hot mrt seat: reserved but not taken

A few days ago I saw this letter to the Chinese newspaper.

The sender is a man, probably not young man. He was traveling on the MRT when he saw this mother juggling with a few kids. Being nice, the man offered his seat to them. Instead of sitting down, the mother told her kids not to sit down cos the seat was hot. The man felt like being slapped on his face. He felt so humiliated he alighted at the next station and took the next train.

I had similar experience before. Some auntie would stand in front of the empty seat, not wanting to sit down yet not wanting others to take the seat. Once I actually told the person I want to sit NOW, then she reluctantly sat down and had her ass fried.

I mean, what's the big deal about hot seat? Is it going to transmit piles or something? Then I see some people like to pat/slap the seat a few times before sitting down. Isn't it more unhygienic, your hand touches the place where people put their butt, then your hand touches your face and lips and nose and everywhere else. Piles on face, eew!

Anyway, from a thermodynamics / heat transfer point of view, a hot seat is better than cold seat. If you sit on a cold seat, there is a net flow of heat energy from your body to the seat, thus your body loses energy. Fare so expensive you still want to lose more?