Video Surveillance Spotted Inside Beijing Public Bathroom
Beijing
has stepped up to the ranks of a brave, new world as the interior of
one of its public bathrooms has been equipped with a video surveillance
camera.
The ceiling-mounted camera can be clearly seen at the boys' bathroom at the Tsinghua University Affiliated Middle School, located in the city's northeastern end near the 798 art district.
No
official explanation has been given for the bathroom video camera, but
other recent examples from around China reveal a number of different
reasons. Despite the objections of its male workers, an Anhui factory
set up video surveillance cameras in its mens' restroom in order to
deter its employees from smoking. This same reasoning was used to
justify putting video cameras in the boys' dormitory restroom at a
Xuzhou middle school in 2013.
Factories
also put video cameras in bathrooms in order to determine how long its
employees are away from their work, as had happened at a Guangzhou
factory in 2007.
But it's not just "Scatman Brothers" who are affected by the "peep/poop show." A shopping mall in Guangzhou put video cameras in its women's bathroom back in 2011 in order to "conserve water."
No
real trend has emerged from these sporadic examples since there has
been resistance against the cameras. During a 2013 campaign to encourage
male residents to properly use public urinals, Shenzhen chengguan (city
management workers) denied they would set up video cameras in restrooms
in order to enforce a RMB 100 fine for violators. Most significant of
all, a Shenzhen court ruled against a local factory that set up a video
camera in its restroom, calling it a "violation of privacy."
Despite
this precedent, we appear to be experiencing a rollback on personal
freedoms, and it's one that began eroding in Beijing just this past
spring. To deter bathroom users from abusing its "free toilet paper policy," Tiantan Park put automatic dispensers in its public bathrooms equipped with "facial-recognition abilities."
Due to a nation-wide campaign to clean up its public bathrooms that has been likened to a "toilet revolution," it turns out that the "revolution" will in fact be televised.
Images: Weibo, Zhidao.Baidu.com
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