未来舞厅_Back to the future in Disco

2024│Video│ Commissioned by Nowness China

Between the 1980s and 1990s, dance halls emerged as a vibrant field in Chinese society, where the collective dreams of the Chinese people were woven together in the public spaces. Within these spaces, the individual body and the social fabric engaged in a profound interplay, resonating with one another across diverse historical contexts and life stages. Youth and ambition, love and desire, freedom and responsibility—all intertwined in dance halls like an ephemeral and enchanting dream.

In Zuotan Village, Shunde, located in southern China, the director Er Gao created a virtual cyber-dance hall for the village aunties—a digital space that serves as a spiritual ancestral hall, brimming with nostalgia for time and hometown.

This is because, in the popular culture that accompanied Er Gao’s growth, disco was ubiquitous, fragmented yet lively. It thrived in the cities, permeated the countryside, and now finds new life in cyberspace.

As a mountain song goes, "I sang to my sisters tonight, got up early to make money, earning enough to build a big house. So generations of children will never be apart". With a tempo as brisk and infectious as disco, the mountain song conjures a pro