The physical fitness of Chinese college students has declined continuously for 25 years. What is the cause?

The Sorrow of Youth Sports in China

  Recently, the opening ceremony of a sports event at an elementary school in Hangzhou saw around 20 students fainting within just one hour, which was shocking. Coupled with the frequent incidents of student deaths from sudden cardiac arrest during long-distance running or basketball games in recent years, we mourn while also wondering what on earth has caused these tragedies. Is sudden death on campus becoming a trend? Why is the physical fitness of young students declining? Who is to blame? These questions are thought-provoking.

  The frequent occurrence of sports-related accidents among students is not only due to their individual health conditions but also reflects the overall decline in student physique. In September last year, the General Administration of Sport of China and the Ministry of Education jointly released the results of the 2010 National Physical Fitness Surveillance, which showed that the physical fitness of university students has been declining for 25 years, especially cardiovascular and pulmonary function. Compared with 1985, lung capacity has dropped by nearly 10%, and the performance of female university students in the 800-meter run and male students in the 1000-meter run has decreased by 10.3% and 10.9%, respectively. Experts express concern about the health and physical condition of college students.

  Recently, the Ministry of Education and the General Administration of Sport of China jointly conducted a national survey on university students' physical tests. Statistics show that students' lung capacity and overall physical fitness have continued to decline. Speed and strength — two components of physical ability — have been falling for 15 consecutive years, while endurance has been declining for 25 years.

  In addition, the rate of poor eyesight among students remains high, with 84% of university students aged 19–22 affected. The rate of overweight students is also increasing. Fu Hao, deputy director of the Physical Education Department at Renmin University of China, said that currently, a significantly higher proportion of university students wear glasses, are as thin as bean sprouts, or are overweight compared to 10 years ago. College students often have irregular lifestyles, staying up late and waking up late, drinking alcohol, and eating late-night snacks, leading to gastrointestinal disorders. Even small amounts of physical activity during PE classes leave them feeling unwell and reacting strongly, indicating that the physical fitness of university students has indeed deteriorated drastically.

  Faced with this disheartening situation, well-known education expert Xiong Bingqi believes it is entirely the result of China’s “caged” style of education.

  “The decline in the physical fitness of Chinese students has drawn attention for many years, and the causes have been identified. These include the exam-oriented education model, where schools focus solely on subjects related to the college entrance examination, sidelining physical education and squeezing out regular exercise time. Although the Ministry of Education has required primary and secondary schools to ensure one hour of exercise per day, this has not been implemented in many places. Moreover, for safety reasons, many schools practice a ‘caged’ education, not allowing students to leave classrooms during breaks or play freely on campus. Over time, this makes students unwilling to exercise and prevents them from developing good sports habits,” said Xiong Bingqi.

  Looking at today’s campuses, the image of college students is largely made up of homebodies, night owls, and the overweight. And these groups are precisely the high-risk populations for exercise-induced sudden death. Medical professionals have warned that the majority of diseases are lifestyle-related. The weak physical condition of college students reflects serious issues in their way of life. A visit to university dormitories reveals numerous students wearing headphones to play games, gathering around tables for drinks, or chatting all night. Yet physical exercise — an essential component of the five pillars of education — has become an optional item in the schedules of some students.

  In addition to the widely criticized factor of reduced physical exercise leading to declining fitness, unhealthy lifestyle habits may also be the “culprit” behind sudden deaths during sports. Zhu Bin, head of the Scientific Research Section at the School of Physical Education at Chengdu University, who is currently involved in research related to sudden deaths among college students, told reporters yesterday, “Frequent staying up late is actually the main cause of exercise-induced sudden death among college students, and this is an industry-recognized fact.”

  Although it is still unclear whether the previous cases of sudden death among college students during sports were related to their daily habits, some suspect that there is a certain connection between the frequent occurrences of such events and staying up late. Zhu Bin from the Scientific Research Section at the School of Physical Education at Chengdu University stated that after three years of research, they found that frequent late nights are the main cause of exercise-induced sudden death among college students.

  Zhu Bin said that the causes of exercise-induced sudden death among young people, especially college students, basically boil down to three factors: “First, declining physical fitness; second, pre-existing medical conditions; and third, frequent late nights. Among these, staying up late frequently is the main cause of exercise-induced sudden death among college students.” He further explained, “People with pre-existing medical conditions are usually cautious and know their limits when exercising. On the contrary, those who appear healthy often don’t think there’s anything wrong with their bodies, even if they stay up late. But when the body can no longer handle the physical load, cardiovascular issues can easily arise.”

  “Not long ago, during my morning classes, I noticed many students looked sleepy. So I asked how many had gone to bed after midnight — half of them raised their hands. Then I asked how many had gone to bed after 2 a.m. — a third still raised their hands. Many students don’t realize how much harm staying up late does to their bodies. Haven’t there been cases of people dying after pulling multiple all-nighters in internet cafes? And exercising after staying up late turns the activity into an accelerator for fatal outcomes.” To ensure the safety of PE classes as much as possible while still giving students exercise, Chengdu University introduced the “12-minute walk-run” three years ago. “Students can choose to walk or run, depending on their ability. If you can’t maintain healthy living habits, you must act according to your limits.”

  The Shanghai Key Laboratory for Youth Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention, under the Ministry of Education, has recently begun trial work to replace the 800-meter and 1000-meter runs with a 20-meter shuttle run. This pilot will be conducted across 18 schools in three districts and counties in Shanghai, involving a total of 5,000 students.

  Ji Liu, head of the laboratory and a professor at the School of Physical Education and Health at East China Normal University, explained that the results of traditional sports tests such as running, jumping, and throwing do not fully reflect students’ overall physical condition but more so their athletic ability.

  “The current physical tests for middle and high school students, including the mandatory 800-meter run for girls and 1000-meter run for boys, are ‘set routines.’ However, the speed at which students complete these runs is not closely related to their overall health. While these events are acceptable as track and field activities, using them as rigid criteria to assess students’ physical fitness is unscientific,” Ji Liu said.

  “From a physiological perspective, aerobic capacity mainly reflects students’ cardiovascular and pulmonary function, but the 800- and 1000-meter runs are a mix of aerobic and anaerobic exercises and cannot accurately reflect cardiopulmonary function.”

  Ji Liu also told reporters that tests have shown that the physical exertion of a 20-meter shuttle run is no less than that of the 800- and 1000-meter runs. Currently, many countries, such as the United States and Japan, use endurance-based 20-meter shuttle runs, which are better forms of aerobic exercise.

  In 2010, the Guangdong Provincial Examination Institute made significant adjustments to the content of physical education exams — canceling the middle- and long-distance runs (1500 meters for boys / 800 meters for girls). The exam content changed from four mandatory events the previous year to three basic qualities (mandatory) and five specialized foundational events (optional), allowing candidates to choose one from the five optional events.

  Why such a major change? The chief examiner of the college entrance examination’s physical education test explained that the original middle- and long-distance runs were mainly designed to test candidates’ endurance, but once introduced, they drew mixed feedback from teachers and students in basic education, who felt the event was too difficult and rarely practiced in schools. “Additionally, this event requires high-quality venues and takes a long time to administer. Removing it does not affect student selection,” so the provincial education examination authority realistically canceled the middle- and long-distance runs and added optional events like basketball and swimming that reflect students’ individual strengths. “After all, we’re not ‘recruiting laborers’ but aiming to discover students with genuine talent, potential, and special skills to supplement the development of sports,” many city-level team leaders agreed with the changes to the unified physical education exam.

  At last year’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology sports meet, the long-standing women’s 3000-meter and men’s 5000-meter events were canceled.

  Regarding the cancellation, Shen Yuejin, deputy director of the university’s Physical Education Department, explained in an interview that the main reason was the continuous rainy weather and low temperatures in Wuhan, which forced the sports meet to be shortened from three days to two. As a result, some events had to be cut, and the 3000-meter and 5000-meter races had fewer participants and took a long time, so they were removed. He also admitted that safety concerns were another important reason: “These two events require a high level of physical fitness, which most current college students do not meet, making participation somewhat risky.”

  In addition, according to reports from Xi’an media, over 30 universities in Xi’an have also canceled long-distance running events due to fears of sudden death incidents. Meanwhile, staff from the Physical Education Department at Peking University firmly stated, “In our sports meet, there are indeed no long-distance running events over 3000 meters, whether it’s the women’s 3000-meter or the men’s 5000-meter. We don’t offer these in our regular PE classes either, so they’re not part of the sports meet.”

  Making the same choice as Peking University are Beijing Normal University and the University of Science and Technology Beijing, which have also canceled long-distance running events over 3000 meters in their sports meets, with the longest track event being the 1500-meter run.

  In contrast, our neighbor Japan treats sports as a fundamental compulsory subject, just as Chinese students regard Chinese, math, and English. In Japan, baseball and rugby — two team sports — are the most popular among elementary and middle school students. Baseball and rugby competitions extend from elementary school all the way to university.

  When introducing themselves, young Japanese people often emphasize their “shumi” (hobbies). Japanese companies also place great importance on students’ “shumi” when recruiting new graduates. For example, if an applicant has achieved excellent results in baseball or rugby, recruiters often view them as “motivated” and “full of vigor,” which significantly boosts their qualifications.

  Although Japanese elementary and middle school students already spend significantly more time on physical exercise than their Chinese counterparts, the Japanese government still hopes to increase PE class hours. In early 2008, the Central Council for Education in Japan submitted a report to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, recommending revisions to the “Course of Study” to address the issue of declining student fitness by increasing PE class hours. To emphasize traditional culture, martial arts would be made a mandatory part of middle school PE.

  In 2011, the “Comparative Study Report on the Physical and Mental Health of High School Students in China, Japan, and South Korea,” conducted by the China-Japan-Korea Youth Research Institute, was released.

  In terms of physical condition, the percentage of students who had never taken leave due to illness or injury, from highest to lowest, were South Korea (71.6%), Japan (53.1%), and China (45.4%). The percentage of high school students who considered their health to be “very poor” or “not very good” was highest among Chinese students (25.9%), followed by South Korea (19.6%) and then Japan (19.3%). This indicates that the physical condition of South Korean students is significantly better than that of Chinese students and is not inferior to that of Japanese students.

  Nevertheless, the South Korean government remains concerned about declining physical fitness among elementary and middle school students and has dispatched professional sports instructors to primary schools. By the end of 2012, the government had sent sports specialists to all elementary schools nationwide to guide students in outdoor physical activities and improve their physical health. According to the plan of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, these professionals will help enhance the quality of outdoor sports activities for students in all 5,800-plus elementary schools across South Korea.

  At the same time, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to spend 12.3 billion won (approximately US$10.3 million) to provide free tickets to various sporting events for students from low-income families. In addition, the South Korean government intends to encourage students to participate in sports competitions on weekends through subsidies and other support measures.

  In South Korea, besides physical exercise at school, sending children to summer or winter camps for “rigorous training” has become an important way for parents to improve their children’s physical fitness and strengthen their willpower. Military-style summer (or winter) camps in South Korea often involve eight hours of training per day, where enduring hardship is the only method of training.

  After learning about our neighbor, we should reflect: university students are the future of the nation, and the overall weak physical condition of university students reflects numerous issues that educators, parents, and students themselves must take seriously. The young Mao Zedong once wrote an essay titled “A Study of Physical Education,” proposing that “if you wish to civilize the spirit, you must first make the body savage,” because a strong physique is the foundation for accomplishing anything. In fact, the educational philosophies of insightful Chinese figures throughout history have long transcended a mere knowledge-based approach. Isn’t this kind of educational philosophy also a wake-up call and a spur to reality?