I grew up and went to school in a rather politically and socially controlled environment. During my school education from 6 to 18 years old, it was compulsory to do Guangboticao everyday together with other students in school, which means a workout session of the same repeating sequences of body movements with music and a leading voice. Usually the sequences change once every semester.
There were more than one thousand students in my school, and everyone was wearing the exact same uniform, since one would get punished if not. During Guangboticao, we spread across almost every square meter of the entire 400 m playground.
At that time I felt strange having to do Guangboticao, yet I did for 12 years. It was the standard requirement for every school student in every public school across China; I saw no alternative. These sequences usually have special names, such as Fly the dreams, or Times are calling. Students are still doing it today.
Then I started university and got away from home. Every now and then when the image of the thousands of students on the playground came back to me, I felt almost like a nightmare. The physical distance between me in Europe and the playground back home somehow liberates me, yet I know that it has already become part of my body memory for 12 years.
I’ve been doing the sequences in front of others with the projection of standards in different contexts as performative action, I’m contently clumsy not catching up the rhythm. I sense the stiffness in my body that naturally come along, after many years and efforts of unlearning. It’s still a part of me.