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Comparative Study on Eastern and Western Leisure Policy in the Perspective of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory

Jing Luo, Wenxia Zeng, Geoffrey Godbey*

Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management, School of Health and Human Development, Penn State University, 704M Ford Building, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A.

Abstract: The leisure industry has developed rapidly since the 1950s and gradually got governments’ attention and become an important part of people’s daily life. Some western countries, such as the United Kingdom, the United Sates, New Zealand, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Brazil and some Eastern countries like Japan, Korea and China have invested capital, introduced policies and set up facilities to support the development of the leisure industry. Research on leisure policies and leisure industry is developing both at home and abroad during these years. Based on all the research on leisure policies found from home and abroad, this paper analyzes the reasons for the differences between eastern and western policies with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. The thesis then draws conclusions concerning the similarities and features of eastern and western countries as well as how China can learn from these countries’ leisure policies. This research is expected to make contributions to the development of Chinese leisure policy and leisure industry.

Keywords: eastern, western, leisure policy, comparison, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory

Citation: Jing Luo, Wenxia Zeng, Geoffrey Godbey, Comparative Study on Eastern and Western Leisure Policy in the Perspective of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. World Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 4 (1). 10-19. January 2018. doi:10.12691/wjssh-4-1-2

1. Introduction

Leisure has become an important part of our daily lives. Therefore, it’s important to promote the healthy development of the leisure industry. In the 21st century, with the growth of the global economy, the development of the leisure industry also steps into the most important stage. Different countries offer their support in different ways, such as drawing up new policies, setting up relevant management departments and investing capital, etc. The leisure industry is affecting people’s daily life in different aspects in different countries in the world, as leisure is playing a more and more significant role in our life.

The leisure policies made by governments have great impacts on the benign development of leisure industry. Because of the differences of values and life styles, the leisure policies at home and abroad, eastern and western, are different to some extent. Hence, this thesis will analyze the leisure policies of eastern countries (Korea, Japan and China) and western countries (the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, etc.) from a cross-cultural perspective, compare them with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory and analyze their impacts on the leisure industry. Finally, it will conclude by examining foreign experiences on the development of leisure policies and offer suggestions for the development of Chinese leisure policy.

2. Literature Review

With the development of the leisure industry, research on leisure theory, leisure policy and leisure behavior in eastern and western countries is increasing. The famous futurist Graham Molitor mentions that human would pass the peak of the information age and got into the leisure time era in 2015 in the translation of Five Big Waves Will Appear in Global Economy. [1] For this thesis, we collected research on the leisure industry and leisure policies from eastern countries, including China, Korea and Japan, and western countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some other European countries. Therefore, the comparison of leisure policies of this thesis is based on the leisure policies of all these representative countries.

“Leisure” in Greek is Schole, which indicates rest and voluntary educational activities. [2] Leisure culture refers to the total sum of material and spiritual leisure characteristics and social status reflected by the social group (part or whole) in a certain historical stage. [3] In general, leisure activities means a kind of free time activities and ways that people can use in their non-work time to relax themselves physically and mentally in order to keep healthy, happy and optimistic or to freely pursue a personal interest. [4] Though different scholars have different definitions on leisure, most of them have something in common.

The author of the classic work of western research on leisure studies, Leisure: the Foundation of Culture, Swedish Catholic philosopher Pieper defines leisure as a mental and spiritual attitude of people but not the result of external factors, nor is it decided by people’s spare time or the production of idleness. The American leisure scholar Geoffrey Godbey regards leisure as a relative free life extricated from the external pressure of cultural and material environment, which can enable people to live their favorite and valuable life, act from inner love which gives people a basis for belief that their life is worth living. [5] Fred Coalter thinks leisure is closely related to the rights of citizens and includes three forms of rights: the citizen right and political right that everyone is legally equal as well as the social right of social welfare. [6] Lisbeth Lindström states that leisure is a social construction that varies in meaning. [7] Ian Jones and Graham Symon mentions the “standard, short definition” of serious leisure from Stebbins (1992): the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity that participants find so substantial and interesting that, in the typical case, they launch themselves on a career centered on acquiring and expressing its special skills, knowledge and experience. [8] Besides, leisure activities are supposed to include cardio-vascular physical activities, cultural activities, social activities, artistic activities and intellectual activities. Therefore, some foreign leisure policies take these into consideration.

As for Chinese scholars, Ms. Ma Huidi defines leisure as two aspects: one is to relieve physical fatigue and compensate people’s hardship; the other is to get spiritual comfort and recover from the destruction of the personality structure caused by the industrial production process. [9] Luo Lin takes philosophy and sociology into account and defines leisure as a kind of lifestyle that is based on certain activities and aims at pursuing positive, good physical and mental experience in people’s spare time. [10] Jiang Chunhong thinks that leisure means people will choose to do what they like and what is worth doing in their spare time. The main purpose is to get spiritual release, freedom and fulfillment and enhance self-development. The essence is to relax and get physical and mental pleasure. [11] Xu Xiaofei concludes that leisure is to choose favorite activities freely in one’s spare time (i.e. except working time, physiological needed time and survival time. The purpose is diversion from boredom, physical and mental pleasure and enlivening life, which means people can do whatever they like in their non-work time. [12] Wu Chengzhong divides foreign leisure policy into six major categories: outdoor recreation policy, sports policy, art and entertainment policy, tourism policy, leisure policy for special groups and human resources management policy for leisure and service industry. He also divides leisure policy into academic aspects: outdoor recreation policy, sports policy, art and entertainment policy, tourism policy, policy for special group, human resources management policy for leisure and service industry, etc. [13]

Leisure policy is a kind of political measure to provide security and service for the developing leisure activities and leisure industry. The political measure includes setting up relevant departments to support and manage leisure activities, investing capital to the leisure industry to promote its development and to provide advantages for the leisure industry, such as modifying the holiday system, etc.

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory consists of six major contents: Individualism and Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity and Femininity, Long-term and Short-term and Indulgence and Restraint. According to the paper referenced from EBSCO and Science Direct, research on Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory abroad can be concluded as follows. Some relate to Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory to finance and marketing. For example, Erkki K. Laitinen and ArtoSuvas try to investigate the influence of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory on financial distress prediction. [14] Besides, Ana Maria Soares and her partners use Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions to analyze international marketing [15] while Charles Jobs and David M. Gilfoil do research on emerging markets with this theory. [16] What’s more, some study on Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and cross-cultural issues, such as Linda M. ORR and William J. HAUSER, who undertook the research to re-affirm Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and get a close replication of Hofstede’s original study. [17] Donald J. Lund and his partners, Lisa K. Scheer and Irina V. Kozlenkova discussed about culture’s impact on the importance of fairness with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. [18] Moreover, there are a series of meetings that concern customer service among different countries in the world with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. Lalita A. Manrai and Ajay K. Manrai research tourist behaviors and develop a conceptual framework of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions to analyze the dominant cultural values and tourists behaviors. [19] In addition, there are studies which mainly focus on the relation between Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and management, or social networking. Melissa Nejera studies the implications of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions on managing Mexican workers [20] while James Parrish and Bannet Hammer studies why social networking sites differ in popularity. [21]

Moreover, research utilizing Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory at home can be divided into the following aspects. The first is to analyze the conflict and integration of cross-cultural communication with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory, such as Wang Weirong’s research on the cultural conflict and harmony between China and America cultural of the Joy Luck Club; [22] Tang Xinhuang and Guan Zhe address Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory’s directive significance of the management of an enterprise with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory and the relevance of Cross-cultural Theory; [23] Ye Chunhong and Liu Lei discussed about the selection of cross-cultural human resources management mode with Analytic Hierarchy Process using the structure of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. [24] The second is the research on the combination of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory and Education. XieShitong analyzes the differences between Chinese families and American families concerning education with the dimensions of Individualism and Collectivism and Power Distance and finally draws the conclusion that Chinese families and American families can learn from each other in mutual emulation. [25] Zhang Bei and Yang Yi analyze the interactive communication problems in the class of American teacher and Chinese students and offer inspiration for improvement; [26] Jiang jin gives suggestions for the improvement of the content and mode of English education; [27] Long Xia and Xiong Lijun analyze the differences between Chinese and African Educational thoughts with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. [28] Finally, some scholars even use Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory to discuss the representative culture of a country or to study the comparison of cultures using different cultures. For example, Cheng Xuan and Cui Dayong try to interpret the cultural connotation of Japanese anime and manga; [29] Wang Qingping uses Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory to analyze the similarities and differences of Chinese and Russian culture and finally identify the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese and Russian culture. [30]

According to the studies collected on leisure, the leisure industry and leisure policy, it is not difficult to make the conclusion that research on leisure policy is mainly concerned with the following aspects: holiday systems, cultural industries, sports, and the protection and utilization of resources and traffic management systems. Meanwhile, some are the analysis of stimulative factors for the development of leisure policy, such as research on the support from the governments, impact from the leisure industry investors and the specific efficacy of the characteristic management of different regions, etc.

In general, studies on the leisure industry and leisure policy at home and abroad are limited to a specific country’s leisure policy or to analyze the leisure policy of one country and give suggestions for the homeland’s leisure policy. There are few researches concerning the differences between eastern leisure policy and western leisure policy, nor the findings on analyzing the reason of these political differences with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. Hence, this thesis will firstly give a brief introduction to the leisure industry and leisure policies of some eastern countries (ie. China, Japan, Korea), and some western countries (ie. the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries), and then compare them systematically with Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. Finally this thesis will identify the direction of the development of leisure industry and try to propose some inspirations for Chinese leisure industry and leisure policy.

3. Comparison of Eastern and Western Leisure Policy

The statistics in this thesis were collected from CNKI (the most popular academic and journal source in China) and Google Scholar, eighty-six related references published from 2000 to the October of 2016. Based upon the existing research, this thesis divided them according to its research objects and the results are as the following table:

Table 1. Research Status

According to the Table 1, it is apparent that western countries’ research on leisure industry and leisure policy is far more prevalent than that of eastern countries. The research status of eastern countries is as the following chart:

Chart 1. Research Status of Eastern Countries

Western countries include Australia, Denmark, France, Brazil, the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Their proportions are as the following chart:

Chart 2. Research Status of Western Countries

According to the charts above, the research on China, the United States and the United Kingdom on leisure industry and leisure policy has been done more than other countries. Besides, there are quite a lot differences between eastern countries and western countries on the leisure policies. Eastern countries pay more attention to the protection of cultural heritage and the combination of leisure industry and local culture. It is reflected by the modification of holiday systems in accordance to local festivals and set up cultural scenic spots to attract tourists. In addition, the protection and utilization of resources is attracting governments’ attention in recent years. Moreover, more and more enterprises and other leisure industry investors are promoting the development of leisure industry. On the contrary, the sports leisure develops better in western countries. What’s more, because of the development of economies and the adjustment of working hours, citizens of western countries have a stronger consciousness of sports leisure. Western countries also think highly of the protection of the cultural industry, includes non-profit art industry, such as the museums, public supported performance and copyright industry. Governments of western countries also provide support for the construction of leisure facilities for special group, such as women, children, teenagers and the disabled. Besides, they promote the development of leisure industry by scientific management of traffic system. Some countries even direct the development of leisure industry and promote leisure industry by legislation, setting up relevant tourism leisure strategies and organizing all kinds of leisure organizations to supervise and coordinate fairs of leisure industry. For example, the United States has over one hundred leisure industry organizations, such as ARC (American Recreation Coalition).

The results of the comparison between the leisure policies of eastern and western countries are as follows:

3.1. The Similarities of Eastern and Western Leisure Policies

3.1.1. Governments’ Support

3.1.1.1. Adjustment of Holiday System

Both eastern and western countries have realized the important role of holidays in the development of the leisure industry and have appropriately extended the holiday or set up a specific holiday system. For example, in the 1980s, Japan, as an eastern country, had made a specific goal that the actual working hours by the end of the year should be no more than 1800 hours. Moreover, the Volunteer Vocation System had started in 1980s. In the early 1990s, the Japanese government passed a Five Years’ Plan (1992-1996), which consisted of the Continuous Leave and the Disease leave and other details holiday system to stimulate domestic consumption. In 1993, Japan lowered the upper limit of the overtime and started to implement a 40 hours per week working time system. In the meantime, the Amendment of National Holidays was put into action in 2000, so that the date the holiday system was changed into the week holiday system, called Happy Monday. The holiday system of three days off a week was formed. In April, 2002, Japan realized the policy of schools openonly five days a week and citizens’ paid vocation time increased. [31].

As for China, the holiday system was modified and adjusted from 1978 to 2008. In May, 1995, the State Council issued regulations to guarantee the whole country would work five days a week and formed a pattern of double days-off a week. In this way, the whole year days off have increased to 104 days. On September 18th, 1999, the State Council published the Law of National Festival and Memorial Day Holidays, which increased public statutory holidays. In the Spring Festival and the National Holiday, people have more three days off. Plus, weekends before and after, the holidays become a seven-day holiday. Therefore, there are two seven-day holidays in a year. On June 21st, 2000, the State Council forwarded the National Tourism Administration Department’s Notice of Several Suggestions for Further Development of Holiday Tourism and announced the notion of the Golden Week for holiday tourism. A Paid vacation system in China started in the mid 1980s, but paused in 1990. It was not until the June of 1991, when the party central committee and the State Council jointly issued the Notice about Workers’ Holiday that the paid vocation system was resumed. In 1994, the law of the People’s Republic of China Labour Law was enacted in which ruled the state shall implement the annual paid vacation system and those who have worked over one year consistently should have the paid vacation in accordance with the regulation of the State Council. On December 14th, 2007, the No. 513 of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China passed the modification of the Decision of the National Festival and Memorial Day Holidays, in which the government decided to add one day off for the total sum of the statutory holidays and added three traditional festivals to the statutory holidays, they are Qingming festival, the Dragon Boat festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. This decision came into force on January 1st, 2008. [32]

France is one of the western countries that has a relative favorable holiday system. France has 11 statutory holidays and it is the country that has the most holidays in the world. French citizens have more than 186 days off a year, because of the regulation of French Labour Law that when a worker has worked for a month, he/she can have two and a half days paid holidays. Moreover, when a worker has worked for a year, he/she can have 30 work days paid holidays. In addition, France published a regulation that stores can’t open over the weekend, otherwise, they will be fined. [33] These regulations therefore guaranteed enough leisure time for the French. In Sweden, the government has adjusted holiday policy several times, too. In 1930, Sweden published the first holiday law, which made two weeks holiday possible. In 1970, the new working hour system stipulated the normal working hours for a week was 40 hours, which ensured people’s leisure time. In 1977, the vacation time was extended to five weeks.

From what has been mentioned above, it is apparent that both the eastern and the western countries have promoted the development of leisure industry by adjusting the holiday system and extending leisure time.

3.1.1.2. Governments’ Legislation Support

China as an eastern country has set up several laws to support the development of the leisure industry. For example, the Law for the Preservation of Antiques in 2002 and the Notice on Strengthening the Protection of Cultural Heritage by the State Council in 2005 are both laws for the preservation of China’s cultural heritage. In addition, the Chinese government has also set up some laws for sports leisure. The National Fitness Program published by the State Council in 1995, the State Sports General Administration stipulated that the national fitness publicity week should be observed every year in 2000 and the Notice of the Experimental Work of Creating Community Sports Clubs was enacted by the State Sports General Administration in 2003 are the basis for Chinese sports leisure, preservation of cultural relics and the exploration of cultural leisure.

As for Japan, Preservation of the Ancient Artifacts, published in 1871, the Law of the Cultural Property Protection, published in 1950, the Preservation of Ancient Capital, the Protection of Historical Environment and the Regulations of Traditional Beauty Protection, published in 1966, are the laws published for the preservation of cultural relics. In June of 1961, Japanese government announced the Law of Sports Revitalization. In 1972, the Basic Principle of Sports Popularization and Revitalization, promoted the development of Japanese sports leisure. Meanwhile, the Japanese House of Representatives passed the Law of Promoting the Specific Non-profit Activities (NPO) in 1998 to encourage citizens’ automatic public welfare activities, which have the purposes of promoting social welfare and protecting the environment.

Western countries also have their leisure laws to promote the development of leisure industry. Since the French Revolution, the French government has published over one hundred laws concerning the preservation of cultural relics and has formed a complete legal protection system with the kernel of Legacy Code, the theme of material cultural heritage protection and Law of Urban Planning, Environment Law, Commercial Law, Tax Law and Penal Law’s interaction.

New Zealand government carried out the Law of Sports, Health and Leisure in 1987. In 2000, the government published the Strategy of 2000-2005 for School Teenagers-to Do Suitable Sports, the Sports and Entertainment Law of New Zealand was published in 2002. The American Congress proposed the first national sports law, Sports Law in 1991. Later, the government issued several regulations and laws on leisure strategy planning. The United Kingdom implemented the Regional Government Rules and the Rules of Public Places in 1894 and 1906. In 1975, the government enacted the White Cover of National Policy, which added the sports and leisure regulations and the Women’s Sports Equality Charter as well as the Plan of Community Sports Development to protect special group.

3.1.1.3. Establishment of Relevant Departments for Management

Both the eastern and western countries have realized the government’s leading role in industrial development and the significance of leisure industry. So, every country has set up relevant departments and organizations to direct and lead the development of leisure industry.

There are six major departments for leisure in China: culture, construction, sports, cultural relics, civil administration and broadcasting. The structure of the departments is mainly the same from central government to local government. In detail, they are the public cultural department, urban construction department, mass sports department, sports economics department, the museum and cultural relics department, fundamental regime and community construction department and the public service department. [34]

The Japanese economic planning agency sets up a leisure development room to promote citizen’s leisure. In 1973, the Japanese government held a joint conference and then the leisure development room became the general service administration. In addition, the government organized the prefectures leisure executive meeting and implemented some policies to promote the administration of regional public leisure organizations. [35] Korea built a sports department in 1982 and later merged the cultural department and became the cultural sports department.

The United States has over seventy departments with the responsibility of managing leisure in their territory and to provide support for the development of leisure. Departments for leisure service management of the United States include the National Park Service Department, United States Forest Service Department, the Bureau of Land Management and other departments for leisure resources management and environmental education. [36]

The interior environment department of Australia is in charge of Australian outdoor leisure. Local government has its own sports and entertainment department. The person in charge of sports in the federal government and state government form the Australian sports health and entertainment council. [37] In addition, the Australian National Sports and Leisure Policy Framework work for federal government, state government, local government and sports and leisure association as well as regional association, clubs, commercial providers and community to form a strong support for national sports and leisure policy framework. [38]

The federal government of the United Kingdom set up an executive department to manage leisure very early. In 1946, the Arts Council was founded. In 1949, the National Park Council was built and renamed Village Council in 1968. The sports council was set up in 1965 and the United Kingdom Tourism Administration started to work in 1969. The first executive department for leisure management of the United Kingdom’s central government is the National Heritage Department, founded in 1992. [39]

3.1.1.4. Governments’ Financial Support

As for both eastern and western countries’ support for the development of leisure industry, financial support is the most visible part. Governments invest a great amount of capital to enable the construction of facilities with the purpose of increasing the popularity of mass leisure.

As for eastern countries, China has invested a lot on sports facilities’ construction. By 1995, China has had 47 golf courses, with the investment of over 5,200 million RMB, 291 bowling alley, invested over 1,800 RMB, 3,409 billiard rooms, 354 skating rooms and 1,401 outdoor tennis courts. [40]

The Japanese government has constructed many leisure and entertainment facilities before the 1990s. After the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, different regions of Japan implemented the decision of hardware construction and the leisure vocational village became popular.

Western countries also have great performance on financial support for the leisure industry. Denmark’s government formed a teenage council to sponsor teenagers’ activities and the first legislation in 1954 made financial support for leisure activities and clubs become a reality.

In the meantime, the Federal government of the United States had offered support for sports facilities construction in the 1930s to 1940s. These included sports courts, swimming pools and the forest parks. Even in the great depression in 1929 to 1937, the American government invested large amounts of money to support the construction of leisure facilities.

3.1.1.5. Governments’ Support for Sports Education

In the Checklist of Category on undergraduate major in China, Social P.E.is included (No. 040203) which belongs to pedagogy. Some universities such as South China Normal University and Zhanjiang Ocean University set sports and leisure management and coastal leisure sports as a branch in Social Sports major (undergraduate). Tianjin Sports College, Chengdu Sports College, Shenzhen University and some other colleges established sports tourism management, golf management within the major of tourism management. Zhejiang University is the first higher-education organization to have a doctoral degree for leisure in China where many researchers are from sports programmes. [41]

Japanese Law of Sports Revitalization cultivated some sports director and promoted the development of comprehensive regional sports clubs to realize the final goal of lifelong sport.

The Danish government started to sponsor volunteers for sports activities to set up the hobby group and recruit coaches in 1968. Australia required schools to provide three sports classes a week for students. The government of the United Kingdom was also emphasizing cultivating teenagers’ lifelong sports habit and had invested capital to ensure the personnel education to facilitate lifetime sports. The American higher educational system listed leisure education as a central principle of higher education in the 1920s. Later on, the scale of American leisure education was enlarged to not only the after class activities education but also within formal classes. Leisure education got the great support of the National Educational Association (NEA). The Sports Law in 1919 enacted by the United State Congress had a great impact on middle school students. In 2003, the American Leisure and Recreation Association set up the school leisure education special working group to promote the further development of leisure education, and organized a series of experimental activities. The United States, there are 355 colleges which have set up leisure and recreation majors up to now. [42]

3.2. Leisure Industry’s Diversified Development with Local Features

Both the eastern and western countries are developing special leisure industries with their local features and are trying to diversify their leisure industry.

Such cases in China could be found as follows. Firstly, it is to combine local physiognomy and develop scenic spots in the mode of cultural relics tourism, such as Wudang Mountain, Emei Mountain, Tai Mountain, Chengde Imperial Summer Resort and the Imperial Palace. Secondly, there is the urban development mode and village development mode, which means to set up historical cultural villages with rural cultural features, such as Lingshui village in Beijing and other over 60 villages in Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi province. Thirdly, people build different kinds of theme parks with Chinese special folk activities and environmental features, such as Shenzhen’s Chinese Folk Culture Village, the Qingyun Mountain Folk park of Anqiu city in Shandong province, Shengneng Park in Linyi city, Jiudingta National garden in Jinan city, Yimeng Folk Garden in Yingnan county and the Millennium City Park in Kaifeng city of Henan Province. Fourthly, the folk museums are set up, which means to expand the special folk handiwork to development, design and package industry. What’s more, tourists are invited to experience the design and manufacture part to develop the experimental culture. Some folk artists and local artists are invited to give performances too. The fifth is to develop and protect festival culture, such as the Confucius cultural festival in Qufu and the Taoism cultural tourism festival in Longhu Mountain. Finally the goal is to invest in making cultural work to films and television series, such as the Stone Story and Journal to the West. [43] Moreover, the Water Source Folk Village in Korea and the Jiuzu Cultural Village in Sun Moon Lake of Taiwan are the cases of theme park development mode.

France also made leisure plans with local physiognomy and local culture. For example, the Village Resort in the south of Alps. There are no special facilities in the Village Resort but the integration of facilities and the landscape are emphasized. The development of the Village Resort is charged to the local community. The integration of landowners, citizens, the resorts and local lifestyle should receive additional attention. [44] In addition, the cruise in Kyoto, Japan, the Avignon Festival in France, the Grammy of America, the Jazz Festival of the North Sea, Germany, the Beer Festival of Munich, Germany, and the Bullfight Festival in Spain and the Polynesia Ancient Cultural Village in Hawaii, America are successful cases.

We could conclude that nearly all the governments have paid efforts to encourage the development of leisure. And the facts prove that the role of government in the process is important even crucial. For example, in the countries with high power distance such as China, Japan, the absence of government seems to be impossible to promote the boom of leisure. Because these culture prefer to follow the instruction from the top. What’s more, some individual cultures will encourage people, company or NGO’s donation in leisure, while in collectivism country like gathering all or most people’s efforts to do it.

4. The Differences of Eastern and Western Leisure Policies

4.1. The Feature of Eastern Leisure Policies

4.1.1. Dominant Role of Government

Eastern countries usually pay more attention to the guiding function of national policies. Therefore, government plays an important role on legislation to guide and direct the development of leisure industry. For example, the Basic Plan for Sports Rejuvenation of Japan, mainly analyzed the features and the weaknesses of Japanese leisure opportunity. Besides, according to the finding that the number of those who do sports more than once a week is lower than those in European countries, Japan took measures to break the sports development pattern within schools and private enterprises and set up a new sports development system of take regional planning as the center to development sport and leisure. According to the Basic Plan for Sports Rejuvenation, it is necessary to run comprehensive regional sports clubs and the important means to improve regional sports environment is to create comprehensive regional sports clubs in the whole country. The plan also constructed some specific measures to develop comprehensive regional sports clubs. Apart from regulations for recruiting and cultivating sports coaches, improving sports facilities, providing certain regional sports information and making executive reform with citizens’ needs, the plan also included important measures for short-term, mid-term and long-term development. These measures were concerned with the problems that government, local public organizations and sports organizations should pay more attention to, such as the construction and development of sports facilities, cultivation of sports talents, sports popularization and publicity and to make basic plans for local sports revitalization. [45]

As for socialist countries, governments take more responsibilities for leisure management. China, as a socialist country, set up a special department to manage the leisure industry. The six major departments take most responsibilities for leisure management.

This difference between East and West has a close relationship to one dimension of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. It is Power Distance. Power Distance is the extent to which the lower ranking individuals of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. The countries with people that can accept a higher extent of power inequality belong to the culture of greater power distance. On the contrary, those that can hardly accept power inequality belong to the opposite side. Most of the western countries belong to the culture with less power distance. So they pay more attention to personal capacity while eastern countries emphasize power restriction more and belong to the culture with greater power distance. Cultural difference is regarded as the main reason for the difference in leisure policy management patterns.

4.1.2. Leisure Agriculture Policy

China puts forward a supporting measure of increasing government’s investment in the development of leisure agriculture in the twelfth five-year plan. The central government and local government have had policies in four aspects of the development of leisure agriculture. They are financial policy, tax policy, land policy and financial services policy. The financial policy means to offer financial support to the development of leisure agriculture, set up special funds for cooperative organizations and agricultural enterprises’ projects, give support to the construction of relevant facilities, found special fund, use public funds to build publicity platforms and perfect the public service and security system of leisure agriculture gradually. The tax policy refers to having preferential policy for the development of leisure agriculture. The enterprises that fit the favorable terms can have the dividend of tax policy by relevant procedures. For example, the notice of the Twelfth Five-year Plan of the Development of National Leisure Agriculture mentioned governments of all levels should pay attention to strengthen the related policy for the development of leisure agriculture. The measures can be reducing relevant business tax, charging no tax for preliminary agricultural products and its processed products or purchasing electricity with preferential prices for agricultural production. The land policy is to preferentially arrange land for leisure agriculture projects with better revenue capacity and good prospects for development. The financial services policy is to positively broaden the financing channels for the construction of leisure agriculture. According to the Notice of Positively Explore Multifunction of Agriculture and Promote the Development of Leisure Agriculture, on the one hand, the guaranteed institution and the Bank and other financial institutions should give more credit support for leisure agriculture, on the other hand, the government should make innovation in the diversification of leisure agriculture and financial mechanism and pattern, advocating participatory development actively, and guarantee the villagers’ earning. [46]

4.2. The Feature of Western Leisure Policies

4.2.1. The Importance of Non-profit Organizations

Most western countries have government, all kinds of non-profit organizations and commercial organizations to manage the leisure industry. These organizations are mainly in charge of organizing leisure activities and training professional leisure service staffs.

In Denmark, some members of sports association and ideology groups joined the humanistic enlightenment committee to manage adult education and teen-agers activities. Australia’s distinguishing feature of national sports is to organize public sports activities by social groups. There are 110 social sports groups and over 50,000 clubs in Australia and over 1.5 million sports volunteers serve for clubs. Eighty percent of organizations work for all kinds of sports activities and competitions are finished by sports volunteers, including organizing public sports activities, providing technique training, constructing and maintaining facilities and collecting money from society. [47] America is a western country with relatively perfect development of leisure clubs and all kinds of leisure clubs are set for single activity. Besides, the non-government organizations are also responsible for organizing sports competitions and other leisure activities.

In 1935, individuals and organizations that were interested in sports and entertainment formed the Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR) in the United Kingdom. In 1965, on the basis of CCPR, the Sports Council was founded to provide sports policies, suggestions, report and plan for organizing and promoting activities. [48]

The importance of non-profit organizations on leisure policy management reflected the Individualism of western culture. One dimension of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory, Individualism and Collectivism means the extent to which people remain independent or function mostly as members of groups. Individualism is for personal achievement, personal power and independence, emphasizes personal characteristics and regards individual benefits more important than collective benefits. On the contrary, collectivism thinks individual benefit is on the basis of collective benefit and therefore, collective benefit is more important than individual. As western countries are typical individualism countries, they pay more attention to individual capability and personal effects, so that it is easier for them to organize activities spontaneously because they also think highly of their personal responsibilities. However, eastern countries rely more on collective power. Therefore, the number of non-profit organizations of western countries is far more than that of eastern countries and the significance of these organizations is more important in western countries. What’s more, as a low power distance in western country, non-profit organization holds more initiatives to decide the contents and objectives of the activities to maximize the performance. While in eastern country, as a hierarchical society, they might be scrutinized by government which might, to some extent, hinder their creativity and motives.

4.2.2. Concerns for Special Groups

Denmark attaches importance to the leisure education of teenagers, sets up teenager councils to put forward teenager policy and sponsor teenagers’ leisure activities to promote the development of teenagers’ leisure. New Zealand also carries out the promotion of teenagers’ sports participation at an important position of promoting national sports participation. In 2000, New Zealand published Appropriate Sports—the Sports Strategy of School Teenagers from 2000 to 2005, which states the importance, participation, method, and purpose of school children’s participation of sports and other leisure activities. In 1992, Hillary Council put forward a Kiwi Sport Plan for age 7 to 12 school children. They hoped to make great use of children’s after-class time to direct more school children to participate in sports by strengthening the relation between government, school and sports clubs. [49] The feature of Australian sports is the combination of European and American sports culture with local sports culture. The special part of Australian sports is the teenager sports and the disabled sports. Australian sports council pays attention to the sports participation of women, children and the disabled. The UK government also attaches a lot attention to the harmonious development of public sports and sports competition. As for public sports, they emphasize giving an equal chance to everyone in terms of sports participation, including the old, children and the disabled. As for the marginal groups usually ignored by the society, such as the old and the disabled, they have specific policy and organization to provide equal sports leisure chance for them. For example, Women’s Sports Equality Charter and the Plan for Community Sports Development. [50]

Since western countries are typically individualistic countries, they pay more attention to women, children, the disabled and some other special groups. While eastern countries are collectivism, so they think more in the aspect on collective benefit of the larger numbers of people. They should pay more attention to the leisure policies for special groups.

4.2.3. Journals of Leisure

Most western countries have their major journal of leisure. For example, Leisure Studies of the UK is the journal of the Leisure Studies Association for essays and research reports on different subjects concerning leisure. The Journal of Leisure Research of the US is published by the National Recreation and Park Association, Recreation, Park and Tourism Science major of Texas A&M University for research, investigation reports and reviews of the leisure industry. The Australian quarterly journal, Annals of Leisure Research publishes theories and application essays on recreation, tourism, art, outdoor leisure, sports and cultural performance. Australian bimonthly journal, Australian Leisure Management provides information of Australian leisure industry (including information of amusement park, culture, recreation, festival, sports and tourism) for leisure industry, researchers, investors and managers. Moreover, the Canadian quarterly journal, Leisure/Loisir, which used to be named Journal of Applied Recreation Research, is the journal of Canadian Leisure Research Association, which gets its support from the Ontrario Leisure Research Council and emphasizes the application of research. It publishes essays on leisure and recreation for researchers and leisure industry. [51]

5. Inspirations for Chinese Leisure Policy

Because of the cultural differences of eastern and western countries, the leisure policies are certainly different. Their leisure policies have their own styles. Currently, the development of leisure policy and leisure industry of western countries is more advanced than that of eastern countries. But due to the globalization and the fast development of the leisure industry, Chinese leisure policies should maintain its own features and learn from the appropriate leisure policies from other countries.

5.1. Suggestions from Eastern Countries

1. Paying more attention to government’s key role in different periods of the development of the leisure economy. Governments of other eastern countries have played an important role in the development of the leisure economy and leisure industry, so Chinese governments of all levels should play a positive role in the development of the leisure economy. In addition, government should provide financial support and invest more in the leisure industry to avoid government’s absence to hinder the development of the leisure industry and leisure economy.

2. Attaching more importance to sports education, especially to sports education for teenagers. Besides, more investment in leisure facilities is desirable. Moreover, people should spend more efforts on cultivating coaches for sports and promote the professional construction of sports education, and also improve the quality of leisure education. Besides, China should carry out more research on leisure and explore social resources.

3. Activating the society at all levels. Japanese local government and organizations at all levels play an important part in the protection of cultural heritage, but Chinese cultural heritage is protected mainly by central government. Therefore, China should strengthen legislation and supervision of local government to form a completed legal protection framework at all levels. What’s more, China should encourage the formation of non-government organizations and groups, simplify the procedures, ease the system of creating such organizations to make good use of citizens and volunteers in the development of the leisure industry.

5.2. Suggestions from Western Countries

1. Strengthening the reform of public housing, health care, social security and the education system to provide a better social environment for the development of the leisure economy. Chinese government should be aware of that leisure as the basic right of citizens, the importance of the development of leisure industry and the leisure industry’s key role in the development of national economy. China should also realize that leisure can affect the harmonious development of the country and society.

2. Appropriately extending holidays and adjusting the holiday system to fit the development of the leisure industry. The development of leisure industry needs the support from leisure policy, especially the adjustment of the holiday system. With extended holidays, people can have more time to participate in leisure activities and can promote the development of leisure industry.

3. Paying more attention to the directing and practicing effects of non-profit organizations and enterprises. Non-profit organizations and enterprises of western countries play a very important role in leisure activities’ organization, professional training in all forms of leisure and financial resources for leisure activities. However, Chinese have only a comparatively small number of well-known non-profit organizations and the existing non-profit organizations haven’t always fulfilled their functions well. Therefore, China should encourage the formation and extension of non-profit organizations, invite citizens to participate in volunteer work with more financial support to these organizations. As for the enterprises with outstanding contributions to leisure activities, the government can lower their tax as a reward to support their further development.

4. Attaching more attention to the exploration of resources. French leisure resorts within the Alps and the US’s leisure plan with its reservoir resources which are the successful cases that China can learn from. China is one of the largest country in the world with over five thousand years of history. These are the aboundant resources that can be explored and useful for the development of leisure industry.

5. Offering more cares for special groups (women, children, the old and the disabled). The measures that can be undertaken including constructing more leisure facilities for special groups and setting up special channels in leisure venues.

6. Conclusion

With the development of the leisure industry, governments, enterprises and even individuals of all countries have improved their attention to the leisure industry. Governments have completed their leisure policies to promote the development of the leisure industry in their country. The development of advanced western countries’ leisure industry is faster than that of eastern countries, therefore, China should learn from western leisure policies to develop the Chinese leisure industry. As for the weaknesses of leisure policies caused by cultural differences, China can make improvement by additional cultural communication. Meanwhile, some eastern countries that have advanced leisure policies should also be the ones that China should learn from. For example, the leisure policies and development pattern of leisure industry of Japan and Korea can also have a positive impact on the development of Chinese leisure industry.

Acknowledgments

This research gets the support from Miss. Zhang Xin in the job of literature collection and analysis.

This research is supported by 2016 Key programme of National Social Science Fundation of China. (Grant No.16AZD055).

This research is also supported by 2011 Guangdong provincial education science program “An empirical analysis on the training model of compound talents in the high end service industry” (Serial number: 2011tjk299).

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