Flying a kite, enjoying a round of golf, going fishing, hanging out with friends - these are some of the leisure activities young Chinese said they enjoyed when leisure professor Dr. Gordon Walker taught at Shanghai University of Sport (SUS) this spring.
Yet when you live in one of the most powerful economies on Earth and that country has a tumultuous political history that sparked massive societal and cultural changes, how does that impact different concepts of leisure for generations whose experience of China is vastly different?
"There has been such a major change from 10 years ago when America was essentially the only super power in the world. Suddenly China is being compared to the US by the US president - that's the kind of dramatic shift we're talking about," says Walker, whose three-month sojourn in China was spent doing research, teaching at SUS for a month, and travelling.
At SUS he taught that institution's first cohort of students in its new bachelor's degree in leisure sport - modeled on the Bachelor of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism offered by the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at U of A.
From the generations of Chinese who remember the repression of Maoism with its stringent regulation of leisure activities and the nature of them, to the post-90s generation that is as connected to the world through technology (currently 300 million Chinese have an internet connection) and are as savvy about Western pop culture as any Westerner, leisure as a field of study is just taking flight.
"(The field of) leisure studies has been described (by Chinese academics in the field) as both a 'rising sun industry' and as a 'white page' on which we are awaiting the first brush stroke," says Walker. "Because of the huge changes in China, you can see leisure becoming more important, and also the need to understand leisure and be trained in leisure and to use it wisely."
Walker was invited to teach two classes: one in culture and leisure behaviour, and one in culture and leisure education.
"It was a perfect fit for me," says Walker. "It was an opportunity to talk about what I've learned over 10 years of study about Chinese people's leisure and put them in a Chinese context; it meant I was with Chinese students, and living in a residential area where the tourists don't go. That was fantastic."
Teaching brought its challenges - every word of his lectures, notes and PowerPoint slides had to be translated - and also tremendous rewards. "While I was teaching there was student standing out in the hallway, listening. She explained that she was studying in a different area but had been so inspired by what she'd heard that she wanted to change her course of study and pursue a master's degree in leisure studies at a non-Chinese university. She said, 'You changed my life.' That's pretty powerful. That may happen once or twice in a career here, but for that to happen in another country where you're a foreign instructor is very gratifying."
Walker's opportunity to go to China came about in part because three years ago the Faculty began working on Memoranda of Understanding with two Chinese universities: the Shanghai University of Sport and Beijing Sport University. These MOUs provide for faculty and student exchanges and Professor Wei of SUS had visited U of A two years ago to learn about the Faculty's recreation and leisure studies degree with the goal of taking his new knowledge back to SUS to develop its first leisure sport degree. Now, with the degree program having accepted its first students, Walker was invited to share his knowledge.
He credits the U of A's strong support for international outreach for making his trip possible, and the Faculty's commitment through its Community and International Engagement initiative. "Several faculty members have made shorter trips overseas, but this is the first of the longer trips to a foreign destination."
In addition to teaching, Walker was also able to pursue his research. As part of the McCalla Professorship he'd been awarded last year, he was analysing all the research that had been done on Chinese people's leisure - and many of the papers he wanted to read were only available in China.
"In addition to this, my graduate student, Haidong Liang, and I are curious about the indigenous concept of 'face' and how important that is in terms of being a constraint to leisure," says Walker.
He also traveled around China and to Mongolia for a month-long adventure camping tour. Western influences were apparent, he says, but Mongolians have been selective in what influences they will accept in their still mostly-nomadic way of life. "Mongolians are still living in their traditional gers or yurts; they may have a motorcycle - and a good horse - and a satellite dish, but they're raising goats, sheep and yaks in the traditional way. You can see Western influences and yet they are still able to maintain their own culture."
As for the future, Walker will co-author a 20-chapter, state-of-the-art book on how race, ethnicity and culture affect leisure for particular groups such as indigenous North Americans, or Asian-Canadians or Asian-Americans as well as non-immigrants in China, Japan, and Korea.
"This is a nice next step for me because it gives me a chance to synthesize everything that I know, and work with three excellent colleagues."
Views of China and Mongolia from Dr. Walker's travels
 |
 |
 |