'Gyrating grannies' in step with aging society

Controversial

Even though the activity is massively popular with middle-aged and senior people, others have taken issue with square dancers hogging public areas and playing loud music early in the morning. In recent years, the controversial side of square dancing has often made headlines.

In March 2016, a man in Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, South China, was arrested for shooting a square dancer with an air gun. The man, who claimed to be annoyed by the volume of the music, claimed he was aiming at the loudspeaker, but accidentally missed and hit the woman instead.

In June, several square dancers, with an average age of 63, were involved in a violent altercation with university students over the use of a public basketball court in Luoyang, Henan province.

In November, the General Administration of Sports attempted to address the problems by issuing a regulation that banned square dancing at certain venues. The administration also urged dancers and sports organizers to work together to maintain social harmony.

Wang Qianni, an anthropology postgraduate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, argued that young people and the media view the gyrating grannies through "tainted glasses". After interviewing 20 square dancers over the course of six months in 2013, Wang wrote in her thesis, "The Making of Guangchang Wu (square dancing) Stigma", that the activity has become the butt of jokes on many talk shows.

According to Wang, many of the dancers belong to the "first generation of mothers of single children", who are lonely because their only child, or husband, is often away from home in search of opportunities to make money. This description of square dancers rings true for Yang; her husband died from diabetes in 2009, and her son is in the military and is only allowed to return home every two months. Her daughter-in-law, who is a television producer, is rarely home because she frequently travels for work.

Although Yang no longer dances with Carnation, she has little opportunity to take care of her 7-year-old grandson, who is usually cared for by his mother's parents.

Now, Yang laments the opportunities she missed to bond with her family's youngest member. It is the only downside to her hectic years of travel and dancing.

"It seems that I became too occupied with square dancing. It feels as though my grandson needs to make an appointment weeks in advance before he can visit me. I have failed to be a good grandmother," she said.

"But every time we return home from a competition or a performance, my son, if he is around, offers to pick me up from the airport or railway station. When we exit the gate and see families greet us with flowers and cheers regardless of the outcome of the competition, we feel like Olympic champions."