The behavior of travelers and citizens in China is an already tense subject. While some are rewarded for good behavior, others are shamed. Children bear the brunt of that since it is typically considered that children should be seen and not heard. This concept is hard to conceptualize since China is one of the two most populated countries in the world. A recent incident during travel is making headlines for that exact sentiment. Two women in China caused controversy for their treatment of a crying child on a plane.
How The Women In China Caused Controversy
The incident occurred on August 24 onboard a flight. This journey was between Guiyang, China, and Shanghai, China, two relatively close cities. The Juneyao Airlines flight went from the southwestern city of Guiyang to the more metropolitan and coastal city of Shanghai. Since it was a domestic flight, it should have been a pretty seamless (three-hour maximum) journey but it was not.
What Happened?
According to Juneyao Airlines, a toddler began crying on the plane. What two women did to the child after she expressed being upset (by crying) was something that could likely not be anticipated. Gou Tingting was reportedly a bystander of the child’s wailing. She took it upon herself, along with one other woman, to “educate” the little girl. The women took the reportedly one-year-old child to the plane’s lavatory and locked her inside.
Tingting found the situation amusing and proceeded to take a video of the situation. She posted it on social media, which later went viral online in China. In the video, viewers can see the girl trying to escape the bathroom. Viewers can also hear one of the women saying, “If you stop crying, you can go out,” according to online reports.
The Aftermath
The video was posted by Tingting on a platform similar to TikTok called Douyin. It was met with swift backlash. Online commentators called the women bullies and even that they lacked empathy, according to the BBC. Tingting even went to further lengths to justify her actions. She stated, “I just wanted to calm the child down and let everyone rest.”
According to Tingting, many people on the flight were disturbed by the child. Passengers had apparently moved to the back of the plane. Some even stuffed tissue paper into their ears to drown out the noise. Since the online backlash, she has since set her social media account to private.
Some people online defended the two women. They stated that the grandmother of the child gave consent for them to “educate” the child. This is also confirmed by Juneyao Airlines. The situation has raised serious questions about how children are viewed and treated in the region. Beyond that, international travelers are considering how they would have reacted in the same situation. Much of the online controversy has concerned whether people find the treatment of the child acceptable. The majority of commentators found the treatment abusive, but cultural perception is a big factor in the online reception of the situation.
