KUALA LUMPUR: A photo of an innocous handwashing station in the middle of a food court has sparked surprise and even mean-spirited ridicule on social media.
The post, originally uploaded by Canadian music personality Eric Alper on Threads, was captioned: "This mall food court has a station to wash your hands." The photo shows two sinks and a hand towel dispenser.
Perhaps due to differences in culture and ways of dining, the uploader's 'shock' in finding the handwashing station at a food court surprised many Malaysians.
Users like awkyayaward, asked, "So not everywhere in the world has this?" while social media user faizal.c.johari queried: "So you guys don't wash your hands when eating?"
Several responses simply highlighted cultural differences, with user niedaburn expressing disbelief: "Wait... you're telling me that's not the norm?"
It is unknown as to why Malaysians were attracted to the post, as there was no indication that the image was something in Malaysia.
Nevertheless, it also drew harsh responses questioning hygiene practices by people in the west.
User hanizarulle remarked: "No wonder westerners say it's disgusting eating with hands. It's because you guys don't even wash your hand properly."
User madame_pilot2 said: "Duh...we have this since I was born in the 90s in Malaysia. Why don't Westerners have these handwash station? So you don't wash hand before you eat?"
User _balqizs on the other hand aptly noted: "Westerners are fascinated with our norms.