Exploring the Relationship between Leisure and Sustainability in a Chinese Hollow Village

Lijun Zhou,Zijing Zhao,Yan Wang,Lucen Liu,Yuxian Ou

doi:10.3390/su131810031

Lijun Zhou, Zijing Zhao + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810031

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Abstract

This study explores the relationship between a for-profit leisure program and sustainability issues in the context of a hollow village in China. We studied what forms of relation between leisure and sustainability could be identified through the operation of ‘Mount Qi and the hermit master’ at a hollow village, and to what extent, ‘Mount Qi and the hermit master’ can be considered as a sustainable leisure program. Fieldwork and focus groups were used to collect data. Theoretically, the analyses adopt a comprehensive model of sustainability, which integrates the concepts of weak and strong sustainability, as well as considers the sustainability of human needs. Our findings demonstrate that the leisure program has contributed to a comprehensive sustainable development and helped to meet the villagers’ needs. This study also critically points out the uncertain aspects relating to the sustainability of human needs at the current stage of the program implementation.

Highlights

Since the 1990s, industrialization and urbanization have transformed the landscapes of China, as well as the population mobility in the country
In line with the concern of the sustainable development in the rural China, this paper explores the relation between a leisure program and sustainability issues in the context of a hollow village in China
To better understand the context of the leisure program that we attempted to study, we introduce the phenomena of hollow villages in China, which have faced varied unsustainable problems

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1990s, industrialization and urbanization have transformed the landscapes of China, as well as the population mobility in the country. Such development created the phenomenon of hollow villages in China, which was an inevitable trend and a continuing challenge to the sustainable social, economic and ecological development for China [1]. The phenomenon of hollow village is visible from the emptiness of rural houses and areas, and in the mass flight of the young and middle-aged labor force from the villages. With less labor in the rural areas, a series of social and ecological implications occurred, such as family separation, weakened parent-child relations, ageing in the villages, environmental degradation and the reduction of agricultural production. The central government issued policies aiming to transform this situation and revitalize the rural areas [3]

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