NNews

Wuhan housing manager rolls out barbed wire against square dancers

6
Shares
6
0
0
0

533a5841dae24ae18d521916dbe2aa8b

ne20140526013

a1c997bd57b54759b053345f9369f7cc

993da337e27e44f392f49ac2a4b464ea

b7e961c05079498b972031cc73d0d33f

image courtesy of wuhan times
image courtesy of wuhan times

Despite barbed wire, hazard cones and a make-shift 100-meter long fence, a group of square dancers continued to perform at the entrance of a housing complex Wuhan Times reported on Sunday.

Building residents had apparently been complaining for weeks, property owners said, saying the music distracted students who were trying to study and was a nuisance to families after a long day of work. The building manager asked the dancers to either perform without music or please practice somewhere else, but dancers refused. Desperate, the property owners erected a 100-meter-long fence, hazard cones and surrounded the building in sharp barbed wire in an effort to stop the music on May 23.

At dawn and dusk, dancing, stretching and performing tai-chi is common in China’s public parks. Retirees gather around a tinny-boom box and dance together, often performing impromptu waltzes, tango and square dancing. During China’s communist era, work units often provided a separate place for retirees to exercise, but since Reform and Opening, China’s dancers have been left without a practice space, looking to parks, mall entrances and building compounds for a free place to cha-cha.

But audiences are often reluctant to group’s loud music and low-quality amplifiers.

Recently, angry residents in Chengdu hurled water balloons at the dancers. In Wuhan and Changsha, a crowd threw feces. In November 2013, a Beijing man stood trial for illegal possession of firearms, after shooting a double-barreled shotgun into the air to express his rage at the dancers.

Two days after the Wuhan property owners strung the sharp wire, the square dancers cut it and pushed the cones aside, claiming they have the right to practice in the public space. Local businesses also supported the dancers, and said the barbed wire hurt sales.

6 Shares:
Share 6
Tweet 0
Pin it 0

Nona Tepper is an independent journalist based in Beijing.

11 comments

  1. Oblio told the Rock Man that they were banished and asked him whether or not this was the Pointless Forest.

    The Rock Man said, “Say, babe, there ain’t nothing pointless about this gig. The thing is you see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear. You dig? Did you ever see Paris?”

    “No.”

    “Did you ever see New Delhi?”

    “No.”

    “Well, that’s it. You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.”

    —Nilsson, The Point (1971)

    Reply

  2. Wow that looks like a Jamaican street party about to begin, didn’t know China had a thing for drive by gun wars and booty dancing.

    Reply
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Prove you are human! * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

— Previous article

Hubei man in traffic dispute hangs onto car roof for 15 miles

Next article —

Hunan men try to free friend from prison by pretending to be U.N. peacekeeping officials

You May Also Like