Abstract

In modern society, with the increasing of the economy, more and more people pursue leisure, leisure becomes an important part in people’s life. After we entered into a new century, people’s life styles change a lot. Particularly in China, more and more people have been enjoying high quality life because of the reform and opening up.
Senior citizens have more spare time to do leisure activities after their retirement and as we all know, leisure also plays an important role in senior citizens’ life in the West. However, leisure activities are various between Chinese culture and western culture. The research goal of the study is to compare the different leisure activities between Chinese and western senior citizens and at the same time to explore the cultural origins behind the differences.

Keywords: leisure activities; cultural origins; China; West

摘要

在现代，随着经济社会的发展，越来越多的人追求休闲，因此休闲在人们的生活中扮演着越来越重要的角色。进入新世纪后，人们的生活方式发生了翻天覆的变化。特别在中国，改革开放使越来越多的人过上了高品质的生活。
老年人退休后拥有了更多自由时间用来进行一些休闲活动，众所周知，休闲活动在西方也一直在老年人的生活中扮演着重要角色。然而，由于中西方文化的不同，休闲方式也因此存在着不少差异。这个研究的目标是对比中西方老年人休闲方式的不同，同时探索差异背后的文化根源。

关键词：休闲方式；文化根源；中国；西方

1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
The concept of leisure ideas has a long history in human history. Early in the Qin dynasty, Chinese created the concept of leisure and leisure culture which has a far-reaching influence on the subsequent development.
With the accelerating pace of modernization, leisure plays a more and more important role in people’s daily life. After we entered into the new century, people’s life styles become various and people in different countries and areas communicate with each other more frequently. Leisure, as an important social and cultural factor, has great influence upon the happiness, well-being, and life satisfaction of all human beings. In other words, leisure promotes greater life satisfaction. The leisure studies have existed in the West for more than a hundred years.