What was going on when I was born?

''DURING the 5,000 years of our history, dance has never been separated from life: you take the tail of the ox and you dance with it. And each of China's 56 nationalities has many distinctive forms of dance. Dance in China is like a flower nursery, with a hundred different flowers blossoming through time.'' The speaker was Hu Zhihou, a member of the troupe from China that will perform on Sunday in ''Music and Dance of the Silk Route,'' an unusual program of Asian folk music and dance, in the Asia Society's Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium. The troupe, sponsored by the society in cooperation with the Chinese People's Association for Friendship With Foreign Countries, will perform at the society's auditorium through Wednesday. Mr. Hu is a noted player of the guanzi, a bamboo reed pipe that dates back more than a thousand years. Now one of China's most popular instruments, the guanzi was introduced to the Xinjiang region of China by Persian merchants traveling the silk route through Central Asia, a major commercial route established toward the end of the second century B.C., and used most heavily in the fifth and sixth centuries of our era.

Two suitors pursue a pure-hearted young waitress: a police inspector, who treats her with respect, and a bully, who forces her into an intimate relationship. Pressed to choose between them, she becomes a symbol of courage. It happens in ''Valentina,'' a 1981 film playing today and tomorrow at the start of a two-week festival of new Soviet films at the Carnegie Hall Cinema, Seventh Avenue, near 57th Street. A total of 16 films will be presented. Admission is $5. Information: 757-2131. 'VILLAGE' ANTIQUES SHOW Standing eight inches high, a hand-made altar of silver and gold with precious stones, which is thought to come from Mexico and was used for worship at home, will be one of the unusual items offered at the 39th annual Greenwich Village Antiques Show and Sale. It is on today and tomorrow from 1 to 10 P.M. and Sunday from 1 to 7 at Greenwich House, 27 Barrow Street, one block below Sheridan Square. A wide variety of objects, including jewelry and furniture, will fill three floors of the building, and an expert will appraise heirlooms for $10 each today and tomorrow from 4 to 10 P.M. Admission is $3.50. The event is a benefit for the Greenwich House Settlement. Information: 242-4140.

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger urged voters to reject ballot resolutions calling for a freeze on nuclear weapons. Page A22. WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 - Nuclear weapons planners foresee a new generation of arms in which the heat, radiation or blast effects of a nuclear explosion can be used far more selectively than those of existing weapons, according to scientists and Administration officials. Although the weapons are still in the conceptual stage, officials say that a decision to proceed with development could be made in a decade or less.

Mayor Koch, faced with opposition on the Board of Estimate to his plan to build a large incinerator in the old Brooklyn Navy Yard, withdrew two proposed contracts yesterday and accused Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin of sabotaging the plan for ''political benefits.'' Mr. Koch's actions came after he failed in nearly two days of attempts to persuade Mr. Goldin, Carol Bellamy, the City Council President, and the five Borough Presidents to approve contracts of up to $560,000 for preliminary work on the project, which the Mayor said was essential to compensate for a shortage of dump space. The aim of the plant, which was expected to cost $226 million, was to convert 3,000 tons of garbage each day to steam, which would be sold to Consolidated Edison. The utility, in turn, would sell the steam to commercial customers in lower Manhattan.

Lewis E. Lehrman, the Republican-Conservative candidate for Governor, sharply criticized the national Republican Party's strategy in the 1982 elections today and said the nation's high unemployment rate had made his campaign more difficult. Mr. Lehrman's comments came in response to reporters' questions in an interview on an airplane going from Rochester to New York City. ''I believe the Reagan Administration should be making a major effort to show clearly how we are going to rebuild the economy and create 20 million jobs in the next 10 years,'' he said. Mr. Lehrman also challenged the Republican Party's slogan for the 1982 elections, ''Stay the course.'' The slogan is designed to encourage voters to give President Reagan's economic policies a chance to work, but Mr. Lehrman said the campaign failed to convey an Administration plan to end unemployment.

By summoning senior generals to the Kremlin on Wednesday and promising to let them have more weapons and better technology to deal with American ''adventurism,'' Leonid I. Brezhnev gave an unusual glimpse of the strains that the Reagan Administration's policies have generated within the Soviet hierarchy. Soviet officials who discussed the speech today said it marked a turn from an emphasis on negotiation toward a blunter approach. Experts close to Kremlin thinking suggested that the shift represented a predominance among Mr. Brezhnev's advisers of a group of impatient, hard-headed men who believed that the only answer to American pressures was to ''talk the same language'' of arms increases and, in Mr. Brezhnev's words, ''rudeness.'' Timing for U.S. Elections Such warnings have issued from the Soviet leader's entourage before. Western diplomats believe the Russians want to cause alarm in the United States at the possible consequences of Washington's policies, particularly at a time when voters are preparing for midterm elections that could have an impact on Congressional backing for President Reagan's military posture.

''As long as the Socialist militants don't radicalize Felipe, it will be all right.

The Government, reacting to continuing increases in natural gas prices, refused today to allow a major pipeline company to pass along to utility customers the extra costs of importing liquefied natural gas from Algeria. The immediate result of the decision, a temporary denial of a request by a subsidiary of the Panhandle Eastern Corporation for a waiver of its set rates, was to prevent consumer rate increases from taking effect Monday. The affected consumers are mainly in five Middle Western states, including 700,000 in Illinois. Although imports of Algerian natural gas account for only a small part - less than 1 percent - of the nation's gas supplies, today's move was part of a significant recent effort by Federal regulators to hold gas prices down. Algerian natural gas currently costs about $7 per 1,000 cubic feet, versus an average price of about $2.27 for domestically produced gas, and the importer had sought a rate increase to reflect this differential.

Scientists in California report that they have found and artificially duplicated a long-sought brain substance that is crucial to normal human growth. The achievement is expected to have a major effect on studies of growth and its disorders and perhaps the treatment of other important human health problems. The discovery is also expected to have important applications to agriculture, offering a potentially safe and efficient way of regulating the size and growth rate of domestic animals. The substance is called GRF, for growth hormone releasing factor. It is the last to be identified and made artificially among four hormone-releasing factors that were predicted by scientists more than 25 years ago and that have been sought in research ever since.

The Socialist Party won a landslide victory in the Spanish general election on Thursday, sweeping back into power 40 years after its bitter defeat in the civil war. The Interior Ministry said early this morning that the Socialists, headed by 40-year-old Felipe Gonzalez, had gained a clear majority in the 350-seat Congress, and the leaders of all rival parties conceded defeat. Mr. Gonzalez, whose tremendous personal popularity helped his party redraw the political map of Spain, will become the youngest Prime Minister in Europe when a new government is formed in December. Well-Wishers Jam the Streets With several thousand well-wishers jamming the streets outside his headquarters in the Palace Hotel, watching on a giant television screen, the Socialist leader said his victory was a triumph ''for democracy and the Spanish people.'' He appealed for cooperation from the conservative armed forces and police, and promised to forge a foreign policy that would ''defend the interests of Spain.''

Stock prices posted sharp losses, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 15.36 points, to 990.99. Analysts said investors were worried about Tuesday's elections, the course of interest rates and a somber new economic forecast. Prepared for the Fed, the forecast projects real economic growth of only 2 percent for 1983. (Page D1.) Declining interest rates promise an unexpected windfall for the Treasury as local governments and authorities offer a flood of new tax-exempt bond issues. One expert said up to $50 billion of Treasury issues could be purchased this year. Meanwhile, short- and long-term interest rates fell. (D1.) Assets of money market funds rose $1.12 billion in the week ended Wednesday. (D5.) The interest rate on taxexempt ''All Savers'' certificates will drop to a low of 6.66 percent for new deposits beginning Sunday and continuing through Nov. 27. The current rate is 7.48 percent. (D2.)

Because of an editing error, an arti- cle Oct. 5 on the 1981 Scholastic Apti- tude Test incorrectly stated the aver- age math score of students with fami- ly incomes above $50,000. It is 509.