Swinging side-to-side to a Chinese ditty, Taiwanese teenagers and younger children on Thursday performed at a night market competition, showing off their loose-limbed moves while executing a viral “subject three” dance that has taken social media by storm.
The competitors included young men in leather jackets and high-tops, siblings in matching denim jackets and sunglasses and even dancers improvising with pop-and-lock hip-hop moves. Yet all of them stuck to the original spirit of the kemusan (科目三) dance — which translate to “subject three.”
The style calls for dancers to look as if they are almost twisting their ankles as they flick their wrists rapidly to traditional Chinese music mixed with disco beats.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
“My impression? Lots of slippery motions,” said Chang Feng, a bemused homemaker who went to Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市) in Taipei with her daughter to watch the aspiring trend-setters on a small stage.
Nearby, diners waited for oyster omelettes and stinky tofu at food stalls, with curious onlookers wandering over to check out the dancers.
“Seems like all the kids know how to dance kemusan — it’s a trendy thing I suppose,” Chang said.
The dance is believed to have originated from Douyin — the Chinese version of TikTok, run by the same parent company, ByteDance — with avid users jumping on the trend by performing their own versions of it, drawing millions of views.
Even businesses have tried to capitalize on the fad — such as popular hotpot chain Haidilao, whose employees twist and jerk their limbs when people order kemusan, a dish on its menu, online anecdotes and videos posted on Douyin show.
Fifth-grader Nancy Wu said she learned the dance from the platform.
“We also dance it at school. It has a demonic attractiveness to it,” the 10-year-old told reporters with an impish grin.
Yet the infectious music and jaunty moves come with a dose of controversy — some people on Facebook have accused the night market organizers of using the dance as a Chinese propaganda tool to “brainwash” young Taiwanese.
Political chatter appears to have migrated into the territory of viral Internet dances as well.
“Looks like this is a Douyin night market in China,” one person wrote in a comment on a post advertising the competition, with the comment drawing more than 230 “thumbs up.”
Ningxia Night Market Association chairman Lin Ting-kuo (林定國) said that the dance competition was purely for commercial profit. “We are using music and dance to try to increase consumer spending and promote Ningxia Night Market to the younger generation,” Lin said.
“This event is very straightforward. Don’t associate too much with it,” he said.
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