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Leisure and fun: From none to plenty
By Nie Xin |
January 12, 2009, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN China's opening-up got started, people still enjoyed simple pleasures: home dancing parties, gathering round a small black-and-white TV and watching movies in the park, writes Nie Xin.
Jiang Jingfeng still can't help laughing every time he talks about his 10th birthday. His parents took him to Hong Kong's Disneyland last week.
"I was so happy. My dad and mom played in Disneyland with me. It was my first visit and I saw lots of cartoon figures I had only seen in Disney movies before," says Jiang.
Jiang Qi, the boy's father, recalled his own childhood. Jiang, born in 1970, says he played longtang (lane) games with his neighbors most of times when he was his son's age.
Thirty years ago, when China's door was still closed to the outside world, entertainment choices were limited. Since Deng Xiaoping's call for reform and opening-up in 1978, people's livelihood improved, so did their cultural life and leisure.
"There were many old lane games. They were easy, didn't take much space and cost no money," recalls Jiang.
Like children all over the world who played hide-and-seek, cops-and-robbers, blind man's bluff, mutou ren (a freeze-in-place game, literally "man made of wood").
"I even knew children living several blocks away. Almost all those under 13 years old in the area were my playmates," recalls Jiang. These games were enjoyed by the 1970s and 1980s generations, though they are seldom seen today.
Amusement parks were built from the late 1980s. There was the Jinjiang Amusement Park in Shanghai built in 1985. Now there's the International Carnival Tour Park in Pudong, with roller-coaster and other rides, imported from abroad.
"Parks in my childhood only had basics like swings or some open space for playing ball or flying kites," says Jiang.
"But now almost all parks enjoy good facilities. Viking Ship is everywhere," he adds, "and there's more greenery."
From home dancing to pubs
Tu Baoyun, 57, retired seven years ago after working for 30 years as a hospital pharmacist.
"When I was around 25 in the late 1970s, the most fashionable pastime for young people was dancing in home parties," she recalls.
One of Tu's wealthy friends often held parties in her home on today's Huangpi Road S. in downtown Shanghai. The living room was very big, great for dancing. They pushed the furniture to the side of the room, played music on from a cassette recorder and danced.
Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng was most popular. At that time, albums could not be officially imported from Taiwan or Hong Kong, so people made tapes.
In these parties, 15 to 20 people danced tango, waltz, quick step, fox trot and so on.
"I danced round and round all night and didn't feel the least bit tired," says Tu. "A gentleman who could dance well was very popular among young ladies."
The era of home parties ended in the mid-1980s, when commercial dance halls began to open, notably the Paramount in Jing'an Temple area. Paramount, established in the 1930s, had been closed for years but reopened in the 1980s, right after China opened its door to the outside world.
Parties and all kinds of entertainment were no longer seen as immoral. Young people partied, danced and relaxed. Nightlife became more colorful.
Since the late 1990s, entertainment became even livelier, with the increasing popularity of karaoke, bars and nightclubs.
"Ballroom dance is so old-fashioned," says Tu's son, Wang Jin, 25. "I usually go to KTV or bar or clubbing with my friends."
On popular holidays, especially Christmas, Halloween and Valentine's, young people dress up and party.
For them, fun is the most important thing.
From outdoor film to big screens
Liu Zuyao, 60, still keeps a 12-inch black-and-white TV set. For him and his family, and even the whole longtang, it was the only entertainment more than 20 years ago.
Leisure time after dinner was uneventful, as few people could afford a TV set that cost around 300 yuan (US$44) (average income then was around 36 yuan per month). When Liu turned on the TV, neighbors in the longtang would bring their chairs, sit around the TV, watching, laughing.
Liu cherishes the memory, though he now has three imported color TV sets ?? one for each room.
In days without TV, or just a few sets, outdoor movies were popular.
"We used to call it chengliang (enjoy the cool), enjoyed by most Shanghainese for years in the days without air conditioners and television."
On a summer night, people took small wooden chairs and cattail-leaf fans and went to plazas or parks to watch movies. They might pay 3 fen (100 fen equals 1 yuan), and park entrance fee was around 5 fen.
People would get their early for a good view, kids would climb trees to avoid the ticket fee.
"Watching outdoor films was a big event for us, since there wasn't much entertainment," says 72-year-old local Zhang Zhiliang. "It was a family activity ?? we went to the park after dinner."
There wasn't a lot of choice. Foreign black-and-white movies were played again and again, such as the Russian film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" (1971), "Bridge" (1974) from former Yugoslavia, and the American series "Garrison's Guerrillas."
"We watched them so often that we knew every story by heart, but we still liked them," says Zhang.
There were also cinemas but few people could afford them. If lovers wanted to snuggle in the dark, they went to a park.
Today people would like to spend 60 yuan for a new release, and they are offered more choices ?? multiplex cinemas, multiple screens in one cinema, and cinemas in shopping malls.
"Now with more and more new things popping up here and there, the problem for us is actually 'which one to go to' instead of 'where to go'," says Lilian Guo, 23.
Jiang Jingfeng still can't help laughing every time he talks about his 10th birthday. His parents took him to Hong Kong's Disneyland last week.
"I was so happy. My dad and mom played in Disneyland with me. It was my first visit and I saw lots of cartoon figures I had only seen in Disney movies before," says Jiang.
Jiang Qi, the boy's father, recalled his own childhood. Jiang, born in 1970, says he played longtang (lane) games with his neighbors most of times when he was his son's age.
Thirty years ago, when China's door was still closed to the outside world, entertainment choices were limited. Since Deng Xiaoping's call for reform and opening-up in 1978, people's livelihood improved, so did their cultural life and leisure.
"There were many old lane games. They were easy, didn't take much space and cost no money," recalls Jiang.
Like children all over the world who played hide-and-seek, cops-and-robbers, blind man's bluff, mutou ren (a freeze-in-place game, literally "man made of wood").
"I even knew children living several blocks away. Almost all those under 13 years old in the area were my playmates," recalls Jiang. These games were enjoyed by the 1970s and 1980s generations, though they are seldom seen today.
Amusement parks were built from the late 1980s. There was the Jinjiang Amusement Park in Shanghai built in 1985. Now there's the International Carnival Tour Park in Pudong, with roller-coaster and other rides, imported from abroad.
"Parks in my childhood only had basics like swings or some open space for playing ball or flying kites," says Jiang.
"But now almost all parks enjoy good facilities. Viking Ship is everywhere," he adds, "and there's more greenery."
From home dancing to pubs
Tu Baoyun, 57, retired seven years ago after working for 30 years as a hospital pharmacist.
"When I was around 25 in the late 1970s, the most fashionable pastime for young people was dancing in home parties," she recalls.
One of Tu's wealthy friends often held parties in her home on today's Huangpi Road S. in downtown Shanghai. The living room was very big, great for dancing. They pushed the furniture to the side of the room, played music on from a cassette recorder and danced.
Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng was most popular. At that time, albums could not be officially imported from Taiwan or Hong Kong, so people made tapes.
In these parties, 15 to 20 people danced tango, waltz, quick step, fox trot and so on.
"I danced round and round all night and didn't feel the least bit tired," says Tu. "A gentleman who could dance well was very popular among young ladies."
The era of home parties ended in the mid-1980s, when commercial dance halls began to open, notably the Paramount in Jing'an Temple area. Paramount, established in the 1930s, had been closed for years but reopened in the 1980s, right after China opened its door to the outside world.
Parties and all kinds of entertainment were no longer seen as immoral. Young people partied, danced and relaxed. Nightlife became more colorful.
Since the late 1990s, entertainment became even livelier, with the increasing popularity of karaoke, bars and nightclubs.
"Ballroom dance is so old-fashioned," says Tu's son, Wang Jin, 25. "I usually go to KTV or bar or clubbing with my friends."
On popular holidays, especially Christmas, Halloween and Valentine's, young people dress up and party.
For them, fun is the most important thing.
From outdoor film to big screens
Liu Zuyao, 60, still keeps a 12-inch black-and-white TV set. For him and his family, and even the whole longtang, it was the only entertainment more than 20 years ago.
Leisure time after dinner was uneventful, as few people could afford a TV set that cost around 300 yuan (US$44) (average income then was around 36 yuan per month). When Liu turned on the TV, neighbors in the longtang would bring their chairs, sit around the TV, watching, laughing.
Liu cherishes the memory, though he now has three imported color TV sets ?? one for each room.
In days without TV, or just a few sets, outdoor movies were popular.
"We used to call it chengliang (enjoy the cool), enjoyed by most Shanghainese for years in the days without air conditioners and television."
On a summer night, people took small wooden chairs and cattail-leaf fans and went to plazas or parks to watch movies. They might pay 3 fen (100 fen equals 1 yuan), and park entrance fee was around 5 fen.
People would get their early for a good view, kids would climb trees to avoid the ticket fee.
"Watching outdoor films was a big event for us, since there wasn't much entertainment," says 72-year-old local Zhang Zhiliang. "It was a family activity ?? we went to the park after dinner."
There wasn't a lot of choice. Foreign black-and-white movies were played again and again, such as the Russian film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" (1971), "Bridge" (1974) from former Yugoslavia, and the American series "Garrison's Guerrillas."
"We watched them so often that we knew every story by heart, but we still liked them," says Zhang.
There were also cinemas but few people could afford them. If lovers wanted to snuggle in the dark, they went to a park.
Today people would like to spend 60 yuan for a new release, and they are offered more choices ?? multiplex cinemas, multiple screens in one cinema, and cinemas in shopping malls.
"Now with more and more new things popping up here and there, the problem for us is actually 'which one to go to' instead of 'where to go'," says Lilian Guo, 23.
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