A dispute between mainland Chinese tourists and locals over a toddler urinating in a Hong Kong street has once again become a flash point in already tense cross-border relations.

一对内地游客夫妻在香港街头让小孩在路边小便，引发与港人的冲突，再次成为原本紧张的两地关系爆发的导火线。

Several video clips that have been widely circulated online did not capture the scenes of the toddler urinating, but show the young couple, carrying their two-year-old boy, locked in a fierce quarrel with two local Hong Kong young men.

网上流出的一些视频片段并没有拍摄到小孩小便的场景，但拍到了这对年轻的夫妻带着他们2岁的儿子，与两名香港年轻男子激烈争吵的情形。

During the scuffle the couple snatched the memory card from the young man’s camera and tried to leave the scene. The young men stopped them from leaving and called the police.

在争吵推搡中，大陆夫妻取走了年轻男子相机内的存储卡，并试图离开现场。但两名香港男子阻拦大陆家庭离开，同时打电话报警。

Surrounded by onlookers¹ on the street, the woman desperately² explained to the crowd that they had found a public toilet but saw there was a long queue, so had no other choice but to let their child to relieve himself on the street instead.

被街上的围观群众包围着，孩子母亲极力向人们解释说，他们找到一个公厕，但是公厕排了长队，，没办法所以他们只好让孩子在街上小便。

“The kid was going to pee in his pants, what do you want me do?” the mother asked the young men. Her enraged³ husband repeatedly asked the two men: “Do you have a kid? Do your children take pees?”

“孩子都要尿在裤子里了，你叫我怎么办？” 孩子母亲反问年轻男子。孩子的父亲也很生气，不停地质问两名年轻男子：“你有孩子吗？你的小孩是不是也要小便？”

The two men held onto the pram⁴ to stop the couple from leaving, prompting the woman to hit one of the men on his arm. The video clips ended when a police officer arrived at the scene.

两名男子欲拽住婴儿车阻止这对夫妇离开，孩子母亲打了其中了一名男子的手。视频片段在一名警察到达现场时结束。

The husband and wife were subsequently arrested on suspicion of theft and assault respectively during the incident, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong police told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday.

周二，一位香港警署女发言人表示，这对夫妻随后分别因涉嫌偷窃和袭击被捕。

She added the woman was later released on bail⁵ and was due to report back to police in mid-May for a pending⁶ investigation⁷, while her husband was released unconditionally⁸.

她补充道，孩子母亲之后被准保释，五月中旬需到警局报到，而她的丈夫则无条件释放。

Numerous mainland media agencies reposted the news on their official accounts of Weibo, drawing more than a million comments or reposts by Wenesday.

很多内地媒体纷纷在各自的官方微博转发了此次新闻，到周三为止转发量与评论量总计超过了一百万。

Online reactions were very much polarised. The majority of online users in mainland China say they found the parents’ behaviour understandable as they had tried to find a toilet for their child.

网上的评论偏向两极化。大多数中国大陆网民表示这对父母的行为是可以理解的，因为他们试过为孩子方便寻找过公厕。

“How many toddlers can hold on long enough when they want to relieve themselves?” said a commentator⁹, who asked critics to show more tolerance¹⁰ of the parents.

“当孩子们尿急的时候，有多少孩子能憋很久的？” 一名评论者呼吁批评者们要以宽容的态度来对待这对父母。

Some pointed¹¹ to a photo of the child relieving himself at the scene, which appeared to show the mother using a paper nappy to catch the urine, rather than simply allowing the toddler to relieve himself on the ground.

一些人提到照片中小孩小便的时候，母亲是用纸尿布接住尿的，而不是让小孩直接尿在街上。

A number of others even questioned if the photographers could be accused of taking indecent pictures of a young child.

还有一些人甚至质疑当街拍摄幼童小便的行为是否应被起诉。

But still many blasted the parents for their lack of basic public decency¹². Others blamed the parents for not taking enough precautions when taking their toddler out onto the street, saying that being unable to find a toilet was not a legitimate¹³ excuse.

但是还是有不人批评父母缺乏基本的社会公德。有人指责父母没有做好预防措施就带小孩上街，称无法找到公厕不是一个合理的理由。

While some Hong Kong residents have labelled mainland tourists as having “uncivilised behaviour”, mainlanders have in turn accused Hongkongers of being “discriminating” and “patronising”.

一些香港居民给大陆游客贴上“不文明”的标签时，大陆人则反过来指责港人“歧视”、“瞧不起人”。

In the past months the city has seen several anti-mainlander protests held in crowded shopping spots such as Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui, both of which are often flocked to by mainland tourists.

过去的几个月中，香港曾经有好几场反对大陆游客的抗议活动在诸如旺角、尖沙咀的闹市区进行，这些地方都是大陆游客聚集的场所。