China Targets Childhood Obesity With Compulsory Dancing

Compulsory waltzing will be added to the Chinese national curriculum in September under a new campaign to reduce childhood obesity.

From the start of the new school year, teachers across the country will be expected to put hundreds of millions of pupils through their paces every day, the state-run China Daily said today.

In preparation, a team of pioneering ballroom and folk instructors started training this month and video demonstrations of the mandatory breaktime routines have been filmed for DVD distribution to regional education departments.

Seven dance steps will be introduced into the new, five-minute, daily exercise regimen. Primary school children will dance "Good Friends," "Sunny Campus" and "Little White Boat". Junior high school pupils will twirl and dip for the "Youth Melody" and "The Yangge Dance", while high school students will sashay along to "The Waltz" and "The Young".

The Ministry of Education said the dances were designed to "suit the physical and psychological characteristics of students at different ages". New steps and melodies will be introduced every two years.

The routines - which will supplement rather than replace regular physical education classes - are reportedly aimed at turning a generation of chubby cheeks into twinkle toes. Student waistlines have expanded almost as fast as the Chinese economy. Studies suggest one in five children are obese. Rising affluence, reduced exercise and the growing popularity of fast food such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds have hit school fitness levels badly. The average pupil today is slower and weaker than 10 years ago.

But the unorthodox plan to reverse this trend has stirred up a lively public debate.

"The dance plan makes no sense. Running and calisthenics are a more effective way to lose weight. Our school needs to hire a special teacher to teach dancing and it will take up a lot of time," said Ma Yanling a teacher in Beijing, whose class of 37 includes only five overweight students. "Most importantly, letting students waltz will create hotbeds of adolescent love. That is not good. Schools work very hard to prevent students from falling in love too early."

Supporters praised the communal experience of the traditional folk dances such as the Yangge. "Group dancing will help cultivate students' social graces and sense of collectivism," Wang Wenrong, of the Guangxi Normal College, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.

But critics said social graces are not a priority in the countryside, where many schools still lack basic facilities. "Making students dance - under duress - is not an essential part of education, it simply creates new burdens for students," said a commentator on the Eastday news portal.