Recently, the "subject three" dance has become popular abroad. On overseas social platforms, people from different countries, regions, skin colors, and ages have joined this parody show craze. Two days ago, there were overseas bloggers performing on the streets of France for subject 3; Not long ago, the ballet company also staged a social shake at the curtain call. The momentum of "subject three" continues to heat up.
In fact, this is not the first time that this type of dance has detonated the Internet, and they are often collectively referred to as social shakes - this kind of dance has no fixed movements, participants only need to sway their bodies to the rhythm, common movements include nodding, shaking shoulders, shaking hands, twisting the waist and kicking.
How did social shake become a cultural phenomenon? Some people "suffer deeply", believing that it is spiritual pollution, marking the decline of the public's aesthetic taste, and reflecting the market's pandering and indulgence to the trend of ugliness. At the same time, many people jokingly said: "Qin Shi Huang didn't expect that it was subject three that unified the world." This means that it may be a positive cultural export, and its popularity may suggest that it not only fits the life attitude of today's young people, but also brings a kind of spiritual motivation. This seemingly "crazy" phenomenon may be a manifestation of the improvement of young people's sense of autonomy.
As a type of social shake, subject 3 is unique compared to other dance forms. It is contrary to the elegance of ballet or the fashion of Kpop, but it has gained thousands of audiences. When a group of young people sway in the streets to the rhythm of the ancient style of shouting, this is not only a dance, but also a way of life. It shows not only magical dance steps and awkward bodies, but also the confident self-expression of young people, a rebellion against gender discipline, and even an ethical attitude. However, as ordinary people, we still need to think further, how can we avoid the coercion of trends when self-expression is co-opted by the market? "Subject 3": The Elegance of Social Shake? "Subject 3" is also known as "Guangxi Subject 3". There are two theories about its origin. One theory is that the dance began at a wedding in Wuzhou, Guangxi, where guests replaced the wedding trouble with casual magical dance steps. Another theory mentions that Guangxi people have three "subjects" that must be experienced in their lives, one is mountain songs, the second is powder, and the third is demonic dance. At first, the third dance was indeed done by the dancers. Dancers are not limited by venues, costumes and professional skills, and only need to twist their bodies to express their emotions to the rhythm. Later, this dance became famous due to several popular online **. **, a few Peugeot-looking Haidilao waiters perform in a dashing manner, which sparked a wave of imitation that brought popularity and popularity to the dance, and controversy ensued. In the ** shot from the perspective of passers-by, in the waiter who is "forced to open business", many people empathize with the bitterness of ordinary people: when pop culture is combined with the commodity market and becomes a kind of coercion and hijacking, ordinary people often have to be forced to cater in order to live. However, with the participation of professional dancers, subject 3 jumped from a small circle to a more orthodox stage, officially entered the mainstream cultural field, and it quickly became popular on social **, won bursts of applause on major stages, and even went abroad, being accepted by the Latin dance world champion and the Russian Royal Ballet, and was able to show in the "Hall of Elegance". In short, subject three managed to get rid of the "vulgar" label and gain global influence. In this way, subject 3 formally participates in the construction of the national pride narrative. 
In terms of social networking, the dance of "subject 3" is very widespread. Subject 3 is actually a type of "social shake", and its explosion is not new. The origins of social shake can be traced back to the "disco" dance that prevailed in the decade of the last century. The classic elements of disco dance are the tight and strong rhythm and simple and free dance steps, as well as the dim and flickering lights in the room, which together create an atmosphere of carnival and release. The participants were mainly young and middle-aged, and most of them saw it as a stimulus and release outside the space of social rules. Social Shake not only inherits the above characteristics of disco, but also inherits its audience base. However, the reason why social shaking has become a cultural phenomenon is also due to the promotion of short ** platforms. As early as 2014, social shake gradually became a part of the trend culture through short ** software such as Meipai and Kuaishou. The online celebrity "Pai Pai Qi" on the Kuaishou platform is known as the "regular army" on the Internet, and his team not only unified the performance style of social shake, that is, combined social quotations shouting, suit dressing and magic dance steps, but also promoted it. In 2018, Social Shake experienced the fall from "flowers" to "rats crossing the street", and was once violently attacked by the mainstream, and was even described as "shaking people's poems and distances". In short, social shake is annoying both in terms of communication methods and dance design. From the perspective of communication, social shake is driven by commercial interests, and through "traffic" unrestricted promotion, resulting in high-intensity, oversaturated communication. In the battle for traffic, Internet celebrities have repeatedly gone off the rails, which eventually led to rampant strange behaviors, live scolding, offline appointments and other incidents. In response to these circumstances, the mainstream** officially labeled it as a toxic cultural phenomenon that breeds chaos. However, unlike social shake, the popularity of "subject three" has not only not been accused of being "vulgar", but has become the new favorite of mainstream culture, and has also gone to the world as a unique cultural export. However, in terms of choreography, "Subject 3" is in the same vein as social shake, so it has also caused controversy. The demonic dance steps are accompanied by the shouting of ancient elements, which is regarded by some as visual and spiritual pollution. Of course, we can't simply blame it on "earthy", and the "ugly" dance steps themselves are harmless, but if appreciating it is a kind of "judging ugliness", then what kind of mental state does this trend reflect in contemporary people? Express yourself in "rudeness"? Starting from the dance itself, "subject 3", as a kind of social shake, belongs to the "participatory" dance, and it is important to create a sense of carnival atmosphere. It may not be appropriate to evaluate subject 3 from an artistic point of view, or it can be said that it shows a deconstruction of serious beauty and serves people's pursuit of relaxed and happy self-expression, especially in its use of "space". Ballet and other classical dances are regarded as high dances, which seek artistic expression, the ultimate order, purity, precision and harmony of classical beauty. Elegant dancing requires rigorous long-term training, precise choreography, and elaborate costumes, lighting, and set staging. Its performance space is mostly a solemn and elegant theater and a ** hall. The audience is either sitting under the stage or in front of traditional media such as television. In addition, relatively simple social dances such as ballroom dancing and jumping dance, although they have low requirements for the venue, are usually confined to closed rooms such as dance halls and nightclubs. And in contrast to hip-hop, which is also not limited by location, social shake is not bothered by the ** chain of contempt regarding professionalism, and even it does not need a practice room during rehearsals. Therefore, freedom and flexibility, not limited by location, and the simplicity of practice become typical characteristics of social shaking. 
Dalian University of the Arts' "subject three" dance performance at a ** meeting. Screenshot of Dalian University of the Arts. Compared with elegant dance, the performance and viewing space of social shaking is more personal and everyday, and it can even be said that the latter is not limited by the location of the performance, so it can be freely poured into various living spaces. This breaks the fixed structure of the dancers and the stage in traditional dance. First of all, the dancer is no longer defined by the stage, but defines what the stage is by where he dances, and the social shake does not need an audience, the dancer is first and foremost his own audience. The autonomy of the individual is greatly affirmed, which reflects its deconstruction of the grand narrative contained in high dance. Secondly, the viewing space of the social shake is completely virtualized, mainly through the form of short ** or live broadcast on the online platform, which has changed the traditional mode of watching performances. The audience is no longer a character who appreciates, judges, or is edified, but a participant or a person who joins in the fun, watching it for easy fun. 
Further reading: "Art Issues", by Susan Lange, translator: Teng Shouyao and Zhu Jiangyuan, edition: China Social Sciences Press, March 1983.
From the point of view of the dance itself, the social shake presents a "crude aesthetic" in both the costume and the design of the dance movements, which is characterized by the fact that it does not pursue deep meaning, but exudes a tendency of vulgarity and ugliness, accompanied by a false self-absorption and deliberate pretentiousness. From the perspective of creative motivation, society is flattering and vulgar, and its content creation lacks depth and does not pursue allegorical meaning. In terms of creative style, it pursues visual vulgarity, mechanical repetition of movements, and lack of coordination, which arouses the disgust of the **, but also creates a crazy atmosphere. On the surface, the dancers seem to be deliberately displaying self-deprecating images and gestures, catering to the public's scrutiny of ugliness through artificiality and vulgarization. In fact, this kind of strange behavior is a kind of "self-flattery". Dancers challenge the so-called standards of elegance through self-degrading behavior. In the experience of madness, they seek to challenge the sense of exile of the world and the sense of control of the world, so as to obtain a false sense of self-emotion, and this process realizes the aesthetic self-exaltation. This kind of "self-flattery" is not uncommon, from the popular "kill Matt" trend in the millennium, to the popular "dirty" emojis on social **, to the banter and deconstruction of classic ghost animals**, all show this kind of self-abandonment and self-flattery. But in this kind of flattery, these groups show a very strong impulse to resist the subject. From the perspective of the Birmingham School, culture is a battleground for representation struggles between different social groups. The marginalized groups are positioned in the "subculture", from which they need to start against the stereotypes imposed by the dominant culture. In other words, the social shake represents a rebellion of small-town youth who are unable to integrate into elite culture. Since taste is not recognized by the dominant culture and aesthetic preferences are seen as "vulgar", subcultural groups take pride in vulgarity, disdain the normative beauty of high dance, and instead remain ugly, empowering themselves and resisting. On the one hand, the people who perform it are no longer out-of-tune spiritual guys and sisters, but dancers who perform elegant arts. It can be seen that elegance and vulgarity, to a large extent, are defined by the "mainstream" that holds the power of cultural discourse, and when we evaluate something "low", the evaluator is standing on the high place of elegance and looking down on the low place. The dominant culture has the privilege of looking down, that is, the power to crush, ignore, play with, and co-opt subcultures. Beauty & Confidence:Gender Awareness in DanceIn contemporary pop culture, pop dance places more emphasis on autonomy, self-confidence, and self-entertainment. Among them, social shake seems to be able to inspire us to think about the gender construction of dance movements, and it adopts a strategy of "blurring the boundaries first, and then empowering itself". If only beautiful things are considered worthy of dissemination, then social shake chooses to insist on and confidently show the so-called "ugly". This boundary-breaking approach has a similar effect in the gender system. Traditionally, feminine and extended movements show femininity, while angular frames and explosiveness show masculinity. However, the action design of social shake is de-gendered, and it even uses the means of "self-ugliness" to blur these gender differences. Unlike other art forms, dance art is unique in that it integrates aesthetic subjects, creative themes and artistic materials into the dancer's body. It can even be said that the creator, the work, and the audience in the dance can be the same person. In a way, social shake is a fitting manifestation of this nature of dance. The body is the "narrative" of dance, and not only that, Susanne KLanger also connects dance performance to consciousness itself in The Problem of Art, arguing that "dance expresses what cannot be expressed in language——— the logic of consciousness itself." This view of Lange and Söhne reveals that the body and consciousness in dance are inseparable wholes. In dance expression, the body is not only a biologically gendered body, but also a socially gendered entity. Dance movements not only conform to and express gender roles in human society, forming a gendered narrative style, but also have the ability to challenge and redefine gender norms in society. As a representative of high art, ballet pursues harmony, elegance, precision and purity, showing the essence of classical dance art. In ballet, harmony is not only about the perfect harmony between the body and the character, but also about maintaining a dramatic and infectious harmony even in the midst of conflict and tension. Elegance is the pursuit of nobility and traditional aesthetics. Precision is about the grasp of space, and every gesture of the body is the dancer's precise control of the space, and it is also the precise expression of emotions in the space. As for purity, it is associated with the dancer's pursuit of the ultimate in dance technique, the artistic attainment pursued under strict rules and standards, the dancer pursues excellence to a certain objective standard, and examines himself with an objectified gaze. According to these standards, ballet is inevitably deeply embedded in the gender system, and the expression of specific gender traits is pushed to the extreme through clothing, movements, etc. On the other hand, this is not to equate high art with gender stereotypes. In traditional art, the form of "reverse string" is not uncommon. The reverse string means that the actor plays a role that is different from his biological sex, such as the "Danjiao" in Peking Opera, which was played by men in the early days. This is due to the fact that historically there have been strict restrictions on women's exposure in public. However, the anti-string preservation has formed an artistic tradition to this day. Not only does it provide an opportunity to explore and express different gender identities, but it also provokes the audience to reflect on gender, social norms, and identity. For example, Yue Opera actress Chen Lijun's performance in "New Dragon Gate Inn" is not only praised for her masculine heroic posture, but also a redefinition of traditional "domineering beauty". Such artistic expressions show the fluidity and diversity of gender identities, prompting people to think more deeply about gender roles. 
Yue Opera actor Chen Lijun's performance in "New Dragon Gate Inn". Similarly, KPOP girl group dance, as another possibility of pursuing autonomy in pop culture, adopts a strategy that emphasizes female beauty to empower itself. In the process of empowerment, the dance styles of different generations vary greatly, but most of them emphasize the coordination of dancers' expressions and movements, the display of women's postures, and the confidence of "enjoying beauty". These dance moves tap into the multifaceted beauty of femininity. However, this strategy can also fall into traditional ways of dealing with femininity, such as emphasizing the rigors of the dancer's figure. Although KPOP presents a more diverse female image than ballet or classical dance, its diversity can easily be co-opted if it is limited to catering to the public's demand for "beauty". 
Kpop style girl group dance music ** picture. The biggest difference between Social Shake and the above dances lies in its "vitality" and "awkwardness". At the beginning of the development of the social shake, it was closer to the "primitive dance". In primitive dance, "practical activity" precedes "aesthetic activity", and the dance shows the violent fluctuations of life through the rhythm of movement. The dancers experience the realism of life in the rhythm of high speed, and at the same time, the audience is also moved by this real feeling of being alive and satisfied. Judging from the current public aesthetic standards, "fluctuations in life" is not beautiful, even ugly, but it does not prevent it from showing "living intensity". However, when "ugliness" begins to be exploited commercially, the resistance of social shakes that stems from primitive vitality may be weakened. For the current global popularity of the "subject three" dance, many Chinese people's reaction is "a little proud but unwilling to recognize each other". This complex emotion may stem from the fact that the social shake does not conform to traditional aesthetic standards, but it also shows a strong original appeal. In addition, the boundary between the elegant and the vulgar gradually changed along with cultural events, and "subject 3" became a positive cultural representative. However, as a casual and free dance expression, social shake has been given the name related to "assessment", that is, "subject three". This name may be contrary to its essence, and the freewheeling rebellion that was originally meant to be expressed through dance has been labeled as an "evaluation mechanism". This naming may also reflect the unconscious acceptance, co-optation and redefinition of subcultures by the main culture, pointing to the tension and interaction between subcultures and mainstream values.