Teens Who Filmed Themselves ‘Peeing In Hotpot’ Face Court

Two teenagers in China have faced justice after allegedly urinating into a restaurant’s hotpot — an incident that went viral online and shocked diners across the country.

The case stems from an incident earlier this year when a video began circulating of two 17-year-olds relieving themselves into a steaming pot of broth at a Haidilao restaurant in Shanghai.

According to state media, the pair — identified only by their last names, Wu and Tang — filmed the act themselves. One of them later uploaded the footage to social media, where it quickly spread, sparking outrage.

The teens were taken to Shanghai’s Huangpu District People’s Court, which found that they were “fully aware” of the potential consequences of their actions. The court ordered them and their parents to issue a formal apology and pay more than 2.2 million yuan (around $309,000) in damages.

The viral clip shows the teenagers standing on a table in a private dining room and urinating directly into the pot.

After the video went public, Haidilao issued a public statement:
“In the early hours of February 24, two men urinated into a hotpot after dining in a private room at a Haidilao branch on the Bund in Shanghai.

“As management had never made contingency plans or given training for dealing with this type of incident, staff at our branch were unable to detect any abnormalities at the scene or uphold the safety of the dining environment.”

The company said it “destroyed and replaced” all utensils in the restaurant and refunded more than 4,000 orders from customers who had eaten there between February 24 and March 8. To regain customer trust, they even compensated diners ten times the value of their original payments.

Two catering companies associated with the restaurant filed a lawsuit against Wu, Tang, and their parents in March, demanding a public apology and financial compensation.

While the court agreed that refunding customers was “proportionate and reasonable,” it ruled that Haidilao’s decision to provide tenfold compensation was a “voluntary business decision.”

CCTV News reported that the teenagers and their parents must now publish formal apologies in designated newspapers. The parents will also be held financially responsible for covering the damages.

China Comment, a magazine backed by the Communist Party, published an editorial supporting the ruling:
“This behavior can no longer be dismissed as a simple prank,” the editorial read, according to The Mirror US.

The piece condemned the teens’ actions as showing “extreme disregard for others’ rights” and a “blatant challenge to social norms.”