52-second video chooses case of woman passenger spilling lotion and face powder on male passenger as example of unruly onboard conduct. Anger spreads online as people ask why much more flagrant and common forms of bad behaviour on trains were not featured in video. — SCMP
A public service video about “uncivilised behaviour” onboard China’s much-lauded high-speed trains appears to have come off the rails amid accusations that it singles out women.
The 52-second video was released on July 6 by China Railway, the official account of China State Railway Group Company, which has more than 2.4 million followers on the Douyin social media platform.
In it an actress portraying a beauty blogger is seen applying makeup on a high-speed train.
At one point she spills some lotion on the arm of a fellow passenger while her face powder coats the face of a man sitting next to her.
“Miss, I don’t need makeup,” the man says in response.
Near the end of the video, there is a reminder to passengers to “respect others, take care of the public environment, and don’t let uncivilised behaviour affect the beauty of the train”.
However, a public backlash over the video threatens to derail the good behaviour campaign.
Some people online have asked why rail officials chose to depict a woman putting on makeup as an example of uncivilised behaviour, and wondered if it implied cosmetics were not permitted on trains.
The video was also slammed for being disconnected from reality: “Women’s makeup products are quite expensive, we would never use them so wastefully,” said one online observer.
Others called for more to be done about much more common undesirable behaviour on trains.
“Can you tackle the problem of passengers who talk too loudly on their phones, take off their shoes, put their feet up and occupy other people’s seats, harass fellow passengers and allow their children to run around the carriages?” asked one person.
The video is one in a series of 28 episodes on the subject of “Civilised Travel” which were made by the Film and Television Centre of the People’s Railway Press Company.
A spokesperson for the company told Red Star News that they did not intend to discourage women from applying makeup on high-speed trains, but rather to remind passengers to be civil and be considerate.
“The video was made to remind passengers not to inconvenience others. The production team simply chose this particular case to film,” the spokesperson said.
On Sept 13, a customer service representative from the Railway Customer Service Centre of China confirmed that there are no regulations prohibiting makeup application on high-speed trains.
Disputes over seats and unruly children on public transport often flare up on mainland social media.
On a high-speed train journey from Shanghai to Xian on Sept 12, two elderly people took seats designated for train attendants and then berated them.
“You are here to serve us, we pay the taxes to feed you,” they were heard saying in a video posted online.
In July, claims emerged that during a high-speed train journey in Hunan province, southern China, that passengers had to endure two boys playing soccer in the carriage for more than two hours while their parents simply looked on. – South China Morning Post
