Making the pole their goal (5)

Students train at the Luolan Pole Dance School in Beijing.

National title controversy

The lack of unity in China's pole-dancing industry was highlighted by a recent series of disputes over the legitimacy of an alleged "national team" and a "national championship".

At the end of 2014, the formation of a new "national team", which will train to compete at the 2015 World Pole Dance Championships in Beijing in April, prompted heated debate about whether the title should be used by a club squad without authorization from the national governing body for sports.

Yuan Biao, the leader of the 18-strong squad and founder of the China Pole Dance Sports and Training Center in Tianjin, started sending his elite dancers, including Meng Yifan, a well-established female pole artist, to compete in the WPDC in 2012 under the title of the "Chinese national team". The move prompted complaints from rival club operators, who claimed it was a trick to attract customers by claiming a distinguished title as their own.

Li Xue'er, a pole-dancing teacher at the Aobangshangwu Dance Training Center in Beijing, said: "Foreign dancers participated in the WPDC under their own names, while Yuan gave his dancers 'national' status. It's neither fair nor reasonable."

Luo Lan was also critical of Yuan's move, saying that a team can only be called "national" if it's obtained the approval of the General Administration of Sport of China. "In China, not even the 'national champions' are exclusively organized by one entity, let alone the concept of 'national teams'," she said.