Ruima didn’t ask permission to dance again.
This mother from Shandong, China, started uploading videos of herself dancing in public squares while pregnant with her second child in 2025. She ignored the advice that pregnant women should get complete bed rest and continued moving among the crowds. When the baby girl was born in 2026, she didn’t stop going: she simply strapped her to her chest and returned to the same dance circles where she had previously stood alone, now with her daughter calm against her body.
What made her go viral wasn’t perfection; it was the opposite. Ruima openly admits that she started posting to attract traffic and sell products, laughs about her own cosmetic surgery, and repeats a phrase that has become her trademark: “Only the weak complain about their circumstances; I am a strong woman. Dancing with my baby in my arms is nothing. I also cook, eat, and clean while carrying her.”
In China, dancing in public squares is usually something retirees do. Seeing her—a young woman with a newborn—was enough to stop hundreds of thousands of people from scrolling. Today she has more than 440.000 followers, although not everyone is celebrating: many mothers say they feel less trapped when they see her, while others warn that dancing while carrying a baby is not without risks.