Chapter 51 Appendix Dance Low Willow House First Moon

When it comes to ballroom dancing, of course it is a foreign thing.The earliest Chinese to participate in the ball was Zhigang (Manchu), the imperial envoy sent by the Qing government to Europe and the United States in the sixth year of Tongzhi. He participated in the court ball of Napoleon III of France.We recalled that at that time, a Chinese man in Qing Dynasty robes and long braids was sitting in the hall of the Versailles official, surrounded by French men and women in costumes.His situation is not easy, which is admirable.Later, Shanghai was opened as a commercial port, and more and more foreigners came to it.The exchanges and friendship between Chinese and foreigners are also increasing day by day.So Shanghai is first influenced by all foreign customs, and ballroom dancing is just one of them.

The editor of "Times Weekly" suddenly became interested and thought of the development of ballroom dancing in China.To use this as a topic, ask me to write a manuscript.I thought, this matter must start with Shanghai first, it is best to invite an old Shanghai to write, and other metropolises will follow in Shanghai's footsteps.Now please come to Mr. Zhou - he has been in and out of Shanghai dance halls for ten years more than 30 years ago - he must have written well. It took about a year for all the new fashions in Shanghai to spread to Peiping, and of course the same was true for dancing.Probably after the 18th year of the Republic of China, the number of dance halls with dancing girls in Peking gradually increased, and they flourished for a while, until the "July 7th Incident" ended.Although it is influenced by Shanghai, on the other hand it may be ahead of Shanghai.After the Gengzi Incident, due to the provisions of the "Xin Chou Treaty", Dongjiaomin Lane (two kilometers long, between Zhengyangmen and Chongwenmen to the east) became the embassy area, and Germany, Britain, Russia, France, Japan, and the United States all had garrisons .Chongwenmen Street, Dongdan Pailou, East Chang'an Street and Wangfujing Street in Dongcheng were gradually Europeanized in order to accommodate the increasing number of outsiders.As a result, the differences between the eastern and western cities are formed. The western city is more conservative, while the eastern city is more westernized.At first, the Beijing Hotel appeared, which had a large ballroom, which may be the first of its kind for dancing.Now I will talk about its history.

Before the Gengzi Incident (1900), there were already many foreigners in Beiping.At the mouth of Chuanban Hutong in Dongcheng, a French couple opened a small restaurant, selling alcohol and a la carte dishes.They hired an apprentice named Shao Baoyuan.The business of the restaurant is very good, and four more rooms have been rented out to guests.This is the founding of Beijing Tavern. Later, I rented a large house in Xiaotoutiao Hutong in the nearby Dongdan Pailou (which was expanded into East Chang'an Avenue after Gengzi), and changed it to Beijing Hotel.The old couple returned home due to old age and sickness, and handed over the business to a single-minded Italian—the 33rd year of Guangxu was also very proud, and moved to a big house on the west side of the original street, changing all the doors and windows to western style.During the First World War, the Italian returned to China and gave it to the legal person "Laurman". A five-story red brick building was built in the east of the original site, with 40 to 50 guest rooms.At that time, it was already considered scary high in Beijing.

He then transferred it to Sino-French Industrial Bank, which owns 75% of the equity, invested heavily, and built a six-story building next door to the west. Part of the sixth floor is a roof garden.The blueprint from France was contracted by the legal person Bao Kesu, who subcontracted it to the Liu brothers.The bricks are hollow red bricks from Fengtai Majiabao in the south of Beijing, the cement is from Tangshan, Hebei, and the steel bars are probably imported.In the fifth year of the Republic of China, the basement was completed. After completion, there are 225 guest rooms in total. The sovereignty of this land belongs to an Italian Catholic church.Its prosperity is due to the large number of foreign tourists; the second is due to repeated civil wars, a large number of Chinese people avoid hotels run by foreigners for safety.

It faces south on the north side of the road, entering the gate is a hall, and going west is a large ballroom.In the center is the dance floor—a centimeter above the ground—made of long strips of floorboards.This kind of floor is supported by many herringbone-shaped wooden frames. When there are few people walking on it, it will not be felt, but when there are many people, it will feel a little elastic. Twice a week there is a dance and there is a tea dance on Thursdays from 4-6pm.The famous Belarusian violinist Orov led a four-piece band to play, and played classical music when there were no dancers, so most of the waltzes were performed—it was three-quarter beat, three steps at the same time, and the tempo was slower, with a touch of classical music. atmosphere; dancing starts at eight on Saturdays.When there is no martial law in Taiping, you can stay overnight.Eurof played with a dozen Russians and Filipinos.A male guest must wear an evening dress. If he is wearing a light-colored suit or a long Chinese gown, the service staff will politely invite him out.Of course, the female guests are not a problem.

The Western food in Beijing Hotel is famous, and the supervisor chef is French.The head chef was Yao Baosheng from Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province—a dysentery head—who was selected from more than 100 chefs who signed up after being tasted by staff from various embassies, and he retired after the victory.A full meal costs three dollars.Shao Baoyuan, who was originally in Chuanban Hu, could speak and write French and English, and German and Italian. Now he has been a Chinese manager for many years. The western restaurant and the dance hall are connected, the former is in the south, the latter is in the north, and there is a small stage near the north wall.At that time, all the great foreign musicians or singers performed on this stage.If all the tables are removed, seven hundred chairs can be arranged, and the floor is a large parquet floor.When tourists come, they perform Chinese tricks during meals—Kuaishou Liu, Kuaishou Lu, etc.; or Luanzhou's shadow puppetry, and old Chinese tricks such as Gongxi (puppet show).How about the so-called tourist hotels nowadays?Not to mention that the service staff will never introduce women to guests, even if the guests bring them in themselves.Gentlemen wear dark suits and ties at meals—these are prepared in the locker room and noted on the treat post.The first Chinese guests who went to this foreign restaurant were young Manchu nobles, and an old man with white braids hanging down his head was also a frequent visitor—he was Mr. Gu Hongming, an Oxford student, and he was probably the only one who didn’t wear a suit.

After the defeat of France in World War II, Sino-French Industrial Bank sold 75% of the shares held by the bank to a French-Japanese lawyer and a Japanese-American fruit merchant.Dances are cancelled, the British and Americans have become prisoners, and the Chinese are even less in the mood to dance.Next to the big restaurant, several elegant seats of Japanese cuisine have been added.After the victory, the old manager Mr. Shao Baoyuan retired and was replaced by his son Mr. Shao Yubin.The property rights belonged to the Beiping Municipal Government, and it was lent to Lizhi Club as the second guest house.

Another Liuguo Hotel opened by foreigners is located in the embassy area, and the place name is called Water Gate, which also started around Gengzi.The boss is British, and the manager is Li from Tianjin.The area is smaller than that of Beijing Hotel, on the fourth floor, with British western food.Because it is in the embassy area, all the soldiers and politicians who lost the warlord's civil war fled in, and the Chinese military and police could not go in and arrest them because of the treaty.After Japan declared war on Britain and the United States, it was taken over by the Japanese army and turned into a VIP guest house.During the Anti-Japanese War, the former warlord Zhang Jingyao was assassinated there by a man of lofty ideals.It does not have a dedicated dance hall, but there is also a band in the restaurant, and guests can also dance in the gap in the center of the hall.

In the seventeenth or eighteenth year of the Republic of China, there were dance halls with dancing girls in Beiping.The earliest family was on the north side of West Chang'an Avenue, where a professor's foreign wife danced with American soldiers.The first generation of dancers is Miss Yu Bicheng.Afterwards, the Traffic Hotel on Wangfujing Street (formerly the Continental Hotel, which was later changed to Zhongyuan Company Department Store) also opened a ballroom.The famous "Miss Li of Peking" made her debut there.One day there was a masquerade party, and she appeared in an ancient European umbrella-shaped skirt, which was really beautiful.There are also several ladies from famous families who went to sea.Three-star ballrooms (renovated from Xiaobailou in the bar) were opened one after another. The boss is Italian, and the proprietress of White Russia is also a dancer.Among the Chinese dancers is Tang Binxiang, who has a very beautiful figure.This one, along with the White House and Majestic Majesty, are all on East Chang'an Avenue, not close to the Beijing Hotel.The guests can take them out of the stage and go to the Beijing Hotel with the dancers, which is a high-end place where guests are required to bring their own dance partners and no dancers are prepared.

Ballrooms in Beiping use the system of dance tickets, three tickets for one yuan, and one ticket for each dance. Some dance halls do not have bands, and they use gramophones to play music records. One performance is extremely fast, only three minutes.Sometimes when I went to invite the dancers who were sitting in a row, the music would stop when they walked slowly, which saved me a dance ticket.The one at the Beijing Hotel was much longer.No one is ashamed to count the number of dances for the guests to send dance tickets, and they always give more. The dancers are all stuffed in high-top silk stockings.In Peiping, it costs ten yuan to open a bottle of champagne to invite Miss Wu to sit at the table.Although the wine was not very good, but there was a loud puff, and the sound shook the audience, and the guests and Miss Wu all seemed to be full of face.The common dance steps at that time were foxtrot, blues and waltz.Tango is for performances and rarely appears. A professor and his wife from Peking University are very good at it.

Among the dancers there are several peculiar characters.One is born with a crooked neck, her face always looks like she is looking at things with her head tilted?One was short, and his hair always covered his right eye obliquely. I later learned that that eye was protruding, but it was beautiful covered.There is also a Tianlao (a person without pigment, with white hair and white skin), whose hair is dyed red, but his dancing skills are very good.These were beauties under the lamp, but what happened during the day is not enough to study.In ballrooms with dancing girls, guests dress casually.I remember a district chief of the police station (the current branch chief) was wearing a white shirt, with a bulging belly and a pistol hanging from his shoulders.Some youths in their twenties, with shiny hair combed, wore long gowns with narrow waists and high collars, looking very coquettish.The most ridiculous thing is that around the 20th year of the Republic of China, the Panchen Lama of Tibet, the Panchen Lama, came to Beiping. His followers and officials (presumably also great lamas) wore satin robes and mandarin jackets, and they also shone with Buddha’s light. Came to the ballroom.The floor is slippery, walking and falling, jumping and falling.Later, I spent enough money and practiced well.The purpose of these lamas is to save all living beings and show their personal experiences.I don't know how many dancers they have saved. There is an organization in the Peking YMCA called the Fox Society, which specializes in ballroom dancing.Hosted by Mr. Yin Tiege—his father was Yin Chang who went to Germany to study the army in the late Qing Dynasty. He was a famous military scientist and married a German wife. I can’t remember anything about these past events. My memory is not as good as Tang Lusun’s. This manuscript should have been written by him, but his wife’s health is not in harmony, and the two elders are deeply in love.I also imitated his style of writing and found out all three generations of ancestors in a shop; but Dongshi imitated it and felt ashamed.