A brief discussion on research on leisure and quality of life

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

In the past thirty years from the late 1970s to the present, China has experienced the greatest changes in human history. A massive change. China's economy has maintained rapid growth for thirty consecutive years, which has fundamentally changed China's economic situation, greatly improved the living conditions and living standards of Chinese people. Around 2000, China was only the seventh largest economy in the world. By 2007, it surpassed Germany and became the third largest economy in the world. In 2010, China's total GDP surpassed Japan for the first time, becoming the second largest economy in the world after the United States. Its long-term, large-scale, sustained and rapid development is extremely rare in the history of the world, and is called the "Chinese Miracle" by Chinese and foreign scholars.

Behind the economic growth, attention to leisure and quality of life has increasingly been put on the agenda of the general public, and material wealth is no longer the main pursuit of the people. Whether at the national level, institutional level, or individual level, there is an increasing level of concern about the quality of life. In this context, the National Tourism and Leisure Plan (also known as the National Leisure Plan) came into being. The outline aims to meet the people's growing tourism and leisure needs, promote the healthy development of the tourism and leisure industry, and promote the construction of a national tourism and leisure system with Chinese characteristics (website link). From an institutional level, the discussion on national happiness is more in-depth. For example, many periodicals and magazines sponsored special "happiness" issues; before the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day in 2012, CCTV reporters also went to various places to interview workers from all walks of life, including rural farmers, urban white-collar workers, and corporate workers. , scientific research experts, etc. In an instant, "happiness" became a hot word in major media and websites. Scientific research institutions in many countries have even launched national-level surveys on residents’ happiness. The promulgation of the 12th Five-Year Plan in various regions has set the improvement of people's happiness index as the policy orientation and outlined a blueprint for the happiness of the Chinese people. These are the realistic background of this article's research.

Research on leisure and quality of life has a long history in the West. In the West, the earliest study of leisure can be traced back to Aristotle in ancient Rome. He proposed that leisure is "one of the basic conditions for the birth of science and philosophy." Leisure provides people with needs such as relaxing body and mind, cultivating sentiment, pleasing the soul, self-regulation, and increasing self-confidence. Research shows that participating in high-quality leisure activities can improve an individual’s quality of life (Lü Ning, 2009), thereby improving their quality of life and Subjective well-being. As for the study of happiness, it began in the United States in the 1950s. By the 1970s, scholars had elevated this topic from a philosophical level to a scientific level. Its research enthusiasm was unprecedentedly high, and its empirical research was Research continues to grow.

1.2 Research Questions

From the above analysis, we can know that this article mainly studies the national leisure participation model and happiness, and aims to study the following issues:

1. From the national level, study the leisure time utilization rate, leisure patterns and happiness of Chinese residents;

2. Explore the leisure time, leisure participation patterns and happiness of Chinese residents Whether there are significant differences in different regions; test whether there are significant differences in demographic variables in the leisure time, leisure participation patterns and happiness of Chinese residents.

3. Summarize the outstanding problems of my country’s leisure situation and its role and significance in economic and social development.

Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis

2.1 Leisure and related concepts

2.1.1 Definition of leisure

According to Dong et al. al. (in press), Leisure is usually translated as "leisure" in Chinese. The first character, "rest", is a hieroglyph. Literally, it looks like a person leaning against a big tree to rest, thus representing the individual's recovery or relaxation after a hard day's work. This represents a passive leisure activity that takes place outdoors and has active connotations (e.g. aesthetics, temperament, morality, etc.) The second word, leisure, represents a physically open space or a period of time (e.g., a free period between two occupied periods) (Dong et al. , in press). Dong et al. (in press) and Liu et al. (2008) both define it as free, unoccupied time. In traditional Chinese culture, this time should be used for self-cultivation, study, and other passive, quiet, and preferably solitary activities. In contemporary Chinese society, the word "leisure" means free time or doing nothing, or leisure can symbolize a comfortable social state, a spiritual or aesthetic condition, or even a state of life‖ (Liu et al., 2008).

In ancient China, leisure was mainly influenced by two major schools of thought? Confucianism and Taoism.

Confucianism emphasizes work ethics, focuses on the collective rather than the individual, and generally has a negative attitude toward leisure, especially those that do. Confucianism mainly advocates the three cardinal principles and five constant principles.

After Aristotle proposed that leisure is the center around which everything revolves and one of the basic conditions for the birth of science and philosophy, Western leisure research has entered the category of systematic research. In 1899, the publication of Veblen's "Theory of the Leisure Class" analyzed leisure and consumption from an economic perspective for the first time, marking the birth of leisure science (Ma Huidi, 2000). Since then, scholars have studied economics (Becker. Psychology (Iso-Ahola, S. 1980), education (Charles K. Brightbill, 1966), anthropology, and other disciplines serve as theoretical analysis tools to deepen and enrich leisure research. Although Western scholars have argued for hundreds of years, there is still no unified definition of "leisure" (Song Rui, 2004).

In my country, scholars mostly discuss it from three dimensions: leisure time, leisure activities and mental state.

Ma Huidi answered from the perspective of cultural philosophy: What is leisure? Is leisure emotional or rational? Is it spiritual or material? Is it a meaning or a behavior? He also believes that leisure, as a realistic existence, is first expressed through people's external behaviors, and is a cultural style, established by people in a specific historical era regarding the life course they face and the life ideals they hold. Determined by lifestyle and value orientation. Therefore, leisure itself is a kind of culture, a yardstick of human civilization, and a world of meaning (Ma Huidi, 2000).

2.2 Leisure and Economy