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From the Erotic Domain, an Aerobic Trend in China  Shiho Fukada for The New York Times
Students taking a lesson at Lolan Pole Dancing School in Beijing. Theschool has five studios and plans to open six more this year.
BEIJING — Clad in knee-high leather boots, spandex shorts and asports bra, Xiao Yan struck a pose two feet off the ground, her headglistening with sweat and her arms straining as she suspended herselffrom a vertical pole.
“Keeping your grip is the hardest part,” she said. “It’s really easy to slide downward.”
Ms. Xiao, 26, who works as a supermarket manager, is one of a growingnumber of women experimenting with China’s newest, and mostcontroversial, fitness activity: pole dancing.
“I used to take anormal aerobics class, but it was boring and monotonous,” Ms. Xiaosaid. “So I tried out pole dancing. It’s a really social activity. I’vemet a lot of girls here who I’m now close friends with. And I like thatit makes me feel sexy.”
A nightclub activity mostly consideredthe domain of strippers in the United States, pole dancing — but withclothes kept on — is nudging its way into the mainstream Chineseexercise market, with increasing numbers of gyms and dance schoolsoffering classes.
The woman who claims to have brought poledancing to China, Luo Lan, 39, is from Yichun, a small town in JiangxiProvince in southeastern China. Her parents teach physics at theuniversity level.
“I’m not good at science like my parents. I’m the black sheep of my family, in that sense,” she said.
Ms. Luo said she struggled in 20 different occupations — secretary,saleswoman, restaurateur and translator among them — before deciding totake a break. She traveled to Paris in 2006 for vacation. It was therethat she first saw pole dancing.
“I wandered into a pub, and there was a woman dancing on the stage,” she said. “I thought it was beautiful.”
Ms. Luo, who quickly discovered that pole dancing for fitness waspopular in America, realized that if she could take away the shadieraspects of the erotic dance and repackage it into an activity moreacceptable to mainstream Chinese women, she might create a Chinesefitness revolution. Here was an exercise that would allow women to stayfit and express their sexuality with an unprecedented degree ofopenness and freedom.
But she remained keenly aware of thechallenges in a society where traditional values dictate that women beloyal, faithful and modestly dressed.
Upon her return toBeijing, Ms. Luo invested a little under $3,000 of her savings to startthe Lolan Pole Dancing School. She placed advertisements in a lifestylenewspaper and called friends to get the word out.
Slowly, young women trickled in to take a look.
“People here have never seen a pole dance, and for that reason theydon’t associate it with stripping or women of ill repute,” Ms. Luosaid. “I knew if I could give people a positive first impression ofthis as a clean, fun, social activity, people wouldn’t just accept it,they’d embrace it.”
Before long, Ms. Luo was contacted byseveral magazines. In March 2008, Hunan Television, a nationallybroadcast network, invited her and a group of her students to performon a talk show.
“Most of the people in the audience had no ideawhat this was,” said Hu Jing, 24, an instructor at the Lolan School.“They just thought it was fun and clapped afterward.”
Since thebroadcast, pole dancing for fitness has spread through China. Theschool now has five studios with plans to open six more this year. Arival pole dancing school, Hua Ling, opened half a year after the LolanSchool.
Pole dancing’s move onto the fitness scene, however, hasbeen a rocky one. Many Chinese, who disapprove of its sexual movements,consider it unruly and licentious.
“Five years ago, thiswouldn’t have been permitted,” said Zhang Jian, 30, a manager in aninterior design firm. “I think this is just a fad, and I don’t thinkit’s appropriate for women.”
Ms. Luo said she had receivedprank calls and plenty of criticism. “I’ve been contacted by manypeople who don’t like what we’re doing,” she said.
But thosewho embrace pole dancing for fitness are a snapshot of urban youthswhose values are changing from those of their parents.
AlthoughChina has no state religion, study of Confucianism and Taoism, twoconflicting philosophies that underlie much of modern Chinese thought,is mandatory in China’s education system. While Confucianism emphasizesachievement and propriety, Taoism stresses the unseen strengths inbeing humble and, in some cases, being perceived as average.
Although Jiang Li, 23, a pole dancing student, studied both philosophies in school, she said she could subscribe to neither.
“A lot of people expect Chinese women to be subdued and faithful, thatwe should marry and take care of kids at an early age,” she said. “ButI don’t think that way — I want to be independent. I’ve been studyingtraditional Chinese dance for many years, but this is totallydifferent. I feel in control when I do this. If I learn this well, Ifeel I can be a superstar. I want to be a superstar.”
Lucy Liang contributed research.
译文：
在中国：一种来自色情领域的有氧健身操趋势
北京：愉快地穿着高筒皮靴，氨纶短裤和运动式胸衣，肖燕在离地面两英尺搞得地方摆出了一个姿势。她的头上闪耀着汗水，她的胳膊伸展开正如她把自己悬浮在一根直立的柱子上。
“最难的是要抓紧,一不小心就会滑下来”, 二十六岁的超市经理肖女士说。越来越多的中国妇女正在尝试一项最新，也最受争议的健身运动——钢管舞。
“我过去上的都是一些普通的有氧操班，又无聊又单调，”肖女士说，“所以我就试了下钢管舞。它其实成了一项社交活动。我已经在这里遇见了好多女孩子，很多成为了很好的朋友。而且我很开心钢管舞让我觉得自己更加性感了。”
钢管舞，这项在美国夜店通常被认为是穿着衣服的“脱衣舞”，，正以它自己的方式进入中国主流的健身市场。有越来越多的健身中心和舞蹈学校开始开设课程。
三十九岁的罗兰自称第一个把钢管舞引进中国。她来自位于中国东南方江西省的小城市，宜春。她的父母都在大学里教物理。
“不像我父母，我不擅长理工科。就这点来说，我是我们家的异类。”
罗女士尝试国过不下二十种不同的职业，包括秘书，销售小姐，饭店老板和翻译。2006年，她决定休息一下。她去了巴黎旅游，在那里她第一次观赏到了钢管舞。
“我随意地走进一家俱乐部，有个女的正在舞台上跳舞”她说，“我当时觉得她跳得太漂亮了。”
罗女士很快发现钢管舞在欧美是一项很流行的健身运动，她意识到如果把它不光彩的色情成分去掉，并且把它重新包装成一个更容易为中国主流社会女性所接收的方式，她很可能就此开创一项中国的健身革命。这项运动既能让女性保持身材，又能让她们用一种空前开放、自由的方式来诠释她们的女性魅力。
但是，她也敏锐地意识到这对中国社会来说是一项挑战，社会风气从来都用传统的价值观念要求妇女忠贞、信誉，打扮的端庄。
一回到北京，罗女士从她的存款拿出三千美元开办了罗兰钢管舞学校。她在一份休闲报纸上刊登了广告，并让她的朋友四处宣传。
渐渐地，就有年轻的女性不断来一窥究竟。
“这里的人从来没见过钢管舞，而且正因为此，她们反而不会联想到脱衣舞或者名声不好的女性。”罗女士说，“我相信如果我能让她们对钢管舞的第一印象是，这是一个干净、有趣的社交运动，大家不光会仅仅接受，她们更会拥护这项运动。”
此前，已经有好几家杂志和罗女士接触过，2008年三月，湖南卫视，一个覆盖全国的电视台，邀请她和她的学生们上脱口秀节目做了表演。
“大多数观众对这项运动没有任何概念，”胡静，24岁，罗兰舞蹈中心的一位教员这样说，“他们只知道这很有趣，然后在表演完鼓掌。”
这个节目播放后，钢管舞做为健身运动开始在全中国传播开来。罗兰钢管舞中心已经开了5家分馆，并在今年计划开第6家。另一家竞争对手的钢管舞中心，华玲，也在罗兰重新成立的半年后开办。
尽管钢管舞转变成健身的角色，但它仍然很受争议。很多中国人都不赞成它那些性感的动作，认为它太不正经，太放肆。
“五年前，这肯定不会被允许的，”，30岁的室内设计公司主管张健说。“我觉得这不过就是一阵潮流，而且我也不认为它适合女性。”
罗女士说，她接过很多恶作剧电话和大量的批评。她说“已经有很多反对我们的所作的人跟我接触过了。”
但是，那些拥护钢管舞做为健身运动的城市年轻人正是那些从父辈价值观念转变过来的城市年轻人的代表。
尽管中国没有国家性的宗教，但是儒教和道教的学习，让这两种潜藏在现代中国思维方式下的不一致的哲学思想，一直主导着中国的教育体制。儒家强调成就和得体；道教着重于谦和中蕴含看不见的气，在某些方面，可以表现为中庸。
尽管蒋丽，23岁的钢管舞学员，在学校里学习了这两种哲学思想。她说她两者都不赞成。
“大多数人都希望中国妇女驯服和忠贞，意味着在我们年轻的时候就嫁人生子。”她说，“但是我并不认同——我想要独立。我学习传统中国舞蹈很多年了，但钢管舞是完全不同的。当我跳它的时候感觉到控制。如果我把这个跳舞，我觉得自己能成为明星。我想做个超级明星。” |
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