Outdoor dance craze is not everyone's breath of fresh air

Mixed reviews for a fad that has captivated millions nationwide prove once again that one person's symphony can be another's cacophony, and that one person's ecstasy can be another' misery, Pu Zhendong reports.

In Danish author Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Red Shoes, the little girl Karen is stuck in an unstoppable dancing mode caused by her cursed red shoes, a punishment for her vanity. In the modern-day Chinese version of the "unceasing dancing", the story works a bit contrarily, with millions of the country' elderly scrambling to put on their dancing shoes to join a dancing craze in parks and public squares nationwide. But it's a passion that is not without controversy.

Last month, China's General Administration of Sport and the Ministry of Culture introduced 12 choreographed practices of square dancing, accompanied by viral pop hits such as Little Apple by Chopstick Brothers.

Choreographed by an expert panel including dancers and fitness trainers, the 12 square dancing drills will be introduced to local fitness sites in 31 provinces and municipalities by more than 600 instructors in the next five months.

However, the "goodwill" has prompted doubts regarding whether the government is trying to establish uniformity for the dance loved by millions of practitioners, which is often executed in widely diverse styles varying from community to community.

Liu Guoyong, chief of the people's fitness department with China's General Administration of Sport, said the 12 official drills are merely recommendations for the social groups that are interested in square dancing and not mandatory dancing moves dictating choreography.

"They will not be implemented compulsorily. The era of whole nations practicing one set of exercise is far gone," Liu said. "Doing square dancing is like eating in a restaurant. What we do is just enriching the menu."

Guo Xiaoyong, a member of the Beijing Square Dancing Association, said the new routines came out after wide consultation with many specialists in sports medicine and exercise trainers.

"It will take time for the older generation to accept the new moves, but it should be noted here that we are advocating a comprehensive and scientific form of square dancing."

According to the administration, channels will stay open to collect good dancing ideas from the public, and associations are being set up to organize events and guide development.

The Chinese government has been supportive of square dancing, especially since the implementation of the national fitness campaign after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, vowing to promote it and new training routines.

Yang Xiuling, a 56-year-old retiree, is among the most enthusiastic square dancers in Beijing. Every Sunday, after preparing breakfast for the family, she walks to the nearby park by 9:30 am and meets about 30 like-minded peers.

"We normally dance to Chinese folk music, such as Mongolian or Tibetan dances, and we learn them through trainers and online teaching video," she said.

Shortly after she retired six years ago, Yang realized that her spare time multiplied, with "sometimes too much boredom to put up with" since she has no children. Then, her health started to deteriorate.

"I tried to learn many new things to change the situation, such as tai chi, but in the end, the square dancing won my heart because it requires the exercise of your whole body and enables you to meet many new friends."

"After all, for people of my age, what we are practicing is not square dancing, but rather (fighting) loneliness."

Now the mania has swept across the country, with groups of elderly women and men taking up public squares in the evening and performing simple synchronized dancing moves to occasionally very loud traditional and pop music.

Huang Yongjun, a professor of politics at Hunan Normal University in Changsha, has noticed the complicated social and historic origins behind the "dancing grannies", which he said have revealed the multiple layers of social ills during modernization.

Huang has grown interested in square dancing since a class discussion in 2012 in which a debate over the mania unexpectedly covered various aspects of Chinese society, such as the boundary of freedom, functions of public space, aging population and social difficulty.

Teamed up with some 15 student volunteers, Huang started looking at square dancing through fieldwork and interviews with more than 1,000 square dancers.

"Except for its fitness and socializing functions, square dancing, to some degree, has filled in the historic and psychological gap that separates the middle-aged dancers from rapidly changing society," Huang said.

Most of the "dancing grannies" experienced the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) at a younger age, when political and cultural activities often took up public squares, drawing thousands of avid participants, Huang said.

"Along with fading social movements, marketization and the shrinking family size, the traditional status of the older generation, especially women, in Chinese society has been seriously challenged over the past 30 years.

"Square dancing, in similar form, can easily evoke the nostalgia for square gathering and collectivism of that generation," Huang said.

The craze has also traveled abroad, after groups of Chinese women have been snapped performing the dancing moves in New York's Sunset Park, Moscow's Red Square and outside the Louvre in Paris.

Yuan Mengqian, a PhD candidate of cultural studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is also keenly interested in the phenomenon. She looked into a square dancing troupe in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, as early as 2011, when square dancing was relatively unknown.

"Elderly people have framed their own definitions of health and fashion and re-established a sense of community through the act of gathering in public and dancing," Yang said.

"Historic memory, the government's promotion and some catchy element of popular culture have together facilitated today's dancing fever."

Yet trouble brewed even as square dancing gained widespread popularity. A recent survey by South Metropolitan Daily showed nearly 60.4 percent of 1,467 respondents complained that the loud music played by the dancers has disrupted their lives.

Confrontations between dancers and local residents are frequently seen on the news, which involves tensions such as residents obstructing squares to prevent gatherings.

"Government in support of the exercise form should arrange appropriate venues and time slots for practitioners, and provide more public services and resources to alleviate current drought," Huang said.

He also urged younger people to better understand older people instead of mocking them on the Internet and what they think are "awkward moves, awful music taste and dressing styles".

"For middle-aged women, it is difficult for them to pursue an individualized dancing style. They need the form of a team to realize a sort of self-release and liberation," Huang said.

Sun Xiaochen contributed to the story.

Contact the writer at puzhendong@chinadaily.com.cn.