China’s dancing grannies: ‘stun gun’ claims to solve square dancing dilemma by sabotaging the music
- The device looks like a flashlight and can be used from a distance of between 50 to 80 metres
- Dancing grannies are an important form of exercise and social activity for older Chinese people, but are also a source of public annoyance
China’s infamous dancing grannies gather at all hours of the day, often first thing in the morning or when the neighbourhood begins to sleep.
Now, a new product available on China’s internet offers a solution; a “stun gun” that claims it can sabotage the stereos used by the square dancers. It acts as an all-in-one remote control that does not necessarily need to be paired to a specific device.
In a video going viral on Weibo, a man from Jiangxi province in eastern China simply points the remote, which looks like a flashlight, at a speaker box to sabotage the music. The neighbourhood then gets to enjoy a brief moment of silence when the women investigate why their speaker suddenly stopped working.
Website cnBeta reported that the device could be used from a distance of between 50 to 80 metres. In the viral video, a person is seen pointing the device at two groups of grannies from a nearby housing complex.
As one person wrote on Weibo, the distance “gives people an escape plan” to avoid the wrath of the grannies, who are often called damas – a rude word in Chinese for middle-aged women.