{"id":25670,"date":"2026-01-04T17:20:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=25670"},"modified":"2026-01-04T17:20:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:20:34","slug":"shanghais-dance-halls-and-clubs-are-thriving-as-retirees-put-on-their-dancing-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=25670","title":{"rendered":"Shanghai\u2019s dance halls and clubs are thriving as retirees put on their dancing shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A group of retirees cheered under disco lights as 60-year-old Xu Li leapt into her partner\u2019s arms, her legs spread akimbo in perfect splits.<\/p>\n

It was just a regular Wednesday at one of Shanghai\u2019s many lunchtime dance clubs, a phenomenon born of the city\u2019s deeply rooted love of ballroom culture from its jazz-age heyday.<\/p>\n

On any given day, multiple venues host hours-long daytime sessions across the finance hub, some starting as early as 6am.<\/p>\n

Establishments such as the historic Paramount Ballroom are time capsules from the 1930s, while others flash with neon pink and green rave lights in the early afternoon.<\/p>\n

All are important spaces for their mostly elderly clientele to socialise and reclaim the past through the medium of foxtrot, rumba and polka.<\/p>\n

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\"An<\/div>
An elderly man poses for a picture at the Hai Shang Jiu Meng Dance Hall in Shanghai. For the elderly, dance halls are gyms, entertainment venues and social clubs rolled into one. Photo: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI was quite lonely at home,\u201d says 66-year-old Lin Guang at a dance hall called Old Dreams of Shanghai in December, explaining he had felt lost after retiring. \u201cComing here to dance makes me feel young again. Now, I seem to have endless energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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A group of retirees cheered under disco lights as 60-year-old Xu Li leapt into her partner\u2019s arms, her legs spread akimbo in perfect splits. It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[14471,8034,14086,15114,3935,15115,8570,3085,7399],"class_list":["post-25670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-clubs","tag-dance","tag-dancing","tag-halls","tag-put","tag-retirees","tag-shanghais","tag-shoes","tag-thriving","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}