Dance like no one will call the po-po on you, we always say. Apparently, too much dancing can be detrimental to businesses, even if the dancers are senior citizens gyrating and twirling in the most inoffensive choreography ever: line dancing.
Disgruntled shop owners at Chinatown have informed Chinese broadsheet Shin Min Daily News that they’ve had to call the police to help disperse the massive crowd of line dancers that congregated outside their stalls on the weekends. The elderly folks first started holding their dance-offs at Smith Street two weekends ago, and according to one proprietor, the initial group of 40 would bloom bigger after passers-by join in.
The shop owner noted to Shin Min that the size of the crowd obstructs human traffic, affecting businesses located nearby. It got so bad that he claimed to have earned no income at all for two nights straight due to the line dancing, said to go on from evening till as late as 10pm. Another shop owner who spoke to the publication noted that business was down by nearly 80 percent during the two weekends.
Images of the dancing crowd published on Shin Min showed a huge mob of seniors right smack in the middle of the Chinatown, in front of Fatty Weng Restaurant and dozens of street stalls.
Unhappy with the swarm of bopping old folks, the proprietors called the police last Saturday to deal with the situation. The following night, the dancers were no where to be seen.
Elderly line dancers have always been a mainstay in Chinatown, but their usual playground would be the open square in between Chinatown Complex Food Centre and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.
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