Chinese authorities, already among the most interventionist in the world, have stepped in to regulate public line dancing, the latest fitness craze among elderly mainland women.
The greying of China, which will boost the over-60 population to 39 per cent of the total by 2050, has left Beijing struggling to find ways to keep senior citizens healthy. But dancing at dawn and dusk in public squares, car parks and outside residential complexes — the preferred exercise choice of millions of Chinese, mostly retired and mostly female — has led to frequent complaints from workers whose sleep is disturbed by the pensioners and their ghetto blasters.
On Monday China’s sports bureaucracy announced its solution to the discord over “square dancing”, as the pastime is known in China: “Twelve government-approved dance routines, complete with “scientifically designed gestures that will bring people positive energy”, according to state media.