The Harlem Shake has arrived in China.
哈莱姆摇摆舞(Harlem Shake)来到了中国。
Unlike 2012's Gangnam Style parody sensation, which seemed to really gain traction in China only after it had already laid waste to the rest of the global Internet, the latest viral music video craze has managed to catch on with the world's largest population of Internet users not long after conquering banned-in-China YouTube.
与2012全球掀起搞笑模仿江南Style(Gangnam Style)热潮时的情形不同，这一次哈莱姆摇摆舞在风靡视频网站YouTube后不久就在中国网民中掀起了模仿狂热，而去年江南Style似乎是在被世界其他国家网民模仿腻了之后才真正在中国获得追捧的。
The Harlem Shake -- or Halin Yao, as it's known in Mandarin -- is based on an electronic dance track of the same name by Brooklyn-based producer Baauer. Each roughly 30-second video begins with a single person dancing alone to the music (typically wearing a helmet) while others in the room sit idly by. Then the bass line drops, the video cuts and suddenly everyone in the room is convulsing, shimmying or thrusting suggestively, often with the help of props.
哈莱姆摇摆舞在中国又被称作哈林摇，它是基于纽约布鲁克林音乐制作人Baauer的同名电子舞曲发展出来的。每个哈莱姆摇摆舞视频的长度大约为30秒钟，一开始都是只有一个人在随着音乐起舞(此人通常戴着头盔)，而房间里的其他人则无所事事地坐着。接下来背景音乐的声调降低，视频画面出现中断，突然之间房间里的所有人都剧烈晃动起来，他们的身体富于挑逗性地前挤后仰，经常借助小的道具进行舞蹈。
Cultural critics have attributed the success of the meme, which has nothing to do with the original Harlem Shake (a dance born New York in the 1980s and popularized in the early 2000s), to its being short, catchy, and easy to produce and customize.
文化评论家将搞笑模仿型哈莱姆摇摆舞的流行归因于其短小、易学、容易自我改编的特点。这种舞蹈与原来的哈莱姆摇摆舞没有什么关系，后者上世纪80年代诞生于纽约，本世纪初开始流行起来。
The formulaic simplicity of producing a Harlem Shake video has obviousappeal in a country that, by its own admission, struggles with creativity. But the meme also appears to have tapped into China's diaosi (or loser) mentality -- a self-effacing rejection of rigid social norms and expectations that has caught on among Chinese youth in recent years.
在中国这个它自己都承认创造力不足的国家，制作一段搞笑模仿型哈莱姆摇摆舞视频因其公式化的简单而显然颇具吸引力。但这种搞笑模仿型舞蹈似乎也契合了中国社会的"屌丝"心态，这是一种对僵化的社会规范和期待消极抗拒的人生态度，近年来它开始在中国年轻人中流行起来。
One of the more popular Chinese takes on the Harlem Shake, produced by employees of Shanghai-based online men's magazine Neonan, has been widely advertised on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging platform as the work of 'insane losers.' Many have simply taken to calling the Harlem Shake the 'loser dance.'
中国一则较为流行的搞笑模仿型哈莱姆摇摆舞视频由上海的网络男性杂志《牛男》(Neonan)的雇员们制作，它在新浪微博上被作为"疯狂屌丝"的作品而广为宣传。许多人干脆直接将搞笑模仿型哈莱姆摇摆舞称为"屌丝舞"。
That's not to say slacker twenty-somethings have a monopoly on the genre. In this version, two grannies get in on the act:
A number of critics have suggested the Harlem Shake meme might already be dead in the U.S., though China could very well inject some new life into it. Searches reveal more than a dozen Chinese Harlem Shake videos so far, including this one filmed in a pharmacy.
"屌丝舞"并非只属于那些20多岁的都市浪荡子。在一则视频里，两位老奶奶也跳起了这种舞蹈。
For those who prefer to get all their shaking in one place, here's a compilation:
Josh Chin
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