You go, Grandma! China's 60-yr-old pole dancer
Staff Reporter 2012-09-09 16:34 (GMT+8)
Sun Fengqing pole dancing. (Internet photo)
Sun Fengqing performs a pole dance on the show "Chen Chen Univeral Stars" in Shanghai. (Internet photo)
Just five months after Nanjing senior citizen Sun Fengqin was first featured in the local Yangtse Evening Post, she has been all over local and even national TV programs.
In her most recent public appearance, 60-year-old Sun pole-danced for audiences on the program "Chen Chen Universal Stars" together with a young man, stunning the live studio audience.
Since April, Sun has been interviewed or performed on TV programs nearly 100 times. When friends ask her how much money she makes from her appearances, Sun said with some embarrassment, "How can I ask the TV programs to pay for me? They have already spent a lot on me for costumes and props." She has rejected all payments offered directly by any TV station.
The 6th Pole Dancing Championship was held at the Olympic Sports Center in Beijing on Aug. 8 and 9. Sun performed to screams from the audience shouting "Auntie go for it!" In order to keep the competition fair, the committee provisionally decided to add a senior group, in which Sun won gold (she was the only contestant). She also placed indisputably in the top 24 contestants in the competition.
One of her new ideas is to have plastic surgery, saying, "Just some small surgery like a facelift, not a big operation."
Sun said she began to become concerned about her age about a decade ago. "I want to be an elderly model. Why should the elderly all have to look like we're scowling and dressing rustically?" she said.
Sun's new-found fame is not without its drawbacks, however. One of her friends, who has known her for over 20 years, called her house looking to talk to her. When her husband picked up the phone instead, the woman said very firmly to him, "Don't let Fengqin come over my house anymore. I'm afraid she will be a bad influence on my children."
Sun also says that although she is popular, her husband, surnamed Cui, has had to shoulder the greatest burden of all. When reports of her risque dancing reached their neighborhood, some neighbors began to stay away from the couple, some even remarking to her husband, "Old Cui, how can your wife do that kind of dance?"
Her son, after reading an article about his pole-dancing mom in the newspaper one day, came home determined not to let his mother go to another pole dancing class. As he starting to broach the topic, Sun shot back, "Mind your own business!" and he quickly scampered away.
Reuters reporters Zhuan Menlai and Dao Nanjing, a photojournalist and world-renowned photographer, were the first to interview Sun, publishing their report along with a video clip shortly thereafter. In the clip, they mention that pole dancing usually only appears in more "erotic" places in China, and is a very controversial dance.
Through it all, Cui has been very accepting of his wife's ambitions. He said that the family has been through many problems over the years and as long as his wife is happy, he is happy for her.
