4 ms·

Dancing grannies are actually one of the aspects about China that I absolutely love. I can go out anywhere I want at any time of the night and feel safe. Why? H

Dancing grannies are actually one of the aspects about China that I absolutely love. I can go out anywhere I want at any time of the night and feel safe. Why? Hoards of wholesome dancing grannies fill all of those dark spaces normally occupied by drug addicts and hoodlums in Western countries. They make the public spaces feel 'alive'. I've lived in my different cities in the West including those in Western Europe and North America, and all too often public spaces become completely dead and devoid of life all because people have become so fearful of offending others or looking stupid. Everyone just wants to keep to themselves and be left alone. Suburbs are practically ghost towns with everyone (probably on their devices) hiding inside their homes. Physical social networks are clearly on the decline and as a result, depression and loneliness has become an absolute epidemic in the West. The problem only gets exponentially worse as one ages. Happy dancing grannies engaging in physical exercise, socializing and helping to keep the community safe is what Western countries to be aspiring to have, instead of criticizing and ridiculing.

snypher 5y ago
>Hoards of wholesome dancing grannies fill all of those dark spaces normally occupied by drug addicts and hoodlums in Western countries. I know (hope?) you are being hyperbolic, but I don't think these two issues are as directly related as you make it seem.
m3kw9 5y ago
They are not going away anytime soon because they are actually endorsed by the state and tech solutions will come out to nullify this
- ilaksh 5y ago
  It seems like the solution is to just play the music at a reasonable level? And if they can't do that then start arresting them.
clairity 5y ago
a fond memory of visiting beijing many years ago is all the old folks doing tai chi in various parks and empty lots around the city at like 7am. it made the city feel warm and alive. where i live (in LA), you see folks out jogging and walking their dog at that time, but it’s mostly all solitary activity.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- soared 5y ago
  I didn’t know this was common! I see this many mornings in a parking lot in the middle of Denver.
  - clairity 5y ago
    yah, to be fair, i’m sure it does happen here in LA too (in chinatown, for instance), but i don’t see it everywhere like it seemed in beijing.
    - asdff 5y ago
      we do yoga in parks and cemeteries instead in LA
- reaperducer 5y ago
  where i live (in LA), you see folks out jogging and walking their dog at that time, but it’s mostly all solitary activity. In some of the large American cities where I've lived, the parks are populated by groups of Lululemons doing yoga in the morning. Some cities, like Chicago and Houston, even organize the events. Considering the lifestyle I remember from my L.A. days, I'd say there's probably a yoga group in a park not too far from where you live.
riddleronroof 5y ago
Agree with this. We have dancing grannies in chinatown, nyc. And that is way better than thr alternative.
- rsj_hn 5y ago
  Wait, what is the alternative to dancing grannies?
dirtyid 5y ago
Beijing megablock with 30k residents and vibrant commercial / social activities on ground floor is a nice taste of new urbanism. That said, dancing grannies with boom boxes blasting until 10pm on a school night is what noise regulations are for. And at least in my old compound, security had a very hard enforcing it. Hopefully this is an addressible problem for headphone companies when wireless broadcast technologies advances.
5m17h 5y ago
created：16 days ago
turtlebits 5y ago
Population density in Asian countries is not even close comparable to Western cities. Also, if it's dark out, people are generally sleeping- music should not be playing at loud volumes.
neither_color 5y ago
A lot of Americans have no frame of reference for what you're describing because they've never lived somewhere where "dangerous parts" of the city dont make up a large part of it. My experience in Beijing/Shanghai was that some parts are ultra modern and other parts are run down, but even the run down parts don't feel dangerous and don't put you on alert for getting mugged/robbed. People in the US believe that it's all a strict mathematics/economics function where poverty=danger and nothing can be done about it, they've given up on the culture part of it and just enable the epidemic of junkie and needles and sketchy people take up large swathes of public space, especially on the west coast.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  Well, compare the crime rate in a US city to the crime rate among Asians in the same city. Or any other US city. Chinese cities are populated by Asians. If an American city made that change and no other changes, the crime rate would fall to negligible levels.
  - fwip 5y ago
    Could you blow your dog whistle a little less hard?
- noona 5y ago
  I don't think it is culture or at least not the permanent kind. Asia has plenty of crime. Quite severe crime, and organized crime, and personal crime. From what I've heard large Chinese cities used to have a lot more crime. You can still see the bars on the windows of older buildings. Just like it is hard to understand that these large cities are generally safe it is also hard to understand the amount of development that has happened. By now most would have probably heard the stories or seen the pictures of things like changing skylines. But it's different when you go there. Almost every year there is one or more projects completed that would have taken 10 or 20 years in western countries. And not just shopping malls but projects that actually do something. It's really hard to pessimistic with that kind of change despite being faced with a very real reality everyday. We used to speculate that China might be the best country to be born in today. Because it would take ~20+ years until you enter the workforce. And if the next 20 years are like the past 20 years you could do really well. That outlook has of course dimmed a bit since then. What I'm trying to say it that when people believe things will get better they don't want to give up their future. When things stagnant or getting worse people are hopeless they feel like they have nothing to lose. Crime seems to be factor of that. Maybe just not to those ending up committing the crimes but for everyone else as well. It's not surprising to me that some crimes and social unrest is on the rise in supposedly prosperous countries when everything is getting expensive, opportunities are getting harder to come by and those opportunities you do have count for less. If those at the top of society all act like there is no tomorrow, or that tomorrow doesn't matter, we shouldn't expect those at the bottom to act any differently. I can agree that this sort of culture, the one of acts and impressions, makes a huge difference.

snypher 5y ago

>Hoards of wholesome dancing grannies fill all of those dark spaces normally occupied by drug addicts and hoodlums in Western countries. I know (hope?) you are being hyperbolic, but I don't think these two issues are as directly related as you make it seem.

m3kw9 5y ago

They are not going away anytime soon because they are actually endorsed by the state and tech solutions will come out to nullify this

ilaksh 5y ago
It seems like the solution is to just play the music at a reasonable level? And if they can't do that then start arresting them.

clairity 5y ago

a fond memory of visiting beijing many years ago is all the old folks doing tai chi in various parks and empty lots around the city at like 7am. it made the city feel warm and alive. where i live (in LA), you see folks out jogging and walking their dog at that time, but it’s mostly all solitary activity.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
soared 5y ago
I didn’t know this was common! I see this many mornings in a parking lot in the middle of Denver.
- clairity 5y ago
  yah, to be fair, i’m sure it does happen here in LA too (in chinatown, for instance), but i don’t see it everywhere like it seemed in beijing.
  - asdff 5y ago
    we do yoga in parks and cemeteries instead in LA
reaperducer 5y ago
where i live (in LA), you see folks out jogging and walking their dog at that time, but it’s mostly all solitary activity. In some of the large American cities where I've lived, the parks are populated by groups of Lululemons doing yoga in the morning. Some cities, like Chicago and Houston, even organize the events. Considering the lifestyle I remember from my L.A. days, I'd say there's probably a yoga group in a park not too far from where you live.

riddleronroof 5y ago

Agree with this. We have dancing grannies in chinatown, nyc. And that is way better than thr alternative.

rsj_hn 5y ago
Wait, what is the alternative to dancing grannies?

dirtyid 5y ago

Beijing megablock with 30k residents and vibrant commercial / social activities on ground floor is a nice taste of new urbanism. That said, dancing grannies with boom boxes blasting until 10pm on a school night is what noise regulations are for. And at least in my old compound, security had a very hard enforcing it. Hopefully this is an addressible problem for headphone companies when wireless broadcast technologies advances.

5m17h 5y ago

created：16 days ago

turtlebits 5y ago

Population density in Asian countries is not even close comparable to Western cities. Also, if it's dark out, people are generally sleeping- music should not be playing at loud volumes.

neither_color 5y ago

A lot of Americans have no frame of reference for what you're describing because they've never lived somewhere where "dangerous parts" of the city dont make up a large part of it. My experience in Beijing/Shanghai was that some parts are ultra modern and other parts are run down, but even the run down parts don't feel dangerous and don't put you on alert for getting mugged/robbed. People in the US believe that it's all a strict mathematics/economics function where poverty=danger and nothing can be done about it, they've given up on the culture part of it and just enable the epidemic of junkie and needles and sketchy people take up large swathes of public space, especially on the west coast.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
Well, compare the crime rate in a US city to the crime rate among Asians in the same city. Or any other US city. Chinese cities are populated by Asians. If an American city made that change and no other changes, the crime rate would fall to negligible levels.
- fwip 5y ago
  Could you blow your dog whistle a little less hard?
noona 5y ago
I don't think it is culture or at least not the permanent kind. Asia has plenty of crime. Quite severe crime, and organized crime, and personal crime. From what I've heard large Chinese cities used to have a lot more crime. You can still see the bars on the windows of older buildings. Just like it is hard to understand that these large cities are generally safe it is also hard to understand the amount of development that has happened. By now most would have probably heard the stories or seen the pictures of things like changing skylines. But it's different when you go there. Almost every year there is one or more projects completed that would have taken 10 or 20 years in western countries. And not just shopping malls but projects that actually do something. It's really hard to pessimistic with that kind of change despite being faced with a very real reality everyday. We used to speculate that China might be the best country to be born in today. Because it would take ~20+ years until you enter the workforce. And if the next 20 years are like the past 20 years you could do really well. That outlook has of course dimmed a bit since then. What I'm trying to say it that when people believe things will get better they don't want to give up their future. When things stagnant or getting worse people are hopeless they feel like they have nothing to lose. Crime seems to be factor of that. Maybe just not to those ending up committing the crimes but for everyone else as well. It's not surprising to me that some crimes and social unrest is on the rise in supposedly prosperous countries when everything is getting expensive, opportunities are getting harder to come by and those opportunities you do have count for less. If those at the top of society all act like there is no tomorrow, or that tomorrow doesn't matter, we shouldn't expect those at the bottom to act any differently. I can agree that this sort of culture, the one of acts and impressions, makes a huge difference.