評論
打印
Popular pastimes
流行的消遣活動
Dancing queens
廣場舞皇后
Grooving grannies encounter opposition
隨音樂起舞的大媽們遭到了反對
Oct 26th 2013 | BEIJING |From the print edition
ON OCTOBER 11th a story buried on page 15 of a Beijing newspaper drew national attention. A man in Changping, on the edge of the capital, had allegedly fired a shotgun into the air and set loose three Tibetan mastiffs to scare away a group of women whose public dancing annoyed him. The man was arrested, but received much sympathy online.
10月11日，北京一家報紙第十五頁的一個故事引起了全國關注。據報道，北京昌平的一男子被大媽們激怒了，向空中開槍，并且放了三只藏獒，嚇跑了這群在公共場所跳舞的大媽。該男子隨后被抓，但是卻得到了網民的同情。
Groups of people, often older women, dancing in public, are an increasingly common sight in Chinese cities. In the early morning and evening they set up loudspeakers in parks or squares to exercise, gossip and show off a little.
大量的人，尤其是大齡女性，在城市公共場所跳舞越來越常見。早上跟傍晚，她們開著揚聲器，在公園里或者廣場上練習跳舞，談天說地，也帶點炫耀的成分。
They call it guangchangwu, or “square dancing”, after the venues where they meet. Syrupy songs, and Western styles, are much in favour. The tunes of Phoenix Legend, a duo from the song-and-dance troupe of China’s strategic missile force, are hugely popular among guangchangwu aficionados.
這被稱作廣場舞，是以她們見面的地點命名的。情歌跟西洋風格的歌曲最受歡迎。中國戰略導彈部隊歌舞團的雙人組合鳳凰傳奇的歌曲是廣場舞愛好者的最愛。
Many people grumble about the grannies and their throbbing music. Altercations often break out. The mayor’s hotline in Hefei, in the central province of Anhui, has received more than 200 complaints about guangchangwu so far this year. But officials are usually reluctant to intervene. As one local-government website put it: dancing grannies are preferable to those “wallowing in mah-jong and other bad activities”.
許多人抱怨大媽們以及她們擾民的歌曲。經常發生爭吵。中部省份安徽合肥的市長熱線今年已經收到了超過200次的廣場舞投訴。但是官方通常不愿意介入。一個地方政府的網站上寫著：跳舞的大媽比那些沉溺在麻將等不良活動中的人好多了。
