遍地飛歌夜生活 中國廣場舞擾民引爭議

Months after 'Auntie' Su and a dozen or two retirees began squeezing into a small outdoor square every night to dance to music supplied by a brick-sized portable music player, residents of the tony Hankou Center Gardens apartment complex began to complain about the noise. When that didn't deter the dancers, they started to hurl abuse.

武漢的蘇阿姨（音）和一二十位退休老人每天晚上都會在一個小型戶外廣場跳舞，伴舞的音樂由一個磚頭大小的便攜播放器提供。幾個月後，附近高檔小區漢口中心嘉園的居民開始抱怨噪音。但抱怨沒能阻止這羣跳舞的人，於是居民們開始破口大罵。

Auntie Su's dancers say they have been pelted with water, sand, coins and, once, feces. 'One resident threatened me, saying, 'If you continue to dance, I'll throw a knife at you!' says the 79-year-old. 'I said, 'I'll keep dancing even if you shoot at me with a gun!''

與蘇阿姨一起跳舞的人說，他們被人潑過水，扔過沙子、硬幣等等，還有一次扔的是糞便。79歲的蘇阿姨說，一個居民曾恐嚇她，說如果她們繼續跳舞，他會扔刀子。蘇阿姨回答說，就算你拿槍打我，我也要跳。

In China, there is a new group stirring up controversy: middle-aged and retired city dwellers dancing together in parks and squares.

中國有一個引發爭議的新羣體：在公園和廣場跳集體舞的中老年退休者。

Residents in nearby buildings say the noise makes relaxing after work hard and, worse, disturbs their children's studies. Participants say the dancing keeps them active and healthy.

附近樓裏的居民說，噪音讓他們下班後難以放鬆，更糟糕的是會干擾孩子的學習。跳舞的人則說，跳舞讓他們精神活躍、身體健康。

'Are we just supposed to sit around and wait for death?' says Ms. Su, who credits dancing with helping her recover from throat cancer surgery. Ms. Su, who other dancers call 'Auntie,' wanted to be identified only by her surname. 'This is a national issue now,' she says.

蘇阿姨說，難道我們就該坐着等死嗎？她自己曾接受咽喉癌手術，跳舞幫助她的身體恢復。一同跳舞的人都叫她蘇阿姨，她只願意透露自己的姓氏。她說，現在這成了全國性的問題。

Efforts to regulate public dancing are under way in several cities to quell the outcry from apartment-dwellers, many of them first-time homeowners.

幾個城市正在出臺措施，對在公共場所跳舞的行爲進行監管，目的是平息居民的強烈抗議，很多居民都是首次購房者。

The southern city of Guangzhou has announced plans to designate 'silent zones' in park areas abutting schools, hospitals and residential buildings, with fines as high as $160 for violators. In prosperous Hangzhou, residential committees have begun a systematic noise-monitoring program, using decibel meters, in areas where dancers congregate.

中國南部城市廣州已經宣佈在鄰近學校、醫院和居民樓的公園區域指定“安靜區”，違規者最高面臨人民幣1000元（合160美元）的罰款。在繁華的杭州市，居委會已經開始了系統性的噪音監控措施，在跳舞者聚集的區域用分貝儀測量噪音。

In the central city of Liuyang, dancing groups in one community were compelled by the local residential committee to sign on to a 'public dancing communiqué' that limits dancing to after 7 a.m. or before 8:30 p.m.

在中國中部城市瀏陽，一個社區的居委會要求跳舞的團體簽署“廣場舞公約”，將跳舞的時間限制在早上7點後或晚上8:30之前。

'Dancing in and of itself is nothing to criticize,' the Communist Party-run Guangzhou Daily said in commentary in November. 'But as soon as 'group dancing' becomes 'public nuisance dancing' that infringes on the right of others to relax, it's another matter.'

《廣州日報》去年11月的一篇評論文章說，跳舞本身無可指摘，然而一旦集體舞變成了損害公共利益的舞蹈，侵犯了他人休息的權利，那就是另一回事了。

Moves to control public dancing threaten a tradition that has wide appeal among members of the country's rapidly growing elderly population. According to a recent report by China Central Television, the state broadcaster, as many as 100 million people, mostly women in their 50s and 60s, now take part.

控制廣場舞的行動給中國的這一傳統帶來了威脅，而且該傳統在中國快速增長的老齡化人口當中廣受歡迎。中國官方的中央電視臺在近期的一則報道中說，廣場舞愛好者大約有1億人，其中大多數是五六十歲的女性。

'It's not only good for physical health, but also spiritual and mental well-being,' says Tang Keming, a self-educated public dancing choreographer who helped organize a 1,200-person group that danced during the torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 'It's not just about use dancing to promote ideas about caring for children and the elderly.'

自學廣場舞編舞的唐克明（音）說，廣場舞不僅對身體健康有好處，在精神上和心理上也有好處。在2008年北京奧運火炬傳遞期間，唐克明曾幫助組織1,200人集體跳舞。唐克明說，重點不是跳舞，他們是用跳舞來宣傳尊老愛幼的觀念。

The dances take place in venues ranging from parks and public squares to parking lots. They take a variety of forms, from traditional folk dances involving silk fans and drumming to improvised routines set to patriotic songs, saccharine pop and sanitized rap.

廣場舞有的在公園裏跳，有的在公共廣場上跳，還有的在停車場裏跳。廣場舞的形式也多種多樣，有人拿着絲質的扇子、敲着鼓跳傳統民族舞，也有人自創套路，配合紅歌、抒情歌曲和潔版說唱樂跳舞。

Public dancing caught on in Chinese cities in the 1980s and '90s partly as a way to stay healthy after the state health-care system atrophied under market reforms, says Caroline Chen, an environmental planning expert at the University of California, Berkeley. She says the dancing also helps older Chinese recover a sense of Mao-era collectivism at a time when old neighborhoods have been razed and replaced with high-rise living.

加州大學伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)的環境規劃專家Caroline Chen說，廣場舞在上個世紀八九十年代在中國的城市中流行開來，其中一個原因是，在市場化改革過程中，國家養老體系萎縮，人們要用這種辦法保持健康。她說，在老街區被高樓大廈取代的時代，廣場舞還能幫助中老年人找回毛時代那種集體主義的感覺。

The problem, according to Ms. Chen, is that public dancing, for all its benefits, conflicts with an increasing desire among many for a quieter, less chaotic urban lifestyle as public spaces are being squeezed by development. 'The exuberance of this communal culture is being hushed and the modern idea of what a city should be is taking its place,' she says.

按照Caroline Chen的說法，廣場舞的問題在於，雖然有很多好處，但它與很多人越來越強烈的要求更安靜、更少喧囂的城市生活的意願相沖突，如今，因爲發展的原因，公共空間越來越受到擠壓。她說，這種社區文化的生機正在受到壓制，關於城市生活應該是什麼樣的現代觀念正在形成。

In the town of Changping, dancers say they took to a basketball court after complaints from neighbors drove them out of an apartment complex. In August, a man enraged by the noise emerged from his house near the court with a shotgun that he fired into the air, and later set three Tibetan mastiffs on the crowd, according to dancers and state media reports.

在北京昌平，廣場舞愛好者說，在附近的人抱怨之後，他們搬出了小區，到一個籃球場上跳。官方媒體報道說，去年8月份，一名被噪音激怒的男子從家裏衝出來（他家離籃球場不遠），持雙筒獵槍朝天放了一槍，隨後又放出自己養的三隻藏 衝進跳舞人羣。

'One group would leave and another would come,' the man, surnamed Shi, told China Central Television in a jailhouse interview. 'I have dogs, and they would bark incessantly. I couldn't sleep.'

這名施姓男子在監獄接受央視採訪時說，他們走了又來一幫。他還說，因爲我那養着狗，我的狗一宿宿叫，弄得我晚上睡不着。

An official with the Changping District People's Court said the man was found guilty of illegal possession of firearms in November and sentenced to six months in jail. The court wouldn't provide the man's full name. Efforts to reach him through the court and a neighbor weren't successful.

北京市昌平區人民法院的一位官員說，這名男子去年11月因非法持有槍械罪被判入獄六個月。法院不願透露此人的姓名。記者沒能通過法院聯繫到此人，也沒能聯繫到此人的鄰居。

The basketball court still bears instructions spray-painted on the concrete by the dancers--'step together, turn left.'

在那個籃球場上，仍然可以看到廣場舞愛好者在水泥地上用噴漆塗的“一起邁步、向左”的舞步指南。

A desire for peaceful modern living is what led many residents of Hankou Center Gardens to pay extra for units on the inside of the complex, which overlook a tree-lined square.

漢口中心嘉園的很多房主之所以額外加錢購買坐落於該樓盤內部、可俯瞰一個綠樹成蔭的廣場的房子，圖的就是有一個安靜優雅的居住環境。

'This was supposed to be the quietest apartment,' says Peng Ji, 40 years old, whose third-floor unit overlooks the square. He says his parents, who suffer stomach and nerve problems, moved out because they couldn't stand the nightly dance parties. He also says his 7-year-old daughter has trouble studying and that he can't leave his windows open in the summer.

40歲的彭季（音）家住三層，從窗戶裏便能看到這個廣場。他說，自己的這套房子本來應該是小區裏最安靜的。他說，患有胃病和神經系統疾病的父母因爲受不了晚上集體舞的吵鬧已經搬出去了。他還說，7歲的女兒在學習時很難集中注意力，而且夏天他都沒法開窗。

Dancers typically gather in the morning around 6 a.m. and in the evening after 7 p.m. for about an hour. Residents say they took their complaints to the apartment management office and asked that the dancers start earlier in the evening, to no avail.

跳廣場舞的人們一般在早上6點左右和晚上7點後集合，各跳上大約一個小時。居民說，他們曾到小區物業管理部門那裏去投訴，希望跳舞的人晚上能早點開始，但是完全沒用。

'We like to dance after dinner. It aids digestion,' says Ms. Su.

蘇女士說：“我們喜歡飯後跳，這樣有助於消化。”

'We're trying to reach a consensus, but the old folks are stubborn,' says Mr. Sun, the head of property management at Hankou Center Gardens, who declined to give his full name.

漢口中心嘉園不願具名的物業管理負責人孫（音）先生說：“我們是想達成一致意見，但老年人不肯讓步。

One recent evening, dancers had turned the radio down low, but the sound of the Tibetan love song they had chosen was still clearly audible inside a nearby second-story apartment, even with the windows closed.

前幾天晚上，跳舞的人們把錄音機音量調低了一些，但他們選擇的那首藏族情歌在附近一套二層住房裏關着窗戶的情況下，依然聽得一清二楚。

'It's usually even louder than this,' said the apartment's tenant, Ms. Wang, a middle-school art teacher who would only give her last name.

這套房子的租戶、自稱姓王（音）的一位中學美術老師說，平常音樂聲比這個還大。

'At one point, they told me to wear ear plugs. I'm supposed to wear ear plugs inside my own house? Seriously?'

她說：“他們有一回讓我戴上耳塞，我要在自己家裏戴上耳塞？搞錯沒？”

The dancing dilemma isn't likely to go away. By 2020, according to state media, people 60 years or older will make up roughly 16% of China's population at 240 million or so.

在中國，廣場舞問題不太可能輕易解決。據中國官方媒體報道，到2020年中國60歲或以上老年人口將達到2.4億左右，佔中國總人口的比例約爲16%。