Which original philosophical works have been translated into Chinese?

Preface to the Chinese version of "An Investigation of Human Leisure Life"

As people's working hours and housework time decrease, the importance of leisure in daily life has increased. The way modern society is organized is undergoing a change. It is not only about producing products and providing services, but also about providing people with leisure opportunities so that people can enrich their lives through leisure. As society progresses, the meaning of leisure is also changing. Initially, leisure was only seen as a way for people to recover from stressful work; later, leisure became a means for people to seek happiness and status; but perhaps leisure will eventually become an activity for people to pursue the meaning of life. Leisure and people's use of leisure have become an important factor, affecting human physical and mental health, social economic systems, and even the determination of cultural values.

Every culture creates the concept of leisure, and each culture continues to redefine this concept. Therefore, the leisure model adopted by North American society cannot be used as a model for China; only the Chinese themselves can determine how they use leisure to have value. However, the author hopes that in the process of China's modernization, Chinese people can use other countries as a background when examining leisure, so that their own leisure models can continue to evolve.

In most cases, one of the characteristics of a society in the early stages of industrialization is the reduction of free time, but this trend will gradually change. As free time increases, new answers must be given to questions about the purpose of human life. What is the most valuable use of leisure time with the fewest constraints? This is an age-old question. We must answer this question, and we must answer it well.

This book attempts to help readers understand and understand the theories and research results about leisure, recreation, entertainment and "flow". It is hoped that it can also help readers better realize the role of leisure in their own lives. Thereby clarifying one's own values ??about leisure. The author would like to express his gratitude to the Chinese translators of this book (please add professional title) Kang Zheng and (please add professional title) Tian Song, because it is due to their hard work that the author can present the ideas in the book to Chinese friends; I would also like to thank Ms. Ma Huidi, the editor of "Research on Dialectics of Nature", who brought the works of North American leisure scholars to the Chinese people with her insight and unremitting efforts. The author firmly believes that her own academic research will also make an important contribution to leisure research in China.

Jeffrey C. Godby at Pennsylvania State University in the spring of 2000

Preface to the Chinese version of "Towards Freedom: New Essays on the Sociology of Leisure"

"Towards Freedom" It is a great honor for the author to have "Freedom: New Essays on the Sociology of Leisure" translated into Chinese. When the original version of this book was published, it was the only theoretical work for graduate students in the field of leisure in the United States in more than ten years. At that time, the author's purpose of writing this book was to make a more comprehensive and critical analysis of the common theories about leisure in Western social sciences. I hope this book will also be helpful to the establishment of the same profession in China.

Although the subtitle of this book contains the word "sociology", its research is not limited to the study of sociology. The first part of this book uses social psychological methods to study leisure experience. This part also uses an existential metaphor, which reflects the influence of contemporary European philosophy, especially French philosophy. The next part discusses the social background of leisure from the institutional basis of social interaction and leisure resources. The theme running through this section is the contradiction between personal experience and the personal meaning of leisure and the social and cultural foundation of leisure. This contradiction reflects the agency and structure relationship that occupies a central position in sociological theory, between individual agency and the constraints of social structure. Finally, the author proposes the concept of "social existentialism" as a way to deal with this contradiction. In a chapter that uses conflict theory and critical theory to analyze leisure, the author challenges one of the more common concepts in Western society. This view believes that leisure must have a positive meaning and be beneficial to the health of individuals and society. This chapter explores some of the Marxist perspectives on leisure in capitalist society. I recently developed this issue further in an examination for undergraduate students (see J. Kelly & V. Freysinger, 21st Century Leisure: Current Issues, Allyn and Bacon, 1999). The last part of the book returns to Western classical philosophy and uses some metaphors to explore the theme of cultural development and creativity.

One possibility is that these different methods or metaphors are complementary. No one method is "best," but each has some extremely important value to the study of leisure. The dialectical spiral used in the book is to illustrate that each theoretical model has both strengths and limitations, and subsequent theories try to break through these limitations. This is actually a euphemistic criticism of those who believe that only their own theories are valuable. Leisure is a complex phenomenon with many facets and many relativities in its cultural and historical context.

Leisure is constructed by people through their own social and cultural activities, rather than a fixed and eternal concept or ideal. Based on this, a more appropriate method is to use a dynamic and dialectical theory to study and analyze leisure, rather than using a single theory, no matter how attractive this theory is.

This book was first published in 1987. From then to now, both the field of leisure research and my own thinking have changed a lot. If I were to revise this book now, I would add some content. First, I would put more emphasis on the economic environment of leisure. The global economic system under information technology has undergone great changes, and the capital and power of large companies are highly concentrated. The power of capitalism and its inherent contradictions are an extremely important factor affecting leisure throughout the world. In the future, the trend of leisure commercialization and the bias of investment capital will become more prominent. Second, most sociological research on leisure in the West actually uses functional analysis. If I were to revise this book, I would make conflict theory occupy a more central position in the theoretical framework of this book. . Marxism sees that capitalist society has different social classes based on people's different economic status, and each has different resources and interests. Although we need to make some criticisms and modifications to this view, we should also apply it to a wider scope. For example, leisure may benefit those with the capital to invest, while workers who are marginalized in the capitalist economic system will be more exploited as "service" industries expand. Third, based on the above analysis, I will pay more attention to social groups based on gender, race, and class, and under what conditions and methods can be used to resist capitalism through cultural development and cultural expression.

Although this book involves the history of some other countries, the vocabulary, metaphors and conceptual framework used are entirely Western. But this does not mean that the author believes that Western conceptual frameworks are superior to those of other cultures. This book is by no means intended to reinforce the remaining imperialism in the cultural realm. Rather, it is the author's hope that the multi-theoretical dialogue explored in this book will serve as a challenge to stimulate dialogue about leisure theory in other cultures. After all, Chinese people have profound thoughts about life and leisure, forming a long tradition. Today, when China is undergoing tremendous cultural and social changes, this book may help inspire Chinese colleagues to carry forward this tradition in new ways.

For example, Chinese ideological tradition seems to pay more attention to the interconnection between people and the integrity of life than the West, unlike Western culture which tends to separate different aspects of life. . Chinese people's way of leisure does not seem to emphasize active activities like Westerners. We should not think that the benefits of leisure are directly proportional to the time spent on leisure and the amount of leisure activities - that is an overly simplistic understanding. So could the existential themes of the book be incorporated into a form of leisure that goes beyond this simple understanding? In any culture, personal experience and social context influence each other, but the form of this interaction in Chinese or other non-Western cultures will obviously be different from that in Western cultures.

The difficulty of translation goes beyond figuring out the meaning of some words. Reading any translation requires readers to read it from two aspects. On the one hand, it is to examine the meaning from the culture and language used in the original work, and on the other hand, it is to connect these meanings well with the language used in the translation. Therefore, the author is grateful to the translator Zhao Ran for his excellent work in translating the Chinese version of this book. She has an extremely difficult job to do, and hopefully the value of this book is worth the effort. The author also thanks Ms. Ma Huidi, who organized this series of translations, the editor-in-chief of the series, and other famous scholars who supported this cross-cultural project. Chinese history and culture is a vast ocean. I hope this small book can become a drop of water in this ocean, so that the efforts and support of scholars will not be in vain.

John R. Kelly at the University of Illinois in January 2000

Preface to the Chinese version of "Leisure and Leisure Services in the 21st Century"

The 21st century is A century that will see profound changes and at the same time great uncertainty. Humanity's conscious evolution will bring a rate of change far beyond any previous century. The 21st century will be the century that best reveals the purpose of mankind.

As China continues to redefine its identity, leisure will become one of the most important issues it faces. Tourism, mass media, sports, culture, contact with nature, art, voluntary participation in community life, personal hobbies and other fields related to people's quality of life and physical and mental health will become more important. In addition, like other modern countries, leisure activities will play an increasingly important role in China's economic system. In the next 20 years, China may become the country with the largest number of tourists in the world. The use of leisure will play an extremely important role in the physical and mental health and productivity of Chinese workers. As China's population ages, leisure will also play an important role in helping people adapt to life in their later years.

This book is written from a Western perspective, but the author also recognizes that the important issues facing humanity today are all international.

People around the world are now interdependent to a degree that past generations could not have imagined; and this interdependence will continue to increase, forcing people to care about the problems of others. In China and in many countries around the world, people's free time is increasing, and the problems and opportunities that arise are cross-border and cross-cultural. Every culture is constantly constructing and reconstructing leisure, and China is also reconstructing leisure; we sincerely hope that this reconstruction will produce brilliant results.

The author would like to express his gratitude to the Chinese translators of this book, namely Professor Zhang Chunbo of Beijing Foreign Studies University, Dr. Chen Dingjia of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Dr. Liu Fenghua of China University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. It is due to their interest, efforts and talents that this book has been translated. I would also like to thank my friend and colleague, Ms. Ma Huidi of the Chinese Society of Dialectics of Nature, for her foresight in seeing the importance of leisure-related issues to the Chinese people, which enabled the Chinese translation of this book to be published.

Jeffrey C. Godby at Pennsylvania State University in the spring of 2000

Preface to the Chinese version of "The Evolution of Leisure: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives"

The book is about leisure written from a historical and philosophical perspective. We are very happy to know that Chinese readers will be able to read this book. But we realized that the reason why this book arouses the interest of Chinese people is not because of how profound it is written, but because China is changing and developing rapidly, and many of these changes and developments affect time and entertainment. Allocation of resources. In the past 20 years, global economic and political forces, trade policies, globalized financial systems, multinational corporations, etc. have brought huge changes to our world; many of these changes are for the better, but perhaps not all The changes are like this. China implemented a five-day work system in 1995, which was undoubtedly an improvement for millions of Chinese workers; and for Americans who buy hamburgers, French fries, pizza, and fried chicken nuggets in many big cities in China Changes such as fast-food restaurants and the large number of American corporate logos printed on the clothing of many people, especially urban youth, make us at best ambivalent. There are also many new office buildings and factories in Chinese cities, many of which belong to multinational companies that have reached agreements with the Chinese government to operate in China. In less than ten years, many modern and unique office buildings with architectural beauty have emerged in the center of Beijing, greatly changing the face of Beijing. China has built many highways as part of an ever-expanding commercial and tourism infrastructure. Thanks to these infrastructures, China is able to accommodate large numbers of tourists. By 2020, China will become one of the two or three countries most visited by tourists in the world. And leisure is of course a core element of tourism.

China can see the ideas in this book not only because of the changes that have taken place in China, but also because some Chinese scholars foresaw the prospects and potential of leisure a few years ago. They believed that the experiences and theories of other countries could provide some useful reference for China, so they worked hard to do an extremely difficult task, which was to translate this book and several other works by foreign scholars into Chinese. This is first of all due to the famous editor, writer and social activist Ms. Ma Huidi. As the executive editor of this project, she devoted herself to this work with superb skills and enthusiasm, translating the works of these foreign scholars on the theory and research of leisure into Chinese. The three editors-in-chief of this series are Yu Guangyuan, a famous philosopher, social activist and former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Cheng Siwei, a professor at the Institute of Complex Systems of Peking University and former vice chairman of the People's Congress; Professor at the Social Research Center and former Vice Minister of Education Gong Yuzhi - both are very famous scholars in China, which illustrates how much China attaches importance to leisure and entertainment opportunities. The arduous task of translating this book was carried out by Professor Cheng Sumei of Shanxi University and Dr. Ji Bin of Renmin University of China. We are honored that such accomplished people are interested in our book, and delighted that they recognize the importance of leisure and its unlimited potential.

Historically, China and Western countries started to have a better understanding of each other relatively late, and the development of communication technology played a certain role in promoting this understanding. The People's Republic of China was founded only 50 years ago, at a time when Western fears of the further spread of Stalinist-style oppressive communism led us into the Cold War, which only began to ease around 25 years ago. . Therefore, mutual understanding between the two peoples became possible only relatively recently. In the past, both sides looked at each other with a veil, and now the work of lifting this veil has just begun. Not since Marco Polo made the long journey to Kublai Khan's China had there been such a keen interest in each other. The formal détente in the Cold War began in 1972, when President Nixon traveled to China to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong. But before that, there was "ping pong diplomacy" - China's national table tennis players toured the United States and held exhibition games with American players. After the Cultural Revolution, some Chinese theater troupes toured the United States and Canada, performing dramas such as "The White-Haired Girl", thus starting regular cultural exchanges between China and the United States.

Recently, artists from all over the world came to China to perform Puccini's "Turandot", which was performed nine times in the Forbidden City. Last year, China and the United States competed in the final of the Women's World Cup. The superb competition, graceful posture and good discipline of the players from the two countries on the field deeply attracted the American audience. Who can not be moved by the beauty and excellence in an artistic performance or a work of art? Because of this, people from different cultures can always meet in theaters, concert halls, art galleries and sports fields. This once again shows that leisure activities have a central position in the human organism.

In addition to the changes taking place in China and the foresight of Chinese scholars, there are other reasons why our views can be introduced to China. The world is diverse, and as long as we accept it, this diversity will make our lives richer. But we must also realize that China itself is extremely diverse, so some of the 1.3 billion Chinese people will definitely be influenced by their education and their own experiences, and feel that "The Evolution of Leisure" is a book that is very suitable for them. . Cities like Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Macau will undoubtedly produce a variety of lifestyles. Cities in the inland areas of southern and western China are located in mountains and even deserts, rather than plains and coasts like the east, and are therefore less known to foreigners; but precisely because they are relatively isolated from foreign countries, they are more able to form Some unique way of life. Just as people in cities in the ethnic autonomous regions in western China have a different lifestyle than coastal cities, China's rural areas are also a world that is very different from urban areas. Such a diverse lifestyle in China sometimes makes Americans feel at a loss as to what to do, but the multiple ethnic groups and subcultures in the United States also make the American lifestyle rich and colorful. Since China is so diverse, there will undoubtedly be some among it who are interested in our perspective. Translating some foreign works into Chinese will make the possibilities that Chinese culture provides people more diverse.

Translating these works will help people see the differences between Eastern and Western thoughts and cultural traditions. In the United States, people are increasingly paying attention to other religions besides Christianity, but the vast majority of people still believe in Christianity. Many aspects of the author's life were shaped by the influence of Christianity. For example, the Sabbath, which was formed before Christianity and was later adopted by Christianity, and the Protestant ethics that emerged in Central Europe in the 16th century have a great influence on us. Christianity can only have a foothold in China; conversely, Buddhism can only have a foothold in the United States, while Confucianism and Taoism have even less influence in the United States. From an intellectual perspective, our roots as Americans are in ancient Greece and Rome. We are skeptics and empiricists by nature and want to see the evidence for everything. Biogenetically, our roots are mainly in Central and Northern Europe, but an increasing proportion of us have Asian, African, and Latin American ancestry. Geographical reasons have allowed us to gain independence from our European ancestors, economic and resource advantages have made us advocate individualism, and our wealth has made us people who are greedy for enjoyment. In short, even though Western television and movies have dominated the world, there are still many things about us that arouse the curiosity of Chinese readers.

However, the most important reason why our views are interesting to some Chinese readers is not that we are so different, but that we are so similar in many ways. Although most Americans today are descendants of European immigrants, the earliest Americans came from the East. They arrived in the Americas about 40,000 years ago through the ice that then covered the Bering Strait. These earliest Americans were descendants of the Peking Man who lived not far from Beijing about 400,000 years ago. Today, geneticists tell us that although the human species appears to be extremely diverse, we are 99.9% identical in genetic material. Therefore, although we Americans think that the principles that guide our lives come from ancient Greece, such as Aristotle's "golden mean," in fact, one of the Confucian classics, "The Golden Mean," can also provide us with Same criteria. Some people say that great people have very similar thoughts to each other. This is not bad at all. People all over the world can appreciate the poems of Li Bai and Du Fu. We understand their emotions and feel the same emotions ourselves. Deep inside, we can feel the truths revealed in the I Ching, the Book of Songs, the Tao Te Ching and other ancient Chinese books. Similarly, Chinese people can also appreciate Aristotle's Ethics and Metaphysics and Lucretius's On the Nature of Things. In our American cultural tradition, we have the thought of indifference and asceticism from the Stoic philosophy of ancient Greece, but this thought can also come from China, because a Chinese sage once said: In this world of uncertainty, if you have a hat, you can eat. One bowl is enough.

But leisure should enable us to obtain more from life than the basic necessities of "a hat and a bowl". It enables us to seek meaning, purpose, beauty, friendship, and happiness. , peace of mind and harmony with others, so that your higher-level needs can be satisfied.

The author is very happy that our book can join the exchanges between the two peoples, because in order to establish a harmonious relationship between China and the United States, it will not ultimately rely on the principles of capitalism in Adam Smith's theory, but on his "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" teaches us: Human beings can live together in peace and harmony because, deep down in our hearts, we all know how each other feels.

Thomas Goodale and Jeffrey C. Goldby, Fairfax, Virginia, February 2000

Women’s Leisure: A Feminist Perspective Preface to the Chinese version of ""

As the authors, we are deeply honored that this book about women's leisure can be translated into Chinese. We are pleased that this important issue discussed in the book is gaining attention outside of North America. We hope that readers can understand that this book is written from a North American perspective. Some of the views may also be meaningful to Chinese society, but other views may not be familiar to Chinese readers. Readers should note that these ideas come from a different culture and judge for themselves the extent to which they apply to China. But we also recognize that feminism and issues related to women's leisure are a global concern. I sincerely hope that this book will help promote the feminist movement in China, and at the same time provide a foundation for improving the quality of life of everyone.

From a global perspective, the research field of leisure is still in its early stages of development. The fact that this book can be published in Chinese fully demonstrates how important leisure is to China's future. We know that societies in all regions of the world are changing at an extremely rapid pace. We hope this book will raise awareness that leisure should be available to everyone, including women who are often overlooked. In addition, we also hope that this book will encourage Chinese scholars to further explore the concept of leisure in Chinese culture.

Although there are many cultural differences between different societies on specific issues, we believe that some of the principles we cover in this book have certain universal significance. Research on gender and its impact on people is constantly evolving, and researchers are learning more about different groups, which helps us understand leisure in a broader sense. Simply describing gender differences no longer makes much sense. We need to take the next step, which is to understand how women's and men's lives are related to gender, to understand the impact of this connection on leisure, and to understand these. What the impact means for our quality of life.

Leisure plays a very important role in people's lives. Research by North American scholars shows that leisure has many different definitions, all of which are related to people's understanding of themselves and their relationships with others. In addition, as more women enter the paid workforce, the relationship between work (including paid and unpaid work) and leisure is attracting more attention. Research on this issue is emerging, revealing that leisure sometimes empowers women but sometimes also serves to maintain women's traditional roles. For some women, engaging in leisure activities means they get rid of traditional social expectations and gain some new development opportunities.

We recognize that translating and publishing this book requires considerable effort. The translators Liu Er and Ma Lan spent a lot of time on this book, for which we are deeply grateful. We also express our appreciation to Ms. Ma Huidi for her extensive work in getting this book published. Finally, we would also like to thank Venture Publishing House for its strong confidence in the issues discussed in this book. It not only published its English version, but also now allows our views to be introduced to China so that more people can understand these views. .

On the occasion of the publication of the Chinese translation of this book, we hope that women all over the world will be empowered in their leisure activities, and at the same time empower themselves through leisure activities. In addition, I hope that the publication of this book will serve as a catalyst for more academic works on gender and leisure. Finally, I hope this book can enhance mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation between the people of China and North America.

I would like to extend my best wishes to our new Chinese friends!

Towards Freedom: A New Theory of the Sociology of Leisure" can be translated into Chinese, which is a great honor for the author. When the original version of this book was published, it was the only theoretical work for graduate students in the field of leisure in the United States in more than ten years.

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