In an attempt to reverse the downward spiral of your mental and physical wellbeing, in these Self-Help articles we bring you suggestions of classes, sporty things, team events, volunteering and educational stuff that might just pull you out of that boozy tail-spin.
Every day at sunset, they take up their positions in every park, corporate plaza and public space. With their synchronized gestures and ghettoblasters blaring distorted tunes, they're a Shanghai cultural mainstay.
Those groups of dancing women, the ones who make your evening walk through the park an obstacle course of garish kitsch — it's easy to write them off as background players in the much larger and decidedly more contemporary show that is 21st century Shanghai. But recently my jaded disinterest give way to fascination and I decided to see whether I could join in.
Chinese Fitness Dancing, or more generally Chinese Square Dance (guǎngchǎng wǔ 广场舞), finds its origins during the period the Western powers were over here in force. Deriding traditional Chinese forms of fitness and exercising as primitive, they introduced their own cultures' sports, exercises and dance around the end of the 19th century as a means to “modernize” the country's physical culture. Over the next century, this Western-style "Fitness Dancing" twirled and bounded through a process of cultural adoption, became assimilated with the folk dancing popular during the Maoist period, until ultimately reached its current status as a centrally ensconced 8pm fixture across the country.
What you need
Yourself, a modicum of spoken Chinese, and a body in tip-top physical condition. OK, that's a lie. Many of the people you'll be joining are three times your age. Really, all you need is a body capable of the lowest impact workouts and a psyche prepared for mild-to-moderate levels of embarrassment.
What happens
First, identify a place where these women congregate. It's always almost entirely women. Occasionally you get one much older man with impaired mobility standing off to the side and half joining in by flapping an arm around, but the women are in charge. Finding them shouldn't be hard; they're everywhere. I chose Liyuan Park, a small, idyllic urban park near Madang Lu station. It's heavily used during the day, but when night rolls around, the park truly comes alive. Group upon group of Chinese fitness dancers jostle for space as they throw down choreographed routines.
It's best to find a group that's gathering but hasn't yet started their routine. Just approach them and ask if you can join in. As I combed through the various groups, I found one I liked the look of. Their black outfits matched my all-black ensemble so I felt we were fated to be together.
I approached an older woman with a stern expression and an earnest attempt at permed hair and asked if I could join her group. Her furrowed eyebrows relaxed when she realized I genuinely wanted to give it a go. She said of course I could join, insisting that Shanghai is a very open-minded city that embraces outsiders.
The organization of these groups is generally extremely informal, so don't worry about throwing them off by asking to join in. From then on, it's pretty self-explanatory: your inhibitions checked at the door, follow the leader and dance with the group. I was in the back. They said all beginners started back there. At the start, the music was slow and the movements followed suit. Those first few minutes were easy and free of embarrassment. It felt like little more than embellished stretching. But quickly the dance started to pick up and I began to feel like a bit of an idiot.
No, that's another lie. I felt like a giant idiot. From afar, the moves seem pretty simple but in practice they were simply not. This was not the Electric Slide. This was hard. I also started to laugh uncontrollably at my failure to stay in step, and at that point I realized I was having fun.
So, I looked like a complete fool but I was having a great time. Some of the women obviously enjoyed my inability to keep up and cheered me on. I kept it up for a full 30 minutes. I felt awkward and a little stupid, but I was smiling from ear to ear.
Who goes in for this
Women around 50 and older. The odd aforementioned much older man. Very occasionally outsiders like me — I was told I was not the first outsider to join in with Team Black.
How much of your life will this take up
At most, it could be an hour or so of your evening every day. But, more realistically, it could be an occasional evening activity, a prelude to other plans later on. It's empowering to realize how readily you can join in, provided you are polite and ask, rather than just crashing a group. It's also something that goes on in almost every public space in the evenings so you'll never be far from a dance if you get into it. Rather than a meticulously planned-out activity, it could become a wonderfully spontaneous thing for you to do now and then, when strolling home from work and the urge took you.
How much does it cost
Nothing; totally free. Unless you want to get serious about your outfit.
Plusses
It was fun. It may not look cool, but in essence it's the same thing many people in this city do at clubs and bars every weekend: dance around to music in fun outfits with a bunch of friends. Different sensibilities; same end result: a good time.
It's a great way to get to know members of the local community. All the women I met were wonderful and gracious, checking in with me after each dance to see how I liked it. I found out that they were all from the area, so you could potentially form some sturdy friendships with the matriarchs of your neighborhood if you find groups that dance near where you live.
As a corollary to that, it's an opportunity to practice speaking Chinese. Yes, there is a minimum language qualification for this activity. But if you are up to that challenge, then it can be the sort of casual, real-world language practice that can at times be difficult to find in Shanghai. Also, older women tend to speak more slowly and as such are much easier to understand, unless they unknowingly lapse into Shanghainese, in which case, good luck.
I'm not going to overstate the physical benefits of it. Yes, I finished my dancing drenched it sweat, but it was also summer and it doesn't take much to get me sweating in that sort of weather. If you're looking to tone up, this isn't the best use of your time. But if you're looking to get your body out of its post-office slug state with a little movement, it's an option.
Most of all, it's an activity that is indigenous to this place. It is not a reflection of Shanghai the Cosmopolitan Megalopolis, but Shanghai the Chinese City. As easy as it can be to live a life here that's not all too different from that of people in other cities across the globe, it is refreshing to be reminded of what makes this place different from, say, Bangkok or Berlin. Hey, it's a new experience. And, you never know, you might fall for it.
Minuses
You will look like a fool. Unless you are fantastically gifted at learning new choreography and not easily distinguished from older Chinese women, you will likely stick out a great deal and not in the most positive of ways. Exhibitionists will do fantastically, though.
To get the most of the community and language-practice-related benefits, it could also become a bit of a time commitment. It's only with regular participation that strong interpersonal connections and marked linguistic improvements will occur. And, realistically, prancing around outside in a park may be the last thing you want to do after a long day of work.
It is also important to be sensitive to one's presence in these groups. As opposed to going to the gym, which is (in theory) a neutral space for all, some may negatively misconstrue the presence of a outsider in these groups as some sort of mocking gesture, especially if you are not of East Asian decent. But screw those people. Join in with gusto and dispel any accusations of mockery. Make some solid friends with the group and show them you're there for fun, just like them.
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Park dancing. Find it on most street corners at twilight. Or for this park where our correspondent got down, find the listing here.