{"id":2221515,"date":"2026-01-04T10:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T10:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2221515"},"modified":"2026-01-04T10:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T10:18:08","slug":"shanghais-dance-halls-and-clubs-are-thriving-as-retirees-put-on-their-dancing-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/shanghais-dance-halls-and-clubs-are-thriving-as-retirees-put-on-their-dancing-shoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Shanghai\u2019s dance halls and clubs are thriving as retirees put on their dancing shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">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<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">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<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On any given day, multiple venues host hours-long daytime sessions across the finance hub, some starting as early as 6am.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">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<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">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<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1ixmelf e1gf69pb1\">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<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\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<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.scmp.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 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. On [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2221516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[352605,22481,429670,21937,429671,429672,376465],"class_list":["post-2221515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ballroom-dancing","tag-china","tag-chinese-dance-halls","tag-dance","tag-lunchtime-dance-clubs","tag-paramount-ballroom","tag-shanghai"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Shanghais-dance-halls-and-clubs-are-thriving-as-retirees-put.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2221515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221517,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221515\/revisions\/2221517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2221516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2221515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2221515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2221515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}