China To Require Students To Dance To Fight Obesity

BEIJING — China's Education Ministry has published plans to make the country's children take up dancing to combat obesity.

The ministry says it has designed seven "group dances" that will appeal to youngsters of all ages. Under the proposals, high school pupils will be forced to learn to waltz.

The Chinese have always prided themselves on being thinner than Westerners, but the advent of fast-food outlets, rising prosperity, and a generation of spoiled only-children due to the one-child policy, have led to rising obesity among the young. Figures published last August found that the numbers of under-18s registered as overweight increased 28-fold between 1985 and 2000.