A high-tech answer to square-dance squabbles

Zhu Liya displays the "dazzling dancing mate". [Photo/people.com.cn]

A prototype of a high-tech loudspeaker designed by a group of college students may end the quarrels between square-dancing grannies and their neighbors who are irritated by loud music.

At a design workshop at the Sony Explora Science Museum in Beijing at the end of July, Zhu Liya, a student from the School of Media and Design at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, stood next to a tripod-like device topped by a projector and explained how it came to be.

"Square dancing is good for both mental and physical health for retired women," the 20-year-old said, adding that she conducted a survey supporting dancing's benefits.

"We also understand that noisy loudspeakers influence many others who don't get up as early as the grannies," Zhu said.

So-called square dancing has triggered conflicts between dancers in public areas and the neighbors disturbed by the music emanating from the dancers' loudspeakers.

Dancing grannies have been sued and attacked across China — even splashed with defecation — but the passion for group dancing goes on unabated.

"If the conflict is all about the noise, then technology and design can solve it," said Zhu.