Seen the dancing old ladies (and sometimes men) in the evening? And perhaps early morning? Of course you have. And that’s the problem. They’re everywhere. But most worrying of all, some have even taken to our city’s roads to practice what they call their “spiritual life”.
看到晚上跳舞的老太太（有时还有男人）吗？也许是清晨？当然有。这就是问题所在。他们无处不在。但最令人担忧的是，有些人甚至走上我们城市的道路来实践他们所谓的“精神生活”。
In Chinese, they are referred to as the “Square Dancing Aunties” (广场舞大妈). A phenomenon which has attracted worldwide attention, both good and bad, the square-dance trend has become exacerbated recently, in part, on account of China’s ageing population.
在中文里，她们被称为“广场舞大妈”。广场舞这一现象引起了全世界的关注，无论是好是坏，近来广场舞趋势有所加剧，部分原因是中国人口老龄化。
Now though, the aunties have become a hot search for their “taking over the road” (占道), for lack of anywhere else to dance.
但现在，阿姨们却因“占道”而成为热搜，因为没有其他地方可以跳舞。
30 something, Ms. Wang, lives in a residential community on Hebin Lu in Nanjing’s Jiangpu. Completed in 2021, the community has yet to have any public leisure and entertainment space nearby. Wang cannot handle it anymore. “For a while, I woke up every day to square-dance music; they started dancing around seven o’clock”, she said.
王女士30多岁，家住南京市江浦河滨路的一个小区。该社区于2021年竣工，附近尚未有任何公共休闲娱乐空间。王先生实在受不了了。 “有一段时间，我每天都在广场舞音乐中醒来；他们七点左右就开始跳舞”，她说。
Wang told reporters that she could tolerate it on weekdays, but at the weekends when she wanted to sleep in, it was just too much.
王女士告诉记者，平日里她还能忍受，但周末想睡懒觉的时候就受不了了。
As such, she and other dissatisfied tenants got together to negotiate with the dancers, managing to achieve an outcome acceptable to both parties.
于是，她和其他不满意的租户一起与舞者进行谈判，最终达成了双方都能接受的结果。
Therein, square-dancing time has become accepted by both sides to be 09:00-21:00.
其中广场舞时间已被双方认可为09:00-21:00。
“Square dance is our spiritual life”, said Ms. Huang, who has been square dancing for more than 10 years. “We are used to doing it every day, but we also recognise that we should try not to disturb others.” She went on to tell reporters that every year her dance gang has disputes with others on account of their habit.
“广场舞是我们的精神生活。”跳广场舞10多年的黄女士说。 “我们每天都习惯这样做，但我们也认识到，我们应该尽量不打扰别人。”她接着告诉记者，她的舞团每年都会因为习惯问题与其他人发生争执。
A Ms. Chen complained about this very topic to reporters from the Yangtze Evening News. “When the weather is bad, they move from the square to the underground car park’s thoroughfares, dancing in the middle of the road, she said. “We have to be so careful when driving in the underground garage.”
陈女士就这个话题向扬子晚报记者抱怨。 “天气不好的时候，他们会从广场转移到地下停车场的通道，在路中间跳舞，”她说，“我们在地下车库开车时必须非常小心。”
“[They do] collectively concede when cars come along, but even so, it is still very dangerous. I reported it to the property management, but nothing was done”.
“当汽车来的时候，他们确实集体承认，但即便如此，这仍然很危险。我向物业报告了此事，但没有采取任何行动”。
One residential community in Jiangning, however, has come up with an innovative way of addressing the issue. In Yongfuyuan Community, there are a large number of elderly people, a floating population and the problem of car parks being occupied by square dancers.
然而，江宁的一个住宅社区想出了一种创新的方法来解决这个问题。永福园社区存在老年人口多、流动人口多、停车场被广场舞占用的问题。
Sun Yan, who is with the community’s property management office, explained that to fundamentally solve the problem, they did not directly stop it. Instead, they asked team members and volunteers to infiltrate the square dancers and become emotionally accepted, after which they proposed to the group that it would be more appropriate to dance in the square set aside for such activities. The subversion has worked too.
社区物管所孙燕解释说，为了从根本上解决问题，他们并没有直接制止。相反，他们要求团队成员和志愿者渗透到广场舞者中，并在情感上被接受，然后他们向团队提出，在专门为此类活动预留的广场上跳舞会更合适。颠覆也起了作用。
Sun said, “Dancing in the parking lot not only affects other people’s driving and parking, but also the mood and effectiveness of dancing if they don’t stop to give way to vehicles”.
孙先生说，“在停车场跳舞不仅影响其他人的驾驶和停车，如果不停车给车辆让路，也会影响跳舞的心情和效果”。
