“Sisters, stand up!” reads a slogan written in pink on the mirror above three pink-and-white urinals. Alongside each sits a stack of disposable paper funnels, waiting for those willing to heed the call.

The scene, reportedly captured in the women’s restroom of a bar in China’s eastern city of Wuxi, began circulating online last week, sparking debate and prompting a related hashtag to garner over 54 million views on microblogging platform Weibo as of Tuesday.

“I stood there in disbelief for two minutes, thinking I’d walked into the wrong restroom,” one user wrote on lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, attaching photos of the urinals. “I kept checking until a cleaner confirmed it was indeed the women’s restroom.”

The user, a Wuxi resident in her 30s surnamed Shi, told domestic media she was unsure how to use the urinals as there were no instructions nearby. She said she eventually opted for a traditional squat toilet in the same restroom instead because she worried about making a mess or soiling her clothes.

“I’d actually love to try this,” one commenter wrote. “In winter, it’s a hassle to squat with all those thick, long layers on, especially when you’re also carrying a bag.”

“Better yet, let the brothers sit down,” read another comment, which received nearly 1,400 likes.

On Tuesday, a woman surnamed Tang, who runs Gungun Folk Theater, the bar where the urinals were reportedly installed, told domestic media that they were intended for women who find it difficult to squat, including those wearing long dresses or with limited mobility. “We just wanted to make things easier and give women another option,” she said.

Studies suggest that standing to urinate may be easier for pregnant women and those with knee osteoarthritis, while standing, crouching, and sitting have been found to make no significant difference to bladder emptying in healthy women.

Standing urinals are increasingly common worldwide at music festivals to save space and reduce restroom queues, and at outdoor activities where toilets are scarce.

In China, efforts to introduce standing urinals for women reportedly date back to 2004. At that time, Ye Ganlin, a retired senior engineer, spent 10,000 yuan ($1,400) developing a portable standing urinal for all genders, and offered free disposable funnels to female users. She said the idea grew out of her own experience with a spinal condition that made squatting increasingly difficult as she aged. 

Her toilet was tested in busy public areas of neighboring cities Xi’an and Xianyang, in the northwestern Shaanxi province, and reportedly drew around 200 users a day. However, women were in the minority, Ye said.

In 2010, Shaanxi Normal University, also in Xi’an, installed six standing urinals for women, an initiative championed by professor Qu Yajun to conserve water. Female students welcomed the idea but said it would take practice to get used to the fixtures.

Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.

(Header image: Urinals installed in a women’s restroom at a bar in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, October 2026. From Weibo)