Meanings of Xiū Xián and Leisure: Cross-Cultural Exploration of Laypeople’s Definition of Leisure

Abstract

We examined meanings of leisure and a Chinese leisure-like term (i.e., xiū xián) from laypeople’s perspectives by modifying Ito and Walker’s (2014) Leisure Ten Statements Test. Specifically, Euro-Canadian and Mainland Chinese undergraduate students were asked to provide 10 answers to “What is leisure/xiū xián for you?” and “What is not leisure/xiū xián for you?” An inductive coding of these lay definitions resulted in 24 categories, aligned with academic definitions (i.e., time, activity, setting, and psychological experience), suggesting the cross-cultural applicability of the leisure phenomenon. Multivariate analyses of variance identified categories that were more salient among Mainland Chinese (e.g., mass media, rest and reflection, motivation) and categories that were more salient among Euro-Canadians (e.g., emotion). The statistical results also suggested that Mainland Chinese and Euro-Canadians defined leisure/xiū xián similarly concerning some categories (e.g., relatedness and social activities, autonomy). We propose a laypeople’s definition of leisure from a cross-cultural perspective.