Shanghai University of Sports,Shanghai,China
Purpose of research :Reviewing the relationship of sports culture between East and West under Globalization,to find the differences between them.
Methodology :We studied many historical documents correlated with this title.
Results and Conclusion :We found that there are notable differences in the way of demanding to life,which are the followings:Firstly,they have different understanding on the term of“life demand”.The Eastern culture is the typical Health-preservation Culture,which emphasizes on“the minding of the body”,and“the mending of the mind”.The purpose is to acquire“Spirit Therapy”.The value of life in the oriental culture is the reason of the above ideology.However,different from the oriental sport culture,the western culture always regards people’s idea to“life demand”as God’s or Gods’.Ancient Greece is an era of mythology.She carries brilliant western culture,and because of her respect and belief to Gods,the sacred athletics Games was produced and finally became the predecessor of the ancient Olympics and the western sport culture as well.The Modern Western Industrial Revolution built people’s idea of efficiency,speed,regularity and uniformity.For this reason,the western sport notice more on the building of healthy physical constitution and the training of strong muscle and power.As fashionable western sport events,Gymnastics,Bodybuilding and Track and Field all can show human’s“power and beauty”,“health and muscularity”.
Secondly,their differences are embodied in the aspect of value orientation.Chinese culture believes human is the core of all creatures-“Being created by Heaven,fostered by earth,trained by human”.This basic value orientation to heaven and natural makes the oriental culture a special natural value orientation-“the Unity of Heaven and Man”,and it also influences easterners’physical culture and their means of sports.However,in western culture,including ancient Greece civilization,and modern civilization,nature is always regarded as the object of people’s cognitive activities.People think all natural phenomena detached from the material value,inexistence the difference of good and evil.For this reason,the western culture does not think people can have induction with nature.Therefore,the western culture focuses on the respect to science,and purses self-surpass.They believe that only owns brawny will,can people conquer nature and overmaster the unknown world.The Olympic Motto shows this feature-“faster,higher,and stronger”.In addition,with the development and prosperity of modern industrialization and market economy,the feature of competition in western sport culture is highlighted as“try to confront nature,and surpass the opponents”.In sports,the western sport emphasizes on the strengthening of organism’s power,the surpassing of physiological limit,and the digging of human’s potential.In sports activities,westerners show their boiling will,their spirit of challenging to the nature and their knowledge of“life demand”.
Thirdly,the difference appears in the respect of body representing modes.The oriental sport is a kind of perception activity which because its culture highlights intuitive thinking and lack of the knowledge of the integer.Confucian notices“the self-questioning to the incenter”,but neglects“the feeling to the experiences”.Because of this reason,Confucian theory has the feature of“the syncretism in subject and object”,and“the syncretism in knowledge and behavior”.Not only Confucian itself,but the whole system of the oriental culture led people to learn concepts unidentified,unclear,and straight forward because of its feature of integrity in thinking mode.When it goes to sport and sport culture,it reflects on the illegibility and uncertainty of movements and body both in time and space.Therefore,the oriental sport culture emphasize on the“self-realizing”and“telergy”.Different from the oriental sport culture,the western one believes science and practice,and with the feature of“showing one’s own personality”.Ancient Greece has not only beautiful fables,but lots of natural science achievements,which was entitled as“the Western philosophy cradle”.In ancient Greece and even in today’s western countries,many philosophers are natural scientists as well.The opening democracy,the noticing of thinking,and natural science brought out the best to each other.With this base,the western culture focuses on people’s power of logic thinking,and their rigor logic and developed science helped the western sport pays more attention to the strength and beauty and as well as the accuracy and intuitionistics of sports itself.People even use different physical measurements as the way of noting and recording athletes’performances.Today,almost every event in the range of the whole world is using scientific measurements.Track and Field,ball games,shooting need not to be disputed,gymnastics,dance and boxing all has their own detailed systems of measurements.From all the above analysis,we can easily find the spirit of self-surpassing,and reasonable ways of measurements in every aspect of the phylogeny of western sport culture.