The new toilet attendant is sniggering.
A cubical door opens. OUT-OF-TOWNER comes out.
OUT-OF-TOWNER: Little Shi! No, Old Shi!
SHI JR: (Tries to recognize) Hey! What a coincidence. All acquaintances today. About a decade ago, you said every household in China would have a toilet at home in the future, and you got it right!
OUT-OF-TOWNER: Yea, but they still want to go to the toilet together.
SHI JR: Would you call them losers?[95]
OUT-OF-TOWNER: No, you can’t say that. You know, in the ancient Roman baths, there were three thousand pit toilets. On the wall a maxim was engraved—
SHI JR: Please flush after use.
OUT-OF-TOWNER: That isn’t a maxim. It was a sentence like this: a people who can defecate together is a people of unity.