1. What type of people and groups have you noticed using your local public park?
2. Which kinds of official or unofficial events and gatherings take place there?
3.How are people expected to behave there? Are there any rules or regulations about using the park or public space?
4. Is anti-social behaviour a problem in your local parks? How does it manifest itself? Is a particular group responsible for it? Can you think of any possible solutions to this behaviour?
5. Have you ever been called a 'spoilsport'? Have you ever 'pulled the plug' on someone's party/celebration or activity?
Read article here: Dancing Grannies
6. What surprised you the most - China having noisy, dancing 'grannies' early in the morning, or the hostility shown towards them?
7. Taking exercise early in the morning seems to be a relatively harmless way of improving people's health and improving social cohesion - isn't the disruption it causes relatively minimal? Don't the benefits outweigh the costs? Speaking as a citizen of a country where hardly anyone exercises, I might even welcome the arrival of dancing grannies - I could look forward to fewer people seeking healthcare and having groups of citizens who invest themselves into their communities - what say you?
8. Given the choice, who would you prefer to confront - a gang of skinheads, or a group of middle-aged ladies exercising to music?
9. What is the traditional idea of the attitude of young Chinese people towards older generations? Does this attitude exist in other societies too? How does the article show a different reality to what we might expect?
10. In what other situations might young people be annoyed by the behaviour of older people, and vice versa?
11. Is there an all-female social group of a similar type in your country? Do they have a particular behaviour that makes them stand out from the rest of society?
12. Would you ever consider buying the speaker-disabling device? When would you use it? Does it really bring 'social justice'?
13. "Everything is based on social maintenance: the larger number of people matters." Is this true of all societies? Do the authorities always favour the majority in areas where legislation is not clear?
14. If you were the mayor of a Chinese city, what solutions would you propose to mitigate the problem?
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Situation: choose A or B
A: You are a twenty-year-old shift worker who lives in an apartment overlooking a public park. You moved to the apartment as you wanted to live in a nice quiet area next to the park. Your work demands that you work irregular hours, and you often arrive home at six am and go straight to bed. Your sleep has often been interrupted recently by a group of senior citizens who hold an early-morning dance class. It is making you miserable. You feel that something should be done to prevent these kinds of noisy events. Speak to one of these senior citizens and make your feelings known. The park doesn’t belong to them.
B: You are in your 70s or 80s. You have joined a ballroom-dancing group that meets in the park three times a week. Being part of the group has not only made you fitter, it has enabled you to make friends and you no longer feel lonely. You don’t understand why young people can’t respect that.
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Discuss quotes
"Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought."
--- Arthur Schopenhauer
"We like no noise unless we make it ourselves."
--- Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne
"Noise pollution is a relative thing. In a city, it's a jet plane taking off. In a monastery, it's a pen that scratches."
--- Robert Orben
"There was no respect for youth when I was young. And now that I am old, there is no respect for age - I missed it coming and going."
--- JB Priestly
"Nothing makes you more tolerant of a neighbour's noisy party than being there."
--- Franklin P. Jones
“The one who lives with neighbours and relatives will learn to live with the gain of pains and the pain of gains”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar
Student Handout PDF: Dancing Grannies
Photo: Max Chen
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