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Comment by sly010 | Hacker News Reader

Toilet paper is generally not provided in public toilets in China. You should carry your own. So in a way, this is positive.

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> You should carry your own.

Why don't they make paying toilets where you can have such services without the hassle of carrying stuff?

Probably they don't consider it a hassle, because they are just used to it. Pay toilets sounds like an expensive, complicated solution.

It's not a terrible idea to carry around tissues anyway.

There used to be paid toilet back in the day, but disappeared somehow, maybe because nobody wants to be manning those toilets.

In the United States many areas passed laws banning them:

https://psmag.com/economics/dont-pay-toilets-america-bathroo...

Quite true.

People can be very disingenuous when they want to. So while requiring QR codes is ridiculous, they should note that normally you’re expected to have your own toilet paper because toilets aren’t stocked with it.

A reporter in China tweets to people who choose to follow a reporter in China and you accuse her of being disingenuous for failing to accommodate it being posted on an international website, out of context.

That's quite self-centred.

Obviously she was looking to engage locals by writing in English (which has very low penetration) on a platform that’s normally inaccessible to locals... I think context is owed the reader.

Well firstly, you as a reader did actually know the context. That's why you could tell everyone else.

Secondly, giving that context requires the writer to know that it's not normal. If it's not normal. Yet you've failed to give that context. Your comment could just as easily be linked to in a forum mainly used by Hong Kongers or Singaporeans. Obviously, you have no reason to accommodate them because you shouldn't expect them to be your audience.

If people were required to give the full back story of every trivial absurdity they encountered "in the wild" the world would turn into a very boring place.

This isn't entirely a trivial absurdity. One of the biggest things I hear about traveling in China (and Japan) is that you're expected to carry your own toilet paper everywhere.

An analogy would be – someone from a non-tipping country complains about the fact that some restaurants in the US have a "compulsory gratuity" of 20% for larger parties. Sure, somewhat outrageous, but less so if you consider that tipping 15-20% is the norm in the US anyway.

I lived in Japan for 2 years, and only came across no TP three or four times. I've heard that it used to be like that 10 or 20 years ago, but now even in more rural areas it is provided. There are often toilets equipped with bidets... Was a bit of a shock when my first day there I used a toilet in a 7-11, went to flush, and accidentally hit the bidet controls...

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