stayed in College dorms. I have always found the lack of privacy in American public bathrooms difficult to deal with. I hate the way that you can see through the gaps at the edge of the doors and there are huge gaps under the doors as well. The dorm showers often mean that you have to get dressed publicly. Makes me feel very uncomfortable.
Lillie
Monday 30th of December 2013
Such an interesting perspective!