After a few years in Shanghai, I can tell you that the grannies is the least of China's worries. I think they are amazing.
3
Leave the grannies alone. They may annoy some people but they don't endanger the public safety.
Instead the government should focus on the road culture where driving skill is measured by how well a driver can maneuver and position like an entitled NBA superstar driving to the basket.
Instead the government should focus on the road culture where driving skill is measured by how well a driver can maneuver and position like an entitled NBA superstar driving to the basket.
2
When I visited China 5 years ago, I too saw the ladies, in small towns, doing their dancing with music coming from a portable boombox. No one seemed to be upset by any of it. I also saw spaces with exercise equipment set aside that people used in the evening as well as ballroom dancing by a romantic looking couple. It looked marvelous to me, and the air was actually pure.
If I could walk around my home town and spontaneously join in a line dance or use outdoor exercise equipment, I would love it.
If I could walk around my home town and spontaneously join in a line dance or use outdoor exercise equipment, I would love it.
5
Grannies or not, it sounds like a terrible nuisance.
1
Years ago I worked for a member of an early delegation of academic physicians invited to China. A favorite photograph of his visit was of hundreds of elders in a park on a misty morning exercising in unison. He said it was Tai Chi. I was sold. The requisite black uniforms in the photo were not as appealing.
Disco may be a hiccup of modernization in China.
Disco may be a hiccup of modernization in China.
By far one of the most annoying hobbies I encountered in Asia, but being Canadian I am more inclined to write a letter about it than go Rambo.
I love the quote from the linked article: "Dancing in public squares represents the collective aspect of Chinese culture, but now it seems that the overenthusiasm of participants has dealt it a harmful blow with disputes over noise and venues. So we have to guide it with national standards and regulations.”
Sounds like the standards and regulations were aimed at the dancing, and not the noise. Which one is the problem?
I'm also not sure I trust official news reports about where the man who shot the dancer was aiming.
Sounds like the standards and regulations were aimed at the dancing, and not the noise. Which one is the problem?
I'm also not sure I trust official news reports about where the man who shot the dancer was aiming.
What is the Chinese word for NIMBY?
4
(Courtesy of Google Translate)
Lín bì : 邻避 or 鄰避
Lín bì : 邻避 or 鄰避
1
I went to China, and I saw these ladies do this. I could see that they really enjoy this and I am convinced it's very good for them. The only problem is the noise. It's very loud and they seem to always do that in the evening, when people coming back from work want some quiet. Hence the conflicts unfortunately. Society needs to provide them an appropriate place for this activity. It's as simple as that.
8
There are plenty of people in the world who get angry when they see someone else having a good time (particularly when it's mostly older women who -- gasp!-- have the temerity to strut their stuff and like it). This sounds like nothing more than a public Zumba or dance aerobics class: in other words, an abbreviated party. Instead of dumping excrement on the dancers, the grumblers would do well to leave their stuffy apartments and join in. It's loads of fun. The worst that can happen is they crack a smile.
6
Somewhere Euripides is nodding and saying:
"Been there, dramatized that."
"Been there, dramatized that."
4
It is called tiao wu or dancing and it is wonderful. In this little town there are groups every mile or so who form up for typically one hour of exercise with the choreographer and her devotees at the front and old men like me well in the rear. The pace quickens after a while beyond my capacity but fun to watch. The groups compete occasionally in city sponsored events so they do become intense when preparing for such events.
Tai chi is still done here and there in the morning in parks and elsewhere but tiaowu has won the evenings. The article may well over play any opposition but there was a mention in an earlier piece about the government perhaps developing suggested routines and instructors. Not likely.
Tai chi is still done here and there in the morning in parks and elsewhere but tiaowu has won the evenings. The article may well over play any opposition but there was a mention in an earlier piece about the government perhaps developing suggested routines and instructors. Not likely.
7
I used to live near college frat houses where they put their stereo speakers in the windows and blasted their music into the surrounding neighborhood well into the night. They had no regard for anyone else. So I can understand the frustration of the Chinese people who listen to these ladies. I now live in a city with public recreation centers with all sorts of classes for kids, teenagers, women and the elderly. The Chinese should give that a try.
10
I had no idea this was so common in China. I've seen it in San Francisco, and thought it was local. Kind-of like zumba, it combines a variety of musical styles and dance with calisthenic-like exercise. Nearby residents don't seem to be bothered by it. I found it pleasant, not terribly loud, and thought I'd join, though I never had the time.
5
Conflicts abound in China, this is a given when you have 1.4 billion people.
At least no one died. If it were here we were probably see another mass shooting.
At least no one died. If it were here we were probably see another mass shooting.
5
When I consider the number of lonely seniors who are overweight or in ill health, and spend their nights watching soul-deadening TV, I say bring this to America. Friends, music, fellowship, fresh air, and exercise without going to a bar. So much better than grim walking on a treadmill indoors with earbuds separating you from the rest of the world.
49
Bring something to America which is clearly making a lot of people very angry?
What a strange world this is. In Pakistan, 100,000 people mourners mob the streets, for a man who murdered over "blasphemy." In China, noisome "dancing grannies" are pelted with excrement and shot at.
And here in the U.S., an utterly shameless demagogue & snake oil salesman is turning the Party of Lincoln into a reality TV show.
That's enough of the Saturday morning paper for me.
And here in the U.S., an utterly shameless demagogue & snake oil salesman is turning the Party of Lincoln into a reality TV show.
That's enough of the Saturday morning paper for me.
30
Substitute 'noisy' for 'noisome' and you'll be OK...unless you intended to say that the dancing grannies stink.
5
Whatever happened to tai chi or taiji, as it is now spelled, which used to be seen being done by old and young everywhere in China, in parks, on median strips, at bus stops, etc.
A great tradition, and sad to think it is no longer the national exercise. It certainly helped people though hard times, centering, being fit, meditative, all that good stuff. Better, I think, than loud music for dancing!
I know it has gone in and out of favor for political reasons, but still....
A great tradition, and sad to think it is no longer the national exercise. It certainly helped people though hard times, centering, being fit, meditative, all that good stuff. Better, I think, than loud music for dancing!
I know it has gone in and out of favor for political reasons, but still....
5
I don't think tai chi exercise has diminished, at least not in the Chinese of Flushing province.
9
they still do that, in early mornings.
5
At least they aren't collapsing from pollution. I picture the air in China as unbreathable, and yet these chicks are dancin' away!
16
That Mr Mo looks like a foreign man to me!
Despite his or her name, seeing with open eyes fails to see the part about the man attempting to shoot the speaker instead of the lady.
6
If anyone has spent time in China, they must have encountered the Chinese fondness for public address systems and the tendency to play music at high decibels. This often happens at schools, public parks and open squares in most cities. While violence is a poor means of resolving disputes, I can sympathize with those who find the morning-till-night blaring music a headache. Along with other kinds of pollution, China needs to deter noise pollution as well.
34
Ever been to Beijing during the New Year holidays? 3 weeks of absolute fireworks hell. Too much of a good thing I guess. I enjoy celebrations but they take the noise to another level altogether.
Grannies these days, tsk tsk. What is the world coming to?
If it's too loud, you're too young...?
If it's too loud, you're too young...?
11
Maybe some Bluetooth headphones would help. They're expensive right now but I'm sure the price will come down, especially in China where they're made.
9
What would be the death toll if the offender had the automatic assault weapon available from the sporting store in the US? The local is government officials are equally culpable in an incident such as this by failing to keep the noise down and respecting the public space.
16
I myself don't like the idea of listening to other peoples loud music but I wouldn't resort to violence. Shouldn't the law in China deal with this? It matters not their ages. Loud music is annoying.
19
The law isn't dealing with it. That is the problem.
That man don't look Chinese at all, might be a foreigner or Uyghur.
It will not go well with Mo. The Chinese government encourages exercise for oldsters. They even have "playgrounds" for the retired.
4
Heartened to read of these parties of dancing older people, mostly women, making their own good time. Sad but not surprised to see of the misogynist backlash against them.
5
Fascinating. I was unaware of this phenomenon. I went back and read the linked blog entry:
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/china-seeks-to-impose-its...
It and the comments on it were quite interesting!
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/china-seeks-to-impose-its...
It and the comments on it were quite interesting!
2
The abuse of these ladies needs to stop immediately!
6
Really? An airgun shooting and three incidents in a several years in a country of 1.4 billion deserves the claim of "tensions"? Absurd. I visit Chinese public parks and sidewalk dance spaces all the time, and see little but delight or indifference. But this is typical NYT China-bashing to keep the Yellow Peril journalism selling.
6
The East parodies the West's parodies: the Pythons foresaw gangs of unruly grannies disrupting city life back in the '70s.
17
Indeed, yes. Film below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY-I3QTT8mY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY-I3QTT8mY
5
Mr. Buckley is an award-winning humorist, but his article about “Dancing Grannies” is not amusing. The facts he presents demonstrate the plight of over a billion people who have no access to lawful resolution of civil disputes, no access to courts, restraining orders, attorneys, ombudsmen, or even a friendly cop-on-the-beat to deal with rude, anti-social, and juvenile behaviors. These same facts also tell the sad—not funny—story of what happens when a five-thousand-year-old culture of civility and village solidarity is overrun in the course of twenty-years by the coarser elements of Western Civilization…namely unbridled “Me Firstism” and a disregard for personal responsibility. Mr. Buckley has obviously never spent time in a Chinese jail. Until he does it would be appreciated by at least one reader if he were to refrain from making absurd remarks such as “the relative quiet of prison”, be that Chinese or Western.
18
James: In between the 5000 years of peaceful Chinese traditional civility and the last 20 years of coarse Westernism, there was the Communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution. If traditional Chinese culture had been so civil and filled with solidarity, the time period you left out, which was filled with coarseness and cruelty of the communal, anti-Western variety, never would have happened.
12
When in China (Beijing and Shanghai) I really enjoyed witnessing this real modern China phenomenon almost every fair-weather evening. In China it happens in the parks, on plazas, everywhere there is room. When I talked to my Chinese friends about it, I was very surprised to not necessarily hear praise and enthusiasm. Instead, complaints about noise and nuisance were not uncommon. Or innuendos about the idle retirees... and perhaps a bit of veiled envy. What a bunch of nonsense. I say just keep dancin'!
跳舞吧！加油！
m
跳舞吧！加油！
m
21
L+O+L!
Yes and no, he wasn't aiming at her!
1
Noise Pollution is noise Pollution it does matter if they are created by young or old. Would these same ladies like loud boom boxes hip hop music in the morning train rides to the market?
13
Wow an ordinary Chinese man can shoot a moving target, a dancing grannie, in the leg but US trained cops can only shoot to kill!
32
The article says he was aiming at the speaker. Shooting the woman in the leg was accidental.
I wish the many who criticize the police could be taken to a range and given a mechanical moving target to shoot at so they could see just how difficult it is.
I wish the many who criticize the police could be taken to a range and given a mechanical moving target to shoot at so they could see just how difficult it is.
1
Except he meant to shoot the radio, so technically, he missed. And while I agree that violence with police officers has gotten out of hand, my father was a police officer and I can tell you why they are told to shoot to kill: you don't point your gun at anything you don't intend to kill, and you don't shoot to miss. You aim for the biggest, easiest thing to hit, because in theory you are aiming to immediately stop the person from harming others. Now, the motive may not always be good for all cops, but yes, shoot to kill is their training, and there is a good reason behind it. Guns are for killing things.
2
Yeah, the Chinese Army didn't shoot to kill children in Tienanmen Square on orders from the very highest political leadership, did they? Oh, yeah, they did.
7
Frankly, this inconsiderate female was lucky only to be shot in the calf with a small air-pellet. If she were black while in the USA, she'd likely be dead as per Jordan Davis in November 2012 at the bullet of Michael Dunn.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/florida-man-life-prison-killing-te...