"Who is sing, who has warned up the loneliness? The white clouds are still floating in the blue sky." In most of the community squares in China, you can easily hear rhythmical and passionate songs like this. No matter which season, there are always a huge number of elders doing square dancing. As a traditional entertainment of elders, square dancing has become a prevalence.

“是谁在唱歌，温暖了寂寞。白云悠悠蓝天依旧泪水在漂泊。”在中国的大部分社区里，你能很容易地听到像这样富有节奏、动感而热烈的歌曲。无论寒来暑往，总有一大批中老年人在跳广场舞。作为老年人们传统的娱乐项目，广场舞已经变得十分流行。

Square dancing is a great way to maintain health both physically and mentally. When dancing, we will adjust our breathing, which will affect other physiological functions of our body, such as blood pressure, heart rate, blood circulation and body temperature. These are quite vital for the elderly to “stay young”.

广场舞是一种保持老年人身心健康的绝佳运动。跳舞时，人们会调整呼吸，而呼吸会影响调节身体的其他生理功能，如血压、心率、血液循环、体温等。这些因素都对老年人的健康有着很重要的影响，有助于老年人们“永葆青春”。

Square dancing can also help the elderly to keep fit and improve their temperament. Dancing can help improve your curves and tighten your thigh and arm muscles, all of which help to lift your spirits. This can make older people look young and energetic. Meanwhile, body can also affect the mind, which will give the elderly a "young and healthy heart".

跳广场舞还有助于老年人保持身材，提升气质。跳舞可以让人身材曲线变得更美,大腿肌肉和手臂肌肉也更紧实，这些都有助于提升气质。这可以让老年人看起来年轻而有活力。而身体也会影响心理，这会让老年人有“年轻态，健康心”。

Apart from making elders relaxed, it is also a unique measure for elders to “socialize”. Most of the square dancers are aging 50 to 65 years old, considered as the “first generation of solitary parents in China”. In this period of age, they have two generations in their family, most of which cannot give company to them. Their sons or daughters are in their prime working time for their own family，their grandchild, aging about five to eight years old, are in primary schools who are in desperate need of looking after. Doing cleaning, cooking meals, collecting children from school, these “trivial stuff” fill their daily life and they rarely have spare time for relaxing. But square dancing is just like a kind of “WeChat” for elders. They befriend with other elders and chat, not only for fun and health, but also for a satisfaction of escaping from solitude. It is a unique way to heal loneliness and satisfy these women's strong desire for interpersonal communication and emotional resonance, just like a “spiritual massage”.

除了可以让老年人放松之外，这也是他们用来“社交”的一种独特方式。大多数广场舞者年龄在50岁到65岁之间，被认为是“中国第一代孤独的父母”。在这个年龄，他们的家庭中有两代人，其中大多数不能给予陪伴。他们的儿子或女儿正处于为自己的家庭工作的黄金时期；他们的孙子，大约5到8岁，正在上小学，急需照顾。做家务、做饭、从学校接孩子，这些“琐碎的事情”充斥着他们的日常生活，很少有时间放松。但广场舞就像是老年人的一种“微信”。他们与其他“同龄人”交朋友、聊天，不仅是为了娱乐和健康，也是为了获得从孤独中解脱出来的满足。这是一种治愈孤独的独特方式，满足了这些这一代人强烈的人际交往欲望和情感共鸣，就像一种“精神按摩”。

记者 | 安博文

责编 | 杨亦澍

美编 | 谢旭珩