page_title: Square dancing (China)
section_title: Conflicts and controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Square dancing (China) / Conflicts and controversy
caption_attribution_description: Dancing Grannies in the public square
context_page_description: In the People's Republic of China, square dancing or plaza dancing, is an exercise routine performed to music in squares, plazas or parks of the nation's cities. It is popular with middle-aged and retired women who have been referred to as "dancing grannies" in the English-language media. Due to its low cost and ease of participation, it has been estimated to have over 100 million practitioners, according to CCTV, the country's official television network.
  The practice has roots in both ancient and modern Chinese history. Dancing for exercise has been recorded as developed millennia ago in Emperor Yao's China, and during the Song Dynasty the public spaces of cities were noted for their use in performance. Most of the women who square dance came of age during the Cultural Revolution, when folk dances such as yangge were widely performed, often as propaganda. Some have confirmed that this nostalgia is one of their reasons for taking part, although the benefits of the exercise and socialization opportunities also play a role.
  Square dancers dance to a variety of music, mostly Chinese popular songs, both contemporary and historic.
context_section_description: In the 2010s square dancing began to draw notice both in China and abroad. A Jiangsu TV network sponsored a contest, drawing participants from seven cities. Its successful broadcast drew more participants into the squares and plazas. In 2014 the Chopstick Brothers featured square dancers in the video for their hit song "Little Apple"; the dancers returned the favor by making it a popular tune for their routines.
  However, square dancers also came into conflict with residents of the areas that surrounded their preferred spaces. Many were younger workers who complained that this noise pollution kept them or their families from getting needed rest, especially if different groups of dancers began turning their music up to compete with each other. "One man bouncing his infant daughter says he fears the first words she will speak are the saccharine lyrics that waft in daily through the walls and windows," the BBC reported in 2013. The dancers also drew complaints that they blocked building entrances, sidewalks or parking lots.
  The annoyed residents have sometimes taken it upon themselves to quiet the dancers' din. In Wenzhou, one group pooled the equivalent of US$40,000 to purchase a sound system of their own, loudly reminding dancers to comply with Chinese noise pollution laws. Wuhan residents threw human excrement on dancers from the tops of their neighboring towers. In a 2013 incident that gained national attention, a man in Beijing's outlying Changping District was arrested after he fired a shotgun in the air and set his three Tibetan Mastiffs on a nearby group of dancers.
  Altercations have even arisen among the dancers themselves. In Qingyuan, two groups of rival dancers allegedly came to blows when they tried to share a small space at a local park. A court ordered one group to pay the other's medical costs.
  Dancers have also taken their dances overseas. A dance on Moscow's Red Square provided no incident, but other square dancers have not been so lucky in other countries (similarly, Russians visiting cities in Manchuria have joined in the square dances). Two mainland Chinese women visiting Taipei decided to do their dance in the hotel lobby, attracting attention from guests there and causing friction with hotel management. A group dancing in Sunset Park, home of one of the earliest Chinatowns in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, made headlines in August 2014 when its leader was arrested for violating a city ordinance forbidding sounds over 45 decibels; the charge was later dropped.
  Square dancers' response to clashes with residents over noise has been mixed. While one group of dancers in Xi'an's Weiyang District voluntarily agreed to limit its routines to certain times and noise levels, others have been more defiant. "The louder the music, the more fun it is," one dancer told The New York Times in 2015. Song Jiahong, a humanities professor at Yunnan University, says this apparent insensitivity to loud noise is another effect of the Cultural Revolution, when propaganda read over loudspeakers was a constant feature of daily Chinese life. "The intimate memories of the loudspeakers are lodged deep in the subconscious of the old Red Guards," he wrote. "They have no concept that this can actually annoy others."
  But other analysts wrote that the problem went deeper than this insensitivity. Tong writes: 
  As square dancing continues to flourish in the urban environment, the dancing activity happening on found and loosened space (urban public space temporarily appropriated by residents to meet their needs) reveals the tension between how the modern city is imagined and constructed, and how the real city is remade and lived in by common people, especially our elderly square dancers.
  As a remedy that his home city of Xuanhua could implement, he suggested closing off lanes of less busy streets in the neighborhoods favored by square dancers to create temporary pedestrian space. He estimated that this could provide up to 8.8 square metres (95 sq ft) per dancer in the city.
caption: Large dance in a public square
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