Better Dance than Never

 "The practices of everyday urbanism should inevitably lead to social change, not via abstract political ideologies imposed from outside, but instead through specific concerns that arise from the lived experience of different individuals and groups in the city."

-Margret Crawford

And while reading this, it reminds me of the "Guangchangwu (Public Square dancing)" phenomenon in China. Briefly speaking,  this type of "public square dancing" is extremely popular among groups of senior retired women or some male also participate this activity.

The last three decades have witnessed the tremendous change in Chinese society,  and the speed of information and technology update made them feel hard to keep up with. They could not use the app in the smartphones to socialize with others very well but found this type of  dancing entertainment could provide them with more direct interaction. Another important point is that they could find a sense of collectivity lifestyle which they live in when they were young in the 1970s.

But at the same time, the fast pace of urbanism in Chinese cities made more and more space are exploit for commercial purpose, and the limited public space in the city undertakes too much burden that  for people to have leisure lifestyle at low cost.

Therefore, these groups of people brought their own stereos to the public spaces in the city(which are quiet limited), like some small square, plaza in some shopping mall (much preferred), even at the parking lot during some specific time in a day. Therefore, conflicts arise either when different groups of dancers want to occupy the same area for dancing or  the shop owners and nearby residents complaints about the noise from the large stereos while they are dancing. So some cities has some policy of ban on public square dancing.

Mass Square Dancing at Haidian Northern Cultural Center, Beijing, China

I feel kind of sad about this situation, since these senior people are born and grown up in the toughest era of China, they worked hard to lay a solid foundation for the next generation to create a better life for young Chinese. When they moved to the city with their children or the urbanism movement in China made their countryside area become the new area of city, and large area of their homeland are taken, their voices are hard to be heard and they feel abandoned by this time. As a future architect or urban designer, I believe that I have the obligation to consider these under-represented  groups into my design process, and influence the our clients'/ decision makers' idea gradually. Leave different community a space belong to them instead of put another concrete block to add more numbers in their bank account.