Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Sweating to the Chinese Oldies





Try THIS in heels!

There are many things about China that bother me. The total control of information into and out of the country is something we could not abide here. The pollution evident even at the Beijing Olympics is blowing eastward across this country even now, and I resent that...a LOT! That whole thing about having one child and the devaluation of female children will eventually create problems the government can't handle, and if the country continues to export lead paint on our Hasbro toys, our kids will be declining as well. But then, there's Dance Routine #8.
Hearkening back to the early 1950's when the government began demanding fitness exercises for all workers and continuing through the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, "radio calisthenics" is a program of twice-daily exercises performed by all Chinese workers who toil under the government's auspices...which include the workers pictured above who work in a department store!
At 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. workers are required to gather and perform Dance Routine #8, the latest in a line of dance routines taught every five years by physical exercise teachers who spread throughout the country to teach the new routine. You've seen all the groups doing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance on YouTube(or if you have not, you should)..this is something like that. The exercises are a mixture of martial arts movements, peppy music and oral instructions given over the government radio station. And, it has a purpose which I can admire:
"Collective exercise makes people feel more relaxed and have greater efficiency at work," according to Yu Junsheng, the Vice President of the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions. The Chinese government has seen too many lazy, obese people who have taken on Western eating and exercising habits, and the politicos want that rend reduced...thus, compulsory exercise.
Good for them.
We should follow suit.
But they can keep the policy of limiting information, Google, and incredible pollution.
It will be only a matter of time before Jack LaLane is advertising his juicer in China.

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