# 大腿舞,  跳开放



## nemo nihil

Hello,
I'm translating the firts chapter of a novel by chinese writer Lin Bai, and I found this two terms: 
大腿舞, 跳开放.
I couldn't find anywhere a proper translation, but by looking at the pictures that came out on google images and reading the description in the text I thought I could maybe translate them with "Can-can" and "strip-tease". So I wanted to know if that's actually their meaning or if it's some kind of tipically chinese performance or dance and I should therefore keep the chinese name in the translation.
Thank you, if anyone wants to answer me


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## tarlou

I don't know the novel nor dancing, but these words do not look like terms for dancing. Below is what I think.

大腿舞: People (in the novel) think the dance is nothing but showing women's thighs, or they watch the dance just for women's thighs. So it is called "thigh dance".

跳开放: Probably the characters in the novel are conservative originally. Then they saw some very open (sexy) performance, and meanwhile they heard the word 开放 frequently. So they invented the word "dance open" for performing those "open" dances.


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## Lucia_zwl

Hi nemo nihil, could you give more contexts? At least when and where is the story set? Is “大腿舞, 跳开放” only the title/subtitle of a chapter? It doesn’t make much sense to me without any context…


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## SuperXW

The "thigh dance", dancing (to show) the openness...?
No it's not a typical dance name. Probably sarcasm.
You may refer to tarlou's explanation, but since it's literature, the context is crucial...


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## Skatinginbc

大腿舞 = Can-can 
跳开放, hm, more context is needed in order to get between the lines.
My translation attempt for 大腿舞, 跳开放: "Can-can, kicking high and free."


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## mimibuda

Hi nemo,
Guess you are translating Linbai's 《万物花开》 (everything in blossom?).
according to the context,
"大腿舞" is actually "ballet" as you can see in the novel. People called it so apparently because they can see beautiful legs in the process (tarlou is perfectly right on this). I agree with SuperXW that a literal translation like "thigh dance" is a good choice.
"跳开放", to dance an open dance, in fact "Strip dance" according to the novel, still you can use literal translation like "open dancing", your audience will soon understand what it means in later narration：
“她穿着半透明的裙子，绕场一周，里面奶罩的轮廓看得清清楚楚，还有三角裤叉，也隐约能看见，她一走，把下摆带动得一掀一掀的，差不多能看见大腿。她站在台中央，挺着，用手一拉，半透明的纱坎肩顺着她的肩膀滑下来，一下子，上身只剩了奶罩子。她又绕场两圈，再一弄，奶罩也脱掉了，上半身完全光着，像牛奶那么白。”


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## Youngfun

I wonder if in English "open" can have the same meaning as Chinese 开放, in this case sexually "open"?


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## xiaolijie

Yes, in the right context, "open dance" may be understood, (but "thigh dance" and "open dancing" may not be)


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## nemo nihil

Thank you everybody! The novel is actually Lin Bai's 《万物花开》 and the description of 跳开放 is as mimibuda quoted. The context is a group of young men in prison, talking about a show they've seen, 跳开放. The other term, 大腿舞, is actually used only for a comparison and not described. 
But if I understood your answers, none of those terms really exists in Chinese, so they are just words invented by the characters and I should maybe try to find an equivalent circumlocution in Italian, rather than keeping the chinese pinyin or translating with can-can or strip-tease?


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## Youngfun

In Italian I would say: un ballo con le cosce di fuori, molto disinibito. 
Oppure: danza delle cosce (visto che esiste la danza del ventre)


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## Skatinginbc

nemo nihil said:


> But if I understood your answers, none of those terms really exists in *Chinese*


Well, the term 大腿舞 has existed in Taiwanese Mandarin for decades.  It means can-can.  Search Youtube with 大腿舞 and you shall see what kind of dance the term denotes.  It might however mean something different or might not exist as a fixed expression at all in the Mainland (That's the impression I got from the prior posts).


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## Youngfun

Can-can is 康康舞 in Mainland.
So if that's the meaning, you could translate 大腿舞 as can-can.


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## Pierre_zane

Youngfun said:


> Can-can is 康康舞 in Mainland.
> So if that's the meaning, you could translate 大腿舞 as can-can.



By no means! I don't know about dance, but 大腿舞 apparently connotes a loose lifestyle.


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## Pierre_zane

In colloquial context and in colloquail context only, 大腿舞 is used to refer to any kind dance that exposes excessive parts of a female's body, esp. the thigh of course. And by traditional standard, both ballet and latin dance can be teased as such,  with a vulgar taint. But so can strip tease and other kinds of dances.


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