This is something I’ve seen quite a bit of. Most recently, today, just outside of the ZhongShan Middle School MRT station (keep in mind that this is a fairly busy stretch of sidewalk). That is, seeing a small kid relieve himself on a tree in the most public of places. And, to make the matter more puzzling, I have always seen the assumed mother holding the kids pants down and coaching him on how it’s done. Now, let’s put the obvious statements and questions aside (health issues, indecency issues, and the general statement this action makes about Taiwanese “society” as a whole) and focus on the most important issue here…why bother with the tree? 
Would you have him go on a fire hydrant? He’ll grow up to be a cheatin dog anyway, right? :s
I find that all this pee-pee thingy was disgusting until I visited Taiwan’s northern cousins for the summer. Try seeing kids with no diapers being held in Costco, over empty boxes relieving themselves when the bathroom is 5 yards away. :loco: Or that fresh morning smell of kids, taking a full crap on the street, during morning rush hour. Aha, the call of nature…
cuz ya need a target
As far as little kids pissing in public goes…big deal
Taking a whiz on a tree is a tree hugger`s wet dream.(you gotta love unintentional ryhmes)
As far as number two goes…there aint nothing worse then getting a whiff of a day old poo
You think that’s bad, my second week here some kid was launching a huge arc as tall as his head and probably a couple of yards horizontally, towards a tree while facing traffic, while his mother and little sister watched from a few feet away, just south of that same Zhongshan Middle School MRT stop. Hell, maybe it was the same kid. His family must be quite proud of his bladder muscle strength!
Now I, having quite rural roots, do well appreciate taking an outdoor whizz. However the public application of this here in Taiwan just amazes me. I regularly see aduly males pissing alongside busy streets in broad daylight making only the barest of attempts to conceal their actions. It seems to be accepted as the police seem unable to recall a civil ordinance prohibiting either public urination or public display of genitalia.
A month or so ago, the wife and I were with another couple having a Sunday supper in a local mid-level restaurant. Lo and behold, a few tables over, a young wanker was table dancing and flogging his little pecker for all to enjoy. This went on for 10 minutes or so. The mother oblivious to the act. Just didn’t give a damn.
Having my trusty digital with me, I can share this little wankers happiness with all…
I’m not counting , but since Thursday I’ve seen 5 people having a whizz in public. mmmm. Old or young it just doesn’t seem to bother 'em…
I often have to stop one kid in class pullin’ on his pecker. God, my classes must be exciting!
Where pissing in public is concerned, I honestly think it all comes down to laziness and lack of respect. :fume:
Now the granny, she was too much…only joking :raspberry:
I dunno, I can understand little kids needing to take a leak, and the other time I saw this sort of thing here it was a toddler being aimed at a sewer grating in an alley. Still, it’s weird.
In Boston, I saw four guys whizzing against a retaining wall at an outdoor parking lot. This wasn’t after the bars closed, it was midafternoon next to Commonwealth Avenue. Walking around the corner to go to the Post Office, I noticed a professor (English lit) taking a leak in some bushes. So I guess Taipei is marginally more civilized than Boston. 
What’s all the fuss? Dofu pees on trees every day.
i wonder if they would care if one of us tried peeing on one of the trees. 
would they stare at us?
How about the little boy who peed into a clear plastic bag (the kind that some places put soup in…) right in the middle of a busy government office, only to have mom or auntie tie off the bag and put it into her purse. I only prayed that the bag would leak. Or the mother who brought her daughter right next to me by the park bench for her to pee while I was on my cell phone to mom…nevermind that I was sitting right by the road…or that there was a clump of shady trees far back from the road where no one was where she could have had a little more privacy. I suppose she was hoping to get some free English lessons while the child pissed in the dirt. 
I have never witnessed this phenomenon of which you speak. That’s why all the trees in Taibei look dead, must be all that acidity.
On a different note, I was on a bus the other day and the guy holding the pole before me picked his nose. I couldn’t hold that same pole, obviously. There were fellows to my left and ladies on my right, and so I had to hold on to the poles they were holding, but not the one right in front of me. They both gave me weird looks like I was intruding on their space (which I was).
What to do in this circumstance? What is the etiquette? Should I have told the people on either side of me the reason or ignore their evil eyes?
You ain’t really been in Taiwan till you see little kids pee on trees.
ImanOIU, it’s just a natural thing to piss. I think this custom is quite quaint and follows the French tradition of pissing in public places. Accept it, IamnOUI, embrace it.
When in Rome…
I just enjoyed some outdoor relief not more than a few hours ago. I think cigarettes are a nastier habit, but that’s just me. This thread does remind me of my first month in Taiwan.
I was near the YongAn market MRT station coming or going to work and saw a grown man drop pants and take a leek into one of the grates on the sidewalk RIGHT in front of the MRT station (it was really busy too). I thought that’d end up being something I’d witness often, but never have to that extreme again. That concludes my post.
I was roller blading in the park last week with my kids and some others. One little girl was a bit quiet, went up to mum, said a few words, out came the plastic bag, quick spew, bag tied off and into the handbag. On with the blading…
I hope mum doesn’t lose her keys and dump the handbag contents on the kitchen table before checking first. Does spew clean off a Visa card?
I think the custom is extremely practical. The Taiwanese do not have the hangups about peeing and pooing that Westerners do. Why do you insist on judging the locals by your foreign standards instead of theirs? Quit trying to change them into reflections of your customs and mores. After all, customs like this is what makes Taiwan Taiwan and not Australian, or Canadian, or American, or British Etc Etc. Its what makes Taiwan such a unique experience, so enjoy it instead of dissing it. 
Hear Hear!
:bravo:
That’s true. The guys in the office next to mine are always talking on their cell phones while taking a leak.
I don’t know if the guys do so because they are Taiwanese or whether business men in the West also handle business calls while taking a leak, but I think it’s extremely unprofessional. Whoever is on the other end can hear the pissing, the flushing, the washing of hands afterwards (or not). I don’t think it’s a matter of different cultures – that’s just disrespectful and rude.
This is certainly true. When I first got here, it really bothered me when my Chinese teacher (in her late 50s) would excuse herself from the classroom by saying she had to go pee, and when my students would tell me whether they were going to pee or poo. This is definitely info I didn’t need! I’m used to it now.
Korea is even more matter-of-fact about elimination. Kid’s books there often have what would be considered too disgusting a theme in English. One popular one was titled “Who Took a Shit on my Head”; the protagonist (a mole, I think) had on his head what looked like a hat, but on closer inspection proved to be a coil of feces. He went up to various other animals, asked them if they were the culprit, and inspected their poo to see if it looked the same. I believe he finally discovered that the guilty party was a dog.
I had to research that one. And the dog did do the doo.
[quote=“justmorons.com”][url=http://www.justmorons.com/articles/day030519.html]Finally he enlists the help of two flies, who eat the offending chapeau right off his head and declare its vintage to be pure dog. The mole stalks furiously to the doghouse, climbs on top of it, and blasts a raisin-sized sausage of his own onto the sleeping bloodhound’s head. Grimly satisfied at last, he goes back down into his hole.
The end.[/url][/quote]
Turns out it was a German book translated into English.
You gotta love google sometimes.
[quote=“miltownkid”]I had to research that one. And the dog did do the doo.
[quote=“justmorons.com”][url=http://www.justmorons.com/articles/day030519.html]Finally he enlists the help of two flies, who eat the offending chapeau right off his head and declare its vintage to be pure dog. The mole stalks furiously to the doghouse, climbs on top of it, and blasts a raisin-sized sausage of his own onto the sleeping bloodhound’s head. Grimly satisfied at last, he goes back down into his hole.
The end.[/url][/quote]
Turns out it was a German book translated into English.
You gotta love google sometimes.[/quote]
But the book in the picture is in Danish, even if the authors name looks German…