February 2, 2010 / Katie

Taking a Piss at Popeyes, Literally

New York’s Chinatown is probably the closest you can get to the ‘old country’ this side of the Pacific. None of the other Chinatowns I’ve been to in North America cut it. For example, peeing in public is quite common for children and sometimes adults in China (on my first trip there I remember very clearly backing away from a yellow rivulet trickling down a Great Wall turret). Case in point: Just today on Canal and Chrystie I saw an old grandpa helping his grandson pull his pants down so that he could take a piss on a tree outside of Popeyes. An endearing intergenerational moment, except that I’m sure the little boy’s bare bottom must have felt quite a draft from the cars speeding off the Manhattan bridge while he took a whiz!