‘No big deal to have a child’: high-speed rail row between pregnant woman and young mother over noisy baby prompts calls for ‘quiet carriages’

A verbal fight between a pregnant woman and the mother of a baby on a high-speed Chinese train has sparked heated debate on mainland social media about needs and responsibilities in public.

As a train passed through southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality on April 23, a pregnant woman on board became so irritated by a noisy baby sitting in the seat behind her that she rose to her feet and screamed at its mother.

“No big deal having a child,” she barked, blaming the baby for disturbing her sleep.

“No big deal being pregnant, too,” the mother screamed back, adding: “You cannot throw tantrums so randomly.”

To which the pregnant woman responded: “Your child is making a noise around me, so what’s wrong with me yelling at you?”

Video clips of the quarrel, which do not show how the argument ended, went viral after several media outlets posted them.

Hashtag “Baby crying on high-speed train, causing woman to fight with mother” topped the trending list on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter on April 25, attracting more than 500 million views at the time of writing.

The fight triggered more quarrels online over the social responsibilities of parents and others when it comes to babies and children in public.

“It is really difficult to soothe a baby. As a mother myself, I was also constantly annoyed and helpless when my child was a baby,” said one online observer.

“It was a baby crying, not a spoiled, naughty kid. We should tolerate them. ‘Love the young in other families as we love those in our own’,” said another, quoting the famous Chinese Confucian philosopher, Mencius.

“She is also expecting a baby. Has it occurred to her that this is also her life in the future?” asked a third.

Others agreed with the pregnant woman, saying it was not the child but the parent’s unapologetic attitude that caused tempers to flare.

A measure of how much of an issue this has become in China came last year when a mother boarded a domestic flight with her 20-month-old son and distributed gift bags with earplugs, lollies and a note asking for forgiveness to her fellow passengers before take-off to head off any problems.

“If parents show an attitude of gratitude and offer an apology to fellow passengers, I believe they can put up with the children,” the gift-giving mother, surnamed Wang, said.

Meanwhile, some people online said the dilemma could only be solved by the introduction of “quiet carriages”.

China launched a pilot scheme using such carriages on some high-speed trains in 2020, but it is unclear what the outcome of the trial was.