A cross-culture research on sports consciousness of juvenile under the globalization of sports activities
Por Zhiqing Li (Autor), Zhonggan Yu (Autor), Zhimin Liu (Autor).
Integra
Introduction
This research cooperated with the German colleagues compared and analysed the sports concept and consciousness of juveniles from different areas of China with the Germans in order to break the situation of closed and separated studies of sports sociology done in different nations in the world and therefore to promote and increase the dialogues among countries.
Methods
A verified research result on the global sports culture possessed by juveniles from several developed areas of China have been compared and analysed. The concept and consciousness of juveniles were Test by a scale of Juvenile Sports Concept and Consciousness made by Hans Peter from Parderborn University and revised by Liu Zhimin from Shanghai Institute of P.E. and Sports. The subjects came from 100 high school students from both Jiangxi and Fujian Provinces of China. The basic conditions of subjects: Jiangxi Province 56(10-14ys 31, 15-17ys 26; male 24, female 26); Fujian
Province 44(10-14ys 22,15-17ys 21; male 28, female 22).
Results
Sports possess a glorious image in the juveniles’ concepts in Berlin, New York and Fuzhou, Nanchang. The sports concept of Berlin juveniles characterized in openness and multiplicity whereas that of New York and Fuzhou, Nanchang were generally narrower and less multiplicity than Berlin juveniles; Different understandings were produced in different sports, soccer and basketball for examples under different cultural background though local environment affect it greatly; There are differences in understanding sports between male and female juveniles which might point out that sex was an important fact to sports under globalization.
Discussion / Conclusions
1. No significant difference exists between German male and female juveniles towards sports while the numbers of Chinese boy participating sports activities are much more than that of girl. The sports concept that German juveniles possess connect the relative popular sports situation as well as connect systematic sports training in Germany, there are, therefore, more non-formal sports-related activities among German young people. Firstly, few sports, basketball, soccer, table tennis for examples, however appeared in Chinese juveniles when asked but those leisure sports popularized in the developed countries seldom appeared; Secondly, Chinese high school students regard sports as well as sports-related activities as not indispensable and not so important comparing their passing the entrance exams for high education. Thirdly, Chinese juveniles know not much to the how much prices the elite athletes have paid, even the basic prices that any person involved in sports have to pay. What they see are only trophies in their eyes. Sports are making them aware only of winning and victory instead of loss and failure. That Sports, however, always appear with a glorious image under any culture and happiness to girls and young female is more important than to boys and young male are really cross-cultures which means female juveniles experience more happiness than male counterpart from sports and sports-related activities no matter in China and in Germany.
2. The explanation to the attitude towards athletic training and performance/competition of juveniles between China and Germany need to be careful since the results to the dimensions of training and performance/competition are still not so clear. It has been found that boys had trend of involved in sports training activities than girls in the early research and same trend of difference in sex happened in Fujian and Jiangxi Provinces. This trend in different sex also possess a cross-culture phenomenon.
3. The results in this research show that the comparable have to be specially concentrated in cross-culture research. The problem of value-equal should be regarded as a pre-condition before a study project is really carried out. The research on basketball and soccer activities from different perspectives under different social and cultural background produced different results in both Germany and US so that the value-equal of sports functions based on outside would produced a improper result.
References
[1]. Markovits, A.S(1990). International Journal of the History of Sport, 7, 230-264.
[2]. Sugden, J./Tomlinson, A(1996). Sociology of Sport Journal, 13, 238-258.
[3]. Guttmann, A.( 1979) Vom Ritual zum Rekord - Das Wesen des modernen Sports. Schorndorf.
[4]. Guttmann, A. (1991) Sociology of Sport Journal 8, 185-190.
[5]. Frey, D.: The Last Shot: City Streets, basketball dreams. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin 1994.