Guangzhou drafts legislation limiting noise in public parks

Dance enthusiasts in Guangzhou who like to shake their stuff in public parks say they will obey the city's pending restrictions on noisy fitness and recreation activities in parks, but they hope there won't be a total ban on group dancing in public places.

The capital of South China's Guangdong province is the first city in China to have drafted a rule on the creation of silent zones in areas of parks that are close to schools, hospitals, offices and residential quarters.

If the draft becomes law, people who make noise in the silent zones in the course of conducting fitness and recreation activities will be fined between 200 yuan ($32.8) and 1,000 yuan.

Dancing, tai chi and stretching routines are common sights in parks across China, often carried out in groups and accompanied by music from loudspeakers.

Group dancing, or guangchangwu, has gained the spotlight at home and abroad since it is peculiar to China. However, it has also been controversial, with people living near parks complaining about the noise.

In August, a Chinese woman surnamed Wang was detained in New York because her guangchangwu dancing group made loud noises while dancing in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, after some angry neighboring residents called the police.

Dozens of people, often older women, gather in public parks and squares early in the morning and after dinner, turn on loudspeakers and dance to the music. Some groups wiggle to pop songs, learning easy moves from aerobics and Western dance, while others dress in costumes and carry props such as fans as they move to the tunes of pop duo Phoenix Legend.

Tan Cuixia, 66, takes a one-hour dance class in Yuexiu Park every morning, paying just 30 yuan per month for the sessions. She has been making the 30-minute commute from her home every morning since the park opened for free in 2009.

Her dance teacher brings a loudspeaker to the open space near the park's east gate, turns on the music and teaches aerobics designed for the elderly.

Tan admitted that the group has received complaints several times but said that they are careful to keep the volume down now so as not to disturb people living nearby.

"If the square where we dance becomes a silent zone, we will obey the rule and look for another place where guangchangwu is permitted," Tan said.

"But I hope guangchangwu won't be completely banned. I think we should be allowed to stay in the same place if the volume of our music is kept low."

According to the draft of the regulations, people have to ask for permission from the park authority before they use loudspeakers in a park. The music should also be below the maximum volume that the authority sets for the fitness and entertainment areas.

"After all, guangchangwu keeps me happy, healthy and feeling young," said Tan, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and needs to keep her body active.

"I love the music my teacher has chosen and I'm envious that she can keep such a good figure in her old age," Tan said with a smile after dancing to an English pop song.

While the gray-haired dancers in public squares clearly enjoy their exercises, some people living nearby find the loud background music unbearable.

Zhou Libin, the 42-year-old owner of a massage shop, lives in a building separated from Yuexiu Park by a wall, and says the music from the guangchangwu groups wakes him up the morning.

"It's annoying, because I don't need to wake up so early to catch a bus to the office," Zhou said.

"However, I don't think guangchangwu is a bad thing. I know it's important in the lives of retirees. I can accept it if they dance further away from the wall and keep their loudspeakers turned down."

Not all people are as tolerant as Zhou. Some have even made serious protests against the noisy guangchangwu groups.

On Oct 23, feces was thrown down onto a "square dancing" group in Wuhan, Hubei province, by a resident living in a nearby building.

On Aug 30, a Beijing resident fired off his hunting rifle and set three Tibetan mastiffs on a crowd of guangchangwu dancers in his neighborhood.

The draft of Guangzhou's new regulations on parks was published on the website of the city's legislative affairs office on Sept 24, and public responses were collected until Oct 15.

The regulations have been included in the 2014 lawmaking plan of the standing committee of Guangzhou People's Congress, Chen Xiaoqing, director of the legal affairs division of the committee, told Nanfang Daily.

Chen led his colleagues on a tour of several parks on Tuesday.

"Group entertainment activities are permitted on the condition that they don't disturb the everyday lives of other people or disrupt order in the park. If they make a sound louder than permitted or use loudspeakers in silent zones, the law should prevent them from doing so," Chen said.

He added that the focus of the new park regulations is the control of noise but it won't go too far.

Peng Peng, a senior researcher at Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily on Wednesday that to make the law enforceable, the regulations should include details such as the maximum decibel levels allowed and the minimum distance between nearby buildings and the areas for fitness and recreation activities.

"The government also needs to provide the public with alternative spaces in which they can do group singing and dancing," Peng said.

xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn