I begin this blog with a question; what does riding the bus and street dancing have in common? If you look at specifically China, not much. Or specifically America, the same answer. But if you decide to switch the question to what does riding the bus in America and street dancing in China have in common? A whole lot. Or the other question; what does street dancing in America and riding the bus in China have in common? Way too much.
Riding the bus in America, is a fairly comfortable, if not sometimes long event. We get on, we find our seat, we have our space, we observe people and sometimes we may chat with someone else. But usually we find our own thing to do and we avoid eye contact, unless a friend is with us. China's street dancing is surprisingly similar.
We go to a large square or park where there are many other people we don't know. You find your space, not touching any other person, you observe and follow. Maybe if we are feeling open or bold we will chat with our neighbor, or if we have been going for awhile we will at the very least nod at the people we know. While this is the norm, I will say, when I went I broke all the social conventions. And let's just say we had quite the crowd.
Let's move onto the other comparison we are making. Now American street dancing can look many different ways, it could be awesome break dancing in your little square with a big crown around you and I wish that's how it was on the bus, but I'm thinking of something different. I'm thinking more club style and before you say that doesn't happen on the streets I would like to disagree; have yous seen the new footloose? Yes well there is bumping and grinding out in public, and the movies never lie. The point I'm trying to make is street dancing in America, or if you must make me say it, club dancing in America is eerily similar to riding a bus in China...its scary!
I first noticed this experience two years ago, when I moved here. I haven't written about it because I simply didn't know how to, but this analogy gave me a good opening. Now, riding the bus is not always so intense, only mostly. When the buses are over crowded and you are slipping by every single person, body rubbing against body. This might be sexy, if the people were mostly clean, perhaps your own age and if there was something other than the Chinese radio station playing.
In America, I didn't go clubbing much, the idea of shaking my booty for a stranger didn't appeal (for some reason), but now after living here I feel all clubbed out. I have never grinded on people so much in my life (by accident of course), been grinded on (hopefully by accident), given and been given lap dances like this in my life (which happens when the chairs face the aisles of the bus and it is so crowded you are pretty much sitting in that person's lap).
I know there may be quite the diversity of ages reading this and I hope it doesn't scare you, while for those who understand, hopefully this makes you laugh. But this is my almost daily experience, not street dancing, but riding the bus, which as you can see is much scarier than street dancing.
Riding the bus in America, is a fairly comfortable, if not sometimes long event. We get on, we find our seat, we have our space, we observe people and sometimes we may chat with someone else. But usually we find our own thing to do and we avoid eye contact, unless a friend is with us. China's street dancing is surprisingly similar.
We go to a large square or park where there are many other people we don't know. You find your space, not touching any other person, you observe and follow. Maybe if we are feeling open or bold we will chat with our neighbor, or if we have been going for awhile we will at the very least nod at the people we know. While this is the norm, I will say, when I went I broke all the social conventions. And let's just say we had quite the crowd.
Let's move onto the other comparison we are making. Now American street dancing can look many different ways, it could be awesome break dancing in your little square with a big crown around you and I wish that's how it was on the bus, but I'm thinking of something different. I'm thinking more club style and before you say that doesn't happen on the streets I would like to disagree; have yous seen the new footloose? Yes well there is bumping and grinding out in public, and the movies never lie. The point I'm trying to make is street dancing in America, or if you must make me say it, club dancing in America is eerily similar to riding a bus in China...its scary!
I first noticed this experience two years ago, when I moved here. I haven't written about it because I simply didn't know how to, but this analogy gave me a good opening. Now, riding the bus is not always so intense, only mostly. When the buses are over crowded and you are slipping by every single person, body rubbing against body. This might be sexy, if the people were mostly clean, perhaps your own age and if there was something other than the Chinese radio station playing.
In America, I didn't go clubbing much, the idea of shaking my booty for a stranger didn't appeal (for some reason), but now after living here I feel all clubbed out. I have never grinded on people so much in my life (by accident of course), been grinded on (hopefully by accident), given and been given lap dances like this in my life (which happens when the chairs face the aisles of the bus and it is so crowded you are pretty much sitting in that person's lap).
I know there may be quite the diversity of ages reading this and I hope it doesn't scare you, while for those who understand, hopefully this makes you laugh. But this is my almost daily experience, not street dancing, but riding the bus, which as you can see is much scarier than street dancing.
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