I am sure you have seen the online videos. On a train or a bus, an elderly person is loudly scolding another, usually younger, passenger sitting on a courtesy seat reserved for the elderly, expectant mothers and people with disabilities.
These verbal altercations can sometimes turn physical, and the sprightliness with which these elderly folks deliver their slaps and punches does make you wonder whether they needed the seat in the first place.
Several years ago, a young Singaporean living in South Korea told me the following story.
She was taking the subway in Seoul when a mixed-race family boarded the train. The mother was East Asian in appearance and the father was of African ancestry. There was also a baby.
Suddenly an elderly woman in the same carriage started to speak loudly to the young mother in Korean. The Singaporean, who spoke the language, understood that the old woman was going on a racist rant and castigating the younger woman, who turned out to be Korean as well, for a litany of supposedly shameless and “un-Korean” behaviour.
