Dama strut their stuff on stage during the Beautiful Bozhou City competition, in Anhui province, last year. (Photo by LIU QINLI/FOR CHINA DAILY)
The activity's popularity has also translated into business opportunities for many enter-prises. At the first Square Dance Development Forum, held in Hainan province in November, Peng Qiang, founder and CEO of WYZ Sports in Beijing, called square dancers "walking wallets" during a speech in which he addressed the activity's business potential.
"In China, dancing grannies are usually the accountants of their household. Reaching them means reaching the bank accounts of millions of families in the country," Peng told China Daily USA in a phone interview.
Peng's agency, established at the end of 2016, links sporting activities with corporate sponsorship. Last year, WYZ Sports helped 20 clients sponsor more than 40 sporting events, half of which were marathons.
He noted that while square dancing is unlikely to reach the size and value of marathons in China－about 500 marathons were held in the country last year, each attracted sponsorship of more than 5 million yuan ($777,000)－the activity has its own appeal.
"Square dancing has the clearest and most precise participant profile－middle-aged and elderly Chinese women," said Peng, who added that healthcare companies, beauty salons and banks selling investment products make up the lion's share of sponsors for square dancing contests in China.
He believes the amounts sponsors are willing to provide could rise in the future. China is home to the world's fastest-growing aging population, and 480 million people age 60 and older will account for about 35 percent of the population by 2050, according to media reports. If the sport maintains its popularity the number of square dancers will obviously rise as the population ages.
Controversial
Even though the activity is massively popular with middle-aged and senior people, others have taken issue with square dancers hogging public areas and playing loud music early in the morning. In recent years, the controversial side of square dancing has often made headlines.
In March 2016, a man in Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, South China, was arrested for shooting a square dancer with an air gun. The man, who claimed to be annoyed by the volume of the music, claimed he was aiming at the loudspeaker, but accidentally missed and hit the woman instead.
In June, several square dancers, with an average age of 63, were involved in a violent altercation with university students over the use of a public basketball court in Luoyang, Henan province.
In November, the General Administration of Sports attempted to address the problems by issuing a regulation that banned square dancing at certain venues. The administration also urged dancers and sports organizers to work together to maintain social harmony.
Wang Qianni, an anthropology postgraduate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, argued that young people and the media view the gyrating grannies through "tainted glasses". After interviewing 20 square dancers over the course of six months in 2013, Wang wrote in her thesis, "The Making of Guangchang Wu (square dancing) Stigma", that the activity has become the butt of jokes on many talk shows.
