‘You’re ruining my family’: high-speed stand-off as woman in China refuses to give up train seat booked by another passenger
- Woman only pays for standing ticket but wants to sit with husband
- Tense stand-off begins when passenger who booked and paid for seat arrives and woman refuses to move
A woman in China who took a train seat booked by another passenger, refused to move, insisted on sitting next to her husband and accused the passenger of “ruining” her family, has faced an online backlash.
In a trending video of the incident on Weibo, a woman in a white T-shirt stands beside an attendant while arguing with another passenger on a high-speed train in Guiyang, capital city of Guizhou province in southwestern China on July 8.
The woman had only paid for a standing ticket but wanted to sit beside her husband, so she took the seat of another passenger. When that passenger boarded the train, the woman refused to move.
“We are married. We already have a marriage certificate. I already have a child with him,” the woman says in the video.
The other passenger replied: “What does your marriage have to do with me?”
A train attendant arrived to mediate and checked the tickets of the woman and the other female passenger.
After it was confirmed that the seat belonged to the other passenger, the woman exclaimed loudly: “She told me to get up! She said this is her seat!
“She has ruined my family, do you understand? She has destroyed my entire family!”
The other passenger replied: “I’ll sue you. I’m telling you, you are defaming me!”
After the video circulated on mainland social media, the woman who took the passenger’s seat was criticised and mocked.
One person said: “Are you paranoid? Seek treatment for your illness, don’t delay.”
“A single train ride can ruin your family? If your family is so fragile, then your marriage is built on ‘tofu dregs’. Why not give it up?”
“The world must operate according to the thoughts of a giant baby. Otherwise, it would be the fault of others,” a third person added.
Some online video viewers said the woman’s husband also held a standing ticket.
One person said: “Why doesn’t the husband stand up as well, for the sake of family harmony?”
High-speed trains in China have recently seen numerous cases of so-called “seat kidnapping”.
In another recent case, on a high-speed train in Hubei, central China, an elderly man in his 70s took a seat that belonged to a young woman.
He argued that the seat was “first come, first served” and took out some pills, claiming he had high blood pressure and heart disease.
Eventually, the young woman had to move to another carriage, while the man remained seated until reaching his destination, reported Cover News.
