Ideological Evolution of ‘Health First’ in Chinese School: Comparison
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Strengthening school physical education (PE) is of great strategic significance in enhancing students’ all-round development, which mainly includes their morality, intelligence and physique development. School PE has upheld the guiding ideology of ‘health first’ and continuously enhanced PE development in China. The guiding ideology of ‘health first’ has involved three stages: (1) improving students’ physical conditions; (2) enhancing students’ physical health, mental health and ability to socially adapt; and (3) promoting students’ all-round human development.

  • Health
  • China
  • school physical education

1. The Historical Origin of ‘Health First’ in School Physical Education (1949–1966)

In the 1950s, Chinese teenagers were generally in poor health conditions owing to overwhelming academic pressure and malnutrition. Under these circumstances, Chairman Mao Zedong proposed the guiding ideology of ‘health first, academic study second’ [14][1] (p. 9) in June 1950. ‘Health first’ was originally proposed for school education, in which PE should take precedence over intellectual education. On 20 June 1952, Mao put forward the general principle of ‘promote physical culture and build up the people’s health’ [15][2] (p. 36), thus establishing the general framework of school PE that centered on strengthening students’ physique. On the one hand, ‘health first’ was an active exploration in Chinese school PE, in which sports should be integrated with health and serve lifelong sport. On the other hand, improving students’ physical fitness primarily served the core interests of national defense and productive labor, which cannot be equated with health or sports at all.
In line with the fundamental principle of ‘promote physical culture and build up the people’s health’, the policy practice of school PE and PE curriculum was supposed to focus more on strengthening the physique, but this was not the case. The implementation of the Sports System for Preparatory Work and National Defense (referred to as Lao Weizhi) in 1954[16][3] revealed how PE classes emphasized teaching sports skills. The aim of Lao Weizhi was to provide comprehensive, regular physical exercises to the laboring people and train them to become healthy, brave, persevering and optimistic. According to statistics, over 70% of Chinese junior high schools, over 85% of Chinese senior high schools and almost all higher normal schools had implemented Lao Weizhi; among 3 million teenagers who frequently took physical exercises, 700,000 met all levels of standards until the end of 1956 [15][2] (p. 56).
In theory, even though Lao Weizhi was carried out to serve a political purpose, as long as schools and PE teachers consistently adhered to it, Chinese students would have grown stronger after mastering a set of sports skills, and hence accomplished the goal of strengthening physique. Unfortunately, from 1958 to 1965 school PE went through a difficult time owing to the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961). As a result, Lao Weizhi was officially abolished and replaced by the National Physical Training Standard (draft) in 1964. An excerpt of a report on students’ health status in 1960 below can provide an insight into how poor Chinese students’ physical quality was in that period:
Chinese students ranging from primary schools, middle schools to colleges and universities were generally in very poor health conditions. Diseases such as edema, hepatitis, pneumonia and myopia were even common in higher education institutions. In Beijing, more than 9000 college students suffered from edema; in Taiyuan, nearly 77.4% primary and middle school students diagnosed as having intestinal parasites. Owing to the severe natural disaster, the total calories in students’ meals could only reach about 80% of the required amount with fewer nutrients, which seriously affected their health. The qualified rate of high school graduates nationwide in the physical examination was 36.5% [17][4] (p. 1303).

2. The Deviation from ‘Health First’ to ‘Politics First’ in School Physical Education (1966–1976)

In 1966, China, which had not fully recovered from the Great Chinese Famine, confronted the national upheaval of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Affected by the chaos, PE classes were replaced by military PE classes that only centered on formation, shooting, bomb-dropping, bayonet fighting and many other military trainings. Apart from this, the enrollment work of sports universities and colleges throughout the country was at a standstill, and many sports agencies were either closed or abolished. The distinct politicization and militarization of Chinese school PE that deviated from the guiding ideology of ‘health first’ brought about a remarkable decline in the physical quality of Chinese students.
In 1975, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences conducted a survey on the height, weight and chest circumference of children aged 6–17 years in nine urban areas across the country. Compared with their Japanese peers in 1972, among 36 items of data on the three indicators, the weight of 7-year-old girls and the height of 15–17-year-old boys in China were slightly higher than those in Japan, but the remaining 32 items were all lower than those in Japan [18][5] (p. 97).
From 1966 to 1976, Chinese school PE still represented the distinctive characteristics of focusing on teaching sports skills. All in all, ‘health first’ mainly aimed to strengthen students’ physique, but hardly made any notable progress concerning the natural disaster, the national upheaval and the indiscriminately imitation the Soviet sports model. The single function of ‘health first’ also triggered the principal contradiction between ‘essence of sports outlook’ and ‘sports in society outlook’ in the sustainable development of Chinese school PE.

3. The Debate between ‘Essence of Sports Outlook’ and ‘Sports in Society Outlook’ under the Guiding Ideology of ‘Health First’ (1976–1999)

After adopting reform and opening in 1978, school PE was back on the right track as ‘health first’ once again became the dominant ideology. Meanwhile, an intense debate was aroused over the essence and concept of sports, which forged two major schools, namely, the ‘essence of sports outlook’ and the ‘sports in society outlook’, both of which were under the ideology of ‘health first’. From the late 1970s to the early 2000s, the debate between the two outlooks exerted far-reaching effects on the relationship between school PE and competitive sports in China.
The common ground between the two outlooks was their objection to military PE classes and agreement on building up students’ physique, whereas the fundamental divergence lay in whether the essential function and objective of school PE is ‘building up the people’s physique only’ or ‘cultivating all-round people and sports talents’. The ‘essence of sports outlook’, represented by Lin [19][6], Wang [20][7] and Han et al. [21][8], firmly believed that school PE was an integral part of education that merely aimed at providing students with comprehensive physical exercise, and so that it must be completely separated from mass sports and competitive sports. In contrast, the ‘sports in society outlook’, represented by Gu [22][9], Lu [23][10] and Xiong et al. [24][11], criticized the ‘essence of sports outlook’ in that school PE should not be limited to improving students’ physical conditions, but instead should also enrich their cultural life, edify their sentiment and cultivate sports talents to break world records in mega sports events. Clearly, while the ‘essence of sports outlook’ stuck to the traditional value of school PE from the perspective of monism, the ‘sports in society outlook’ extended its value proposition from the perspective of pluralism. The debate between the two outlooks lasted for decades and hence shaped the development of Chinese school PE.
The debate between the ‘essence of sports outlook’ and the ‘sports in society outlook’ proceeded in two stages. In the first stage (1978–1989), the ‘essence of sports outlook’ had more advantages over the ‘sports in society outlook’, as it solely focused on addressing the prominent problem of students’ poor physical quality, which was in accordance with the government school PE policies at that time. For example, the Interimthe Interim Provisions on Physical Education in Primary and Secondary Schools Provisions on Physical Education in Primary and Secondary Schools (Trial Draft) in 1979 and the Interim Provisions on Physical Education in Higher Schools (Trial Draft) stipulated that PE in Chinese schools at all levels should pursue strengthening students’ physical fitness as a priority [17][4] (p. 2347).
In the second stage (1989–1999), the two outlooks were well-matched in increasing the coverage and depth of school PE. In 1990, the Regulations on the Work Concerning Physical Education and Sport in Schools (referred to as the ‘Regulations’) made clear that the basic tasks of school PE were to improve students’ physical and mental health, strengthen their physical fitness, enhance their sports skills and cultivate sports reserve talents for the country [25][12]. More importantly, the Regulations plainly stated that PE was an exam-compulsory course in senior high school entrance examination. In accordance with the Regulations, the Outline of the Nationwide Body-Building Plan in 1995 required all-round efforts in pursuit of strengthening the physiques of Chinese students, thus establishing a national fitness system by the end of 2010 [26][13]. Notably, the new task of cultivating sports reserve talents reflected the Chinese government’s will from the perspective of the ‘sports in society outlook’, which advocated integrating athletics and school PE. The best manifestation was the implementation of the Outline of the OlympicOutline of the Olympic Glory Program Glory Program (1994–2000) (referred to as the ’Outline’) in 1995. The Outline stipulated that the number of athletes trained for Olympic events would reach 17,000 by the year 2000, so as to achieve outstanding results in mega sports events [27][14].
When it comes to the school PE curriculum, the Ministry of Education issued a ten-year elementary school PE curriculum and ten-year middle school PE curriculum in 1978, which criticized the wrong idea of taking physical exercise for the purpose of productive labor or military, and reiterated that the objective of school PE classes was to strengthen students’ physical fitness [28][15]. In the following revisions, strengthening students’ physical fitness remained the primary objective of school PE syllabus [28][15]. The words ‘gymnastics’ and ‘track and field’ were removed to reduce school PE’s reliance on competitive sports. It seemed that the ‘essence of sports outlook’ was gaining a more competitive edge over the ‘sports in society outlook’. The latter, however, never stopped its efforts to reshape Chinese school PE. In the six-year middle school PE curriculum of 1987, the concept of ‘all-round development’ was introduced for the first time, revealing a trend of diversified revolution in PE teaching’s objective. Since then, the dual objectives of strengthening students’ physical fitness and cultivating all-round students were presented in the school PE syllabus. It is also worth mentioning that, as strengthening physical fitness became the mainstream, the influence of teaching sports techniques was supposed to be weakened. Nevertheless, comparing the teaching material of the shot-put toss from 1978–1996, the teaching requirements, technical specification and assessment of the shot-put toss remained almost unchanged, which confirms the deep-rooted influence of sports skills in Chinese school PE.
Undoubtedly, there was a striking difference between the Outline of the Nationwide Body-Building Plan and the Outline of the Olympic Glory Program. While the former centered on improving physical conditions, the latter centered on athletics. The divergence in policies and practice actually reflected the principal contradiction between the two outlooks that could not be simply reconciled. On the one hand, under the guiding ideology of ‘health first’, strengthening students’ physiques remained the primary goal of school PE; on the other hand, school PE could not neglect athletics, since China became the host of the 11th Asian Games and planned to bid for the 29th Summer Olympic Games. After all, China was eager to eliminate the negative impact of its political turmoil and demonstrate its sports power to the world through the platform of mega sports events [29][16]. In brief, from 1979 to 1999 the development and reform of school PE were largely affected by the two sports outlooks; both, in essence, were under the guiding ideology of ‘health first’, but overlooked the educational function of school PE, which resulted in a severe divergence between PE and sports.

4. The Logical Sublimation of ‘Health First’ from Three-Dimensional to ‘Four in One’ in School Physical Education (1999–Present)

After Beijing’s successful bid for the 29th Summer Olympic Games with the slogan ‘People’s Olympics’, the ‘human sports outlook’ gradually took the lead. The so-called humanism was traced back to the ancient Olympic Games in Greece, which became a model for the modern Olympic Games [30][17]. The ‘human sports outlook’, as its name suggests, upheld and developed humanism in sports by putting people first, freeing their personalities and minds in order to achieve sustainable development on all fronts. The ‘human sports outlook’ criticized the ‘essence of sports outlook’ for rigorously training students to meet the national physical training standards without caring about their feelings, and opposed the ‘sports in society outlook’ for fanatically cultivating the youth as sports talents to win more gold metals, both of which ran contrary to the new objective of carrying out quality education in school PE [31][18]. Again, a host of Chinese scholars questioned the ‘human sports outlook’ about its impractical functions. For example, Bi [32][19] argued that school PE cannot take people’s emotions, attitudes and awareness into account aside from strengthening their physical fitness and mastery of sports skills.
Even though school PE should be people-oriented, it is highly doubted whether people-oriented equates to all-round development. In fact, just as the Olympic Charter implies, sport per se is people-oriented by placing sports at the service of the harmonious development of man with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity and human rights [33][20]. No matter how impractical the ‘human sports outlook’ is, the one-dimensional ‘health first’ for merely improving physique was outdated. Instead, it was updated to the three-dimensional ‘health first’, namely, physical health, psychological health and ability to social adapt [34][21].
The logical sublimation of ‘health first’ in Chinese school PE proceeded in two stages. In the first stage (1999–2012), school PE, affected by the three-dimensional outlook of health, went through a drastic curriculum reform. In 1999, the Decision on Deepening Educational Reform and Comprehensively Promoting Quality Education (referred to as the ‘Decision’) made clear that school education must uphold ‘health first’ as a fundamental rule; effectively strengthen PE classes; enable students to master basic sports skills; cultivate good habits in taking regular physical exercises; and foster students’ sense of competition, team-work spirit and perseverance in physical activities [35][22]. In accordance with the Decision, the Compulsory Education Physical Education and High School Education Physical Education Curriculum Standards (Grades 1–6) and Health Curriculum Standards (Grades 7–12) (Pilot Draft) were promulgated in 2001. Prior to any PE syllabus reforms, the new reform underwent substantive changes in terms of the course names, guiding ideology, fields of study and content standards [36][23]. The new PE curriculum standards imposed strict requirements on sports skills teaching. Sports skills teaching should shift away from the tendency to overlook psychological health and social adaptation, and encourage students to get actively involved in sports activities to realize multiple objectives.
Admittedly, the new curriculum standards crystallized the guiding ideology of ‘health first’ and explored new ground in student-centered teaching by granting more powers to schools and PE teachers; but it triggered ongoing debate about whether the new curriculum was more effective or better targeted. First and foremost, although primary and middle school students were required to take at least 3–4 PE classes per week by law, the fundamental goal of strengthening students’ physical fitness, which was long in educational policies and PE curriculum, was never fully accomplished, let alone other tasks. The Report on the Physical Fitness and Health Surveillance of Chinese School Students in 2000 showed that the physical qualities (including speed quality, endurance quality, flexibility quality, explosive quality and strength quality) of Chinese students had declined compared with 1995 and 1985 levels [37][24]. Secondly, intentionally overlooking sports skills not only caused the decline of students’ physical qualities, but gave rise to great confusion among PE teachers, who were neither fully prepared for curriculum reform nor certain about how to apply the new curriculum to teach sports techniques [4][25]. Lastly, the new curriculum lost priorities and seemed to be impractical in Chinese schools. For instance, a number of curriculum objectives related to psychological health and social adaptation were unlikely to mesh with Chinese PE teaching contents or teaching scenarios.
In addressing the questions brought by the three-dimensional health outlook, a raft of school PE policies and initiatives were adopted in the following decade. For example, the Suggestions on Further Strengthening and Improving Sports Work in the New Period issued in 2002 highlighted the impetus for advancing a school PE system that fitted the Chinese sports reality and carrying out extensive Fitness-for-All programs [35][22] (p. 26). To this end, the National Student Constitutional Health Criteria (on trial; referred to as the NSCHC) was promulgated in 2002 for the very purpose of evaluating students’ health status in all respects and promoting students’ participation in physical exercises both in and outside class.
After 5 years of trial work, the NSCHC were fully applied to Chinese schools at all levels [35][22] (pp. 179–180). For ensuring students’ performance in the NSCHC and responding to the demands of further integration of physical health with psychological health and social adaptation, the ‘Sunny Sports’ initiative was launched, which required at least one hour of physical exercise per school day [35][22] (p. 174). Through extensive ‘Sunny Sports’ activities, Chinese schools at all levels must fulfill their responsibilities for developing students’ good exercise habits and healthy lifestyle; cultivating students’ quality of perseverance, team-work spirit and communication skills; and ensuring students grasp at least two sports skills that can benefit them for a lifelong time.
With decades of on-the-ground efforts, the health conditions of Chinese students finally improved. The Report on the Physical Fitness and Health Research of Chinese School Students in 2010 revealed that the height, weight and chest circumference of Chinese students both in urban and rural areas showed an increasing trend; the vital capacity weight index that had been declining for 20 consecutive years hit a turning point; the physical fitness of primary and middle school students had stopped falling with their better performance in standing long jump, sit and reach, 800-metre run, 1000-metre run and grip strength [37][24] (pp. 75–77). However, there is still a need for improving school PE system and PE curriculum as the levels of physical activities among Chinese teenagers have not met the international recommended standards [38][26].
The Notice on Several Opinions of Further Strengthening School Physical Education in 2012 stipulated that the primary task of school PE was to deepen its reform of the evaluation system, physical health monitoring mechanism and safeguard mechanism for the sustainable development of school PE [39][27] so as to continuously improve students’ physical health and enhance their well-round development. In line with the educational goal of ‘foster virtue through education’, the State Council issued Opinions on Strengthening School Physical Education and Promoting Students’ All-round Development in 2016, placing ‘exercise daily, healthy growth and lifelong benefit’ [40][28] as a top priority for Chinese school PE. Since then, ‘foster virtue through education’ has become the prevailing ideology that steers the sustainable development of Chinese school PE. Unlike the three-dimensional health outlook that attached equal importance to physical health, psychological health and ability to socially adapt, ‘foster virtue through education’ interprets the role of school PE as ‘having fun, strengthening physical fitness, developing personality, and exercising the will’ (referred to as ‘Four in One’) [40][28], three of which center on cultivating virtue through PE.
‘Foster virtue through education’ is integrated with the cultivation of key competences in school education, which also answers what kinds of people are educated for the 21st century and how to educate them. In fact, with the unprecedented development of human civilization and economy, higher requirements and greater aspirations are dependent on school education and talent training. Under these new circumstances, UNESCO, the OECD and EU launched a raft of programs that relate to talent training strategies for the new century. For example, UNESCO released Learning: The Treasure Within in 1996; OECD published Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations in 1997; EU delivered KeyKey Competence for Life-long Competence for Life-long Learning: A European Reference FrameworkLearning: A European Reference Framework in 2005. Although these studies define key competences with different terms and criteria, the ideology coincides with the Chinese phrase of ‘foster virtue through education’. Centered on key competences, the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and many other countries have launched a new round of educational curriculum reform that is going to bring about profound changes in the current talent training mode. In this case, the prevailing guiding ideology of ‘foster virtue through education’ catches up with the times of world educational reform.

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