Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" in Chongqing, China
April 13, 2011 2:19 AM   Subscribe

 
TMDMJ.
posted by klue at 3:27 AM on April 13, 2011


700 kids in rural Chongqing dance to Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" for less than $1 a day.
posted by parmanparman at 3:43 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


parmanparman: 700 kids in rural Chongqing dance to Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" for less than $1 a day.

If true, that would be about a dollar a day more than overweight schoolchildren in the West get for sitting on their asses.
posted by gman at 4:22 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


And they picked 'Dangerous' because the title gives the kids fair warning about their future working conditions as migrants.
posted by Abiezer at 4:37 AM on April 13, 2011


15 across by about 15 deep is way short of 700.
posted by dobbs at 4:52 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


Chongqing is the home of the best food in the world. I'm sure this is not coincidental.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:10 AM on April 13, 2011 [3 favorites]


What really struck me is just how little fun the kids seem to be having.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:19 AM on April 13, 2011


What really struck me is just how little fun the kids seem to be having.

Definitely. This is just their daily aerobics. I've seen it in plenty of schools there. Everyone lines up, there's music or not, one class leader calls out the exercise and numbers, and the children go through 15 minutes of movement. All the kids hate it the same way I hated the first half of gym class in elementary school. At least in my schooling, we got the second half of gym class to play with a parachute or frisbees or something. In the schools I've been to in China, kids do get unstructured recess time, too, with lots of running, pingpong, badminton, and anything else.

This is better than some uses of music in Chinese schools, by the way. In Nanjing, every school uses a Kenny G song (I think...sappy soprano sax, anyway) to signal the end of the day. Ugh.
posted by msbrauer at 5:25 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


At least they weren't in the library...
posted by atomicmedia at 5:28 AM on April 13, 2011


Congrats Chongqing! Because you just know that in this country (make that, on this continent) even a whisper of any sort of daily mandatory school calesthenics program would result in a rain of teams of lawyers waving class-action petitions invoking the children's constitutional rights to opt out and the parents' constitutional rights to refuse to allow their children to participate in enforced physical activity of any kind. (An as an aside, despite its being "rural" Chongqing, those kids have impeccable fashion smarts on a par with any group of their urban peers living on this side of the Pacific!)
posted by Mike D at 5:29 AM on April 13, 2011


@Mike D--exactly. Notice not one obese kid in the bunch. I don't understand the bitching and whining about cutting gym, etc. What does it take to bring a kids to the play yard and even do something like this? Get your asses outside or even in the classroom and move your butt.
posted by stormpooper at 6:10 AM on April 13, 2011


In China, all schools and many workplaces have morning exercises. I've seen it at a shopping mall, where the entire staff - salespeople, managers, security guards, cleaning crews - gather outside a half hour before opening for group exercise. Imagine the impact on health and productivity if we did it here.
posted by pavi at 6:49 AM on April 13, 2011



In China, all schools and many workplaces have morning exercises.


This used to be commonplace in Japan. It still is in traditional companies and some schools although it's falling out of favor more and more.
posted by gen at 8:05 AM on April 13, 2011


Just to speak to a couple of the obesity comments here really quick: I think it's great that these kids are getting daily exercise, and the video is cute. But a daily 5 minutes of moderate dancing is not enough to explain differences in weight between these kids and their American counterparts. Keep in mind these kids also differ in their diet, in their genetics and other inherited factors, and in their environment.

Also, I think it would be a stretch to attribute the decline of American phys ed to litigious parents. A much bigger factor is likely to be dwindling funding -- for school in general, but especially electives like P.E., which are often the first things to get cut when state budgets fall.
posted by en forme de poire at 9:15 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


Also, I think it would be a stretch to attribute the decline of American phys ed to litigious parents. A much bigger factor is likely to be dwindling funding -- for school in general, but especially electives like P.E., which are often the first things to get cut when state budgets fall.

Yes, budget cuts are a huge problem, and please don't blame litigious parents for this problem! In fact, a lot of time when the school programs get cut at all, it's because of voters who don't have kids, like retirees, voting down tax increases for education.

My kids went to an elementary school that had no playground. You got into this school through a lottery system, as it was really academically challenging. You might think parents wouldn't care about funding non-academics so much. But when the school put forth a four-year program to fund playing fields, jungle gyms, the works, the parents went to work and paid it all off in one year through donations and fundraising. We wanted our kids to be active.

When they went to that school, I once had it out with a teacher whose punishment for specific kids acting up was to deny the entire class recess. Not only did I think her approach lazy (I used to teach and hate the "now the whole class has to suffer for your behavior" tactic), the kids needed some unstructured play time. I feel that when we put more stress on our kids, like challenging them to work harder academically, we also need to give them oportunities to relax and show them how to relieve that stress, and physical exercise is at the top of the list for doing that. And kids with hyperactive issues have an ever greater need to get out of the classroom and move around.

I don't exercise as much as I should, but I try. And I encourage my kids to be active. Recently when we were on a cruise, I saw how this paid off and felt especially proud of them for always opting for the stairs over the elevator and spending the days at the pool instead of hanging around the buffet.

So, yeah, America has an obesity problem, but it's not because of helicopter parenting. And five minutes of mandatory calisthenics is not going to make the difference, though I think incorporating exercise into a daily routine is a good start.
posted by misha at 11:10 AM on April 13, 2011


Since the obesity discussion seems to have fizzled out, I just wanted to point out that the routine is based (loosely) on MJ's 1995 performance at the MTV VMAs. That's all.

(on preview: I see the discussion is still going)
posted by ClarissaWAM at 11:13 AM on April 13, 2011


Sorry!

Okay, more on topic: Michael Jackson had some great dance videos that really lend themselves to these kinds of mass dance situations, didn't he?

On the one hand, talented artist. On the other, accused pedophile. I don't really have a problem with the kids dancing to this, because I can't see anyone deciding, "Hey, I want to be a superstar musician pedophile!"

But you probably would get some flack over here for the song choice because of those allegations.
posted by misha at 11:54 AM on April 13, 2011


In Nanjing, every school uses a Kenny G song (I think...sappy soprano sax, anyway) to signal the end of the day. Ugh.

In China, I noticed everything uses a sappy Kenny G song to signal the end of something. Store closing time, train nearing its destination? Pipe in Going Home.
posted by pravit at 4:14 PM on April 13, 2011


While I'm watching this, I am hearing Wesley Snipes say to Liz Lemon "I don't want to go back to England. I can't suffer through the London Olympics — we're not prepared, Liz. Did you see the Beijing Opening Ceremonies? We don't have control over our people like that!"
posted by spec80 at 9:33 PM on April 13, 2011


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