"Baby Butts" Tadition vs. Convenience

 
Li Jing and her family have lived in the Bronx for the past 12 years, after moving here from Xitang, China. Their homeland is an ancient town in Jiashan County, an hour and a half outside the city of Shanghai. "This water town is also called "nine dragon old pearl" and has many well preserved architectural groups that were constructed during the Ming and Qing dynasties"(Xitang)

  Five years ago Li Jing and her extended family decided to open a restaurant in the Northeast Bronx, where they could enjoying cooking American Chinese food as well as the specialties they love from back home.

  One day when I stopped by to order some of my family's favorite yummy foods from there, I happened to notice Li Jing's little son playing within an enclosed area in the restaurant. As I looked closer at the adorable toddler, I observed that his tiny little baby butt was peaking through his pants. It turned out that he had a slit in the back of his pants. The rather peculiar observation sparked a very interesting conversation between Li Jing and myself about our cultural differences and parenting traditions.

  Since Li Jing and I had meet before and seen one another many times before in our neighborhood, I felt comfortable inquiring further and she was more than willing to share her families different potty training ideas. She went on to explain that in many Chinese families the babies spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa. Many grandparents believe that crotch free or split pants allows the baby to learn about elimination communication (Chengduliving) without the hindrances of clothing. This refers to the cues that help the baby realize when it is time to use the bathroom while also utilizing the child's natural instinct for bladder and bowel training. This type of potty training usually begins as soon as the baby can walk and is fairly common to this day in many parts of China. This idea is also based on a movement which uses this alternative to disposable diapers primarily because many people are passionate that diapers are terribly harmful to the environment and want nothing to do with them.

  This curious and amusing cultural encounter was extremely gratifying because I was able to learn something new. I was actually fascinated and intrigued because I had never heard about this before. In the end, we were able to have a friendly conversation about our cultural differences, which actually was the beginning of a beautiful and substantial friendship.

"About Xitang"ND,web,8/30/17

Matuszak,Sascha "Split crotch pants: China's environmentally friendly non-diaper" Chengduliving
5/6/14,web,8/28/17