C It’s something familiar to all parents of young children: you’re in a busy shopping street and your child wants to pee (小便) and he just can’t hold it any longer. But two parents’ decision to let their child relieve (释放) himself has caused much attention in China. By now, it seems, the whole Chinese Internet is familiar with what happened on a crowded Hong Kong shopping street. A mother holds a nappy (尿布) while her two-year-old pees. A passerby took pictures which then were put online. The woman explained that they had found a public toilet (厕所) but saw there was a long queue, so she had no other choice but to let their child to relieve himself on the street instead. Why has this one child’s act caused so much upset? Allowing a child under 12 to “answer the call of nature in any public street” is against the law in Hong Kong and the parents will face a 2,000 Hong Kong Dollar ($250) fine (罚款). But the on-line chatter has put all the attention on the fact that this family were tourists from mainland China, rather than being locals. “For Hong Kongers, people might think from time to time that mainlanders are not so polite and often break the public rules,” says Martin Yip of BBC. Charmaine Chui, who was born in Hong Kong, told BBC she feels angry to have seen mainland tourists peeing in shopping centers and restaurants. “Hong Kong is a beautiful, modern city. What do these people think of it?” she says. In mainland China, there has also been criticism of the parents’ behavior. But most of the people say they find the parents’ behavior understandable as they had tried to find a toilet for their child and the mother used a paper nappy rather than simply allowing the baby to pee on the ground. 小题1:The child peed ________ in HK.
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