Draft:Ke Mu San

Ke Mu San (Chinese: 科目三), also known as Guangxi subject Three (Chinese: 广西科目三) and its shorter form Subject Three, is a dance and internet phenomenon originating in China. Believed to have originated from a wedding dance in Guangxi province, the dance consists of performers doing a series of hand movements to music, including quick twisting movements of the wrists while swinging their knees to the side.

The dance has spread quickly within China and internationally, with multiple celebrities, officials, and international performers replicating the dance as well. Hot pot restaurant chain Haidilao has also began offering a performance of the dance by staff in November 2023.

Origins

The dance is widely believed to have originally been performed by Guangxi native Zhu Kaihong from a wedding dance during his friend's wedding in the province. According to Zhu, he had found the original dance to be "incredibly boring" and thus performed the dance.

It is unknown what was the exact origin of the name of the dance. A widely accepted theory is that a netizen posted his version of the dance onto his Douyin account shortly after he passed the subject three of his driving test and declared that the dance be called "Ke Mu San", which is the name of the course in Chinese and translates to "Subject Three". However, the dance and the driving test are otherwise unrelated.

The name of the dance evolved into a saying that people in Guangxi have to pass three tests in their life: Subject one being singing a traditional folk song, subject two being slurping rice noodles, and subject three being fluently performing a series of dance moves.

Spread

In October 2023, the dance began to become accompanied with the song "A Smile in the World" (Chinese: 一笑江湖) as the soundtrack. After adaptation, the song's expression form was innovated, and it became a form of internet phenomenon that became popular on Chinese social media and replicated by multiple influencers. Since then, the dance began to spread internationally. In various countries, the dance was only spread among overseas Chinese students at first, and later also became popular among overseas youth groups.

In November 2023, hot pot restaurant chain Haidilao announced that the dance would be added to its menu in China, Singapore and the United States. The same month, two influencers on Douyin posted a video of themselves dancing to Ke Mu San while wearing Haidilao uniforms. The video received nearly three million likes. Since then, the dance has became increasingly popular, with the hashtag for the dance gaining over 400 million views on TikTok.

Starting in December 2023, various celebrities and groups began replicating the dance, including Chinese dancer Yang Liping and The Royal Ballet. On 31 December 2023, a Guinness World Record for the highest number of people dancing Ke Mu San both online and offline was set by a group of a few hundred people in Shenyang. In January 2024, at an event held at the Chinese Embassy in the United States, Ke Mu San was also performed by Chinese and American youths dressed in traditional Chinese clothes.

Reception

A writer for Yangtse Evening Post opined that the dance "has become a haven for young people to get rid of negative emotions." Tide News wrote that "the popularity of Ke Mu San reflects the rise of new consumer culture in the Internet era and has strong social media dissemination, but atmosphere performances similar to the dance are a double-edged sword, with both its positive side and its negative side." Guangxi Daily wrote that "the dance is not only a carrier of emotional release, but also conveys the joy and confidence of the current Chinese society", and that it is a culture which not only belongs to Guangxi or China, but also the entire world.

Following the introduction of Ke Mu San in Haidilao outlets, there were concerns over the disturbance to diners and staff welfare. In an incident at an outlet in Huai'an, Jiangsu, China, two diners argued over the noise from the dance, ending in police intervention. In addition, some employees reported feeling stressed over learning the dance when they were "so busy".

In January 2024, a leaked video tape showed a Ke Mu San dance during the rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala by Anhui Television. This was widely criticised by netizens, who called the performance "dull" and "not creative". According to a poll in which 56,000 people responded, more than 47,000 people voted that they did not want Ke Mu San to appear on the Gala schedule.

On 15 January 2024, following an announcement on the Ningxia Night Market Facebook page that a Ke Mu San dance contest will be held 10 days later, there was a backlash claiming the dance as "Chinese unification by dance". In response, the night market apologized, stating that their original intention was to bring young people together "through music, dance and food in a healthy and interesting manner". However, they added that the contest would still proceed. In response, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office Chen Binghua said that the behaviour was "Anti-China to the point of anti-intellectualism".