#trending: Woman in China covers herself in plastic to eat banana on train, draws mixed reactions online

WUHAN, CHINA — A woman in China was filmed on a subway train wrapped in a huge plastic bag while she eats a banana, drawing mixed reactions online.

The incident occurred sometime past 9pm on Oct 31, in the city of Wuhan in China's Hubei province, Chinese digital news site The Paper reported.

In the video, the passengers on the train do not seem to be paying any attention to her as she quietly eats her banana and disposes of the banana peel in a separate, smaller plastic bag.

The passenger who had recorded her actions, identified only as Mr Wang, told The Paper: "There are sporadic coronavirus outbreaks across Wuhan, but in my opinion, it is a bit extreme for this woman to protect herself like this."

A representative from Wuhan Metro said that it is forbidden for passengers to eat on subway trains there, just like in any other city in China. If anyone notices someone eating on the train, the person may call the metro hotline for personnel to take action.

The video blew up on Chinese social media, with the hashtag #女子上半身套塑料袋车厢内吃香蕉# (Woman wears plastic bag on upper body, eats banana in train carriage). It had 660,000 views on microblogging site Weibo and online users began to debate whether or not her actions were acceptable.

Some people firmly believed that eating on trains, no matter the reasoning, is wrong and inconsiderate.

However, many argued that for people with hypoglycemia or low blood sugar, they have to relieve their symptoms by eating some food.

There were Weibo users who praised the woman for being "very self-aware" and not bothering the people around her by keeping herself isolated.

One Weibo user said: "Wearing the plastic bag is already very respectful (to the other passengers)… Bananas don't have a strong smell, she isolated herself because of the epidemic, and it's still not allowed?"

One user on short-form video platform Douyin even jokingly offered her a tip: "You shouldn't use a transparent (plastic bag). Use a black one, then no one can see that you're eating."

Ironically, a large number of negative comments were instead directed at Mr Wang, the passenger who had filmed the woman.

One Weibo user asked: "How bored must you be to film this video?"

Another questioned: "I want to ask the videographer, Mr Wang: What right do you have to film other people? You have violated her privacy and that of those around her."

Many others agreed that people who film such videos and publish them online are more deserving of criticism, especially if the person being filmed is not harming or endangering anyone.

In Singapore, video recordings of MRT train passengers engaging in unusual acts have surfaced online as well.

Earlier in August and September, there were videos of people caught squatting down to urinate on MRT train floors in two separate incidents.

In June last year, citizen media website Stomp published a video showing a man using the handrails in an MRT train cabin to do pull-ups.

Back in 2018, a contributor anonymously shared a video of a woman eating food on board an MRT train to Facebook page All Singapore Stuff.

Though some social media users thanked the contributor for taking the video, a majority of comments chided him for "shaming" the woman who was eating.

A top comment went: "The person who took this, please get a life… Just report her to the officer there or confront her to stop... Taking her video without her consent and putting it on (social) media makes you a worse person than her!!!"

The incriminating video has since been deleted.