| "Social development is based on people, personal development is based on health". That the entire nation keeps on improving the quality of health, is an important indicator of improvement of the people's quality of life, an important goal of modernization, and an essential element for sustainable development of the society.The World Health Organization defines quality of life as:individuals' perception of their position in life, in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live, and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. The quality of life not only includes sustaining life and maintaining the body intact, but also emphasizes the variety of life styles, social harmony, as well as the realization of one's own value and his role to society. Physical activity is a positive means to enhance physical fitness, to promote health, to improve the quality of life. Its medical fitness function has already been confirmed by sports science and research and clinical practice. However, research on how physical activity can promote overall health and improve the quality of life has yet to be further strengthened.In the 21st century, people pay more attention to their overall development. Under the background of improving people's living standard, and building a socialist harmonious society, and during the process of comprehensive and in-depth implementation of the National Fitness Program, research on sports and health-related quality of life have more characteristics of a new era. It will be of theoretical and practical importance in today's traditional ethnic sports research field, to reflect and evaluate objectively and accurately the quality of life of residents in minority concentrated areas in China, and to study how to apply the results of related researches to guide the national fitness program in such areas, to develop traditional minority sports culture and to promote the harmonious development of society in such areas.This study chose the minority tribe Maonan people living in the mountains of northwestern Guangxi as study object, applied theories from many disciplines such as social medicine, health sociology, sports science and other sciences, and employed various research methods such as literature review, questionnaires, scale, test, mathematical statistics, and interview. This study investigated and analyzed the Maonan concentrated area resident's personal health status, and the health-related quality of life conditions. The health effects were tested on Maonan's typical traditional sport "with the top". Further, the relation between the Maonan traditional sports and the residents'quality of life was studied and analyzed. The role of the traditional minority sports in improving the quality of life of residents in minority concentrated areas was summarized at theoretical level. Further exposition was performed on the relations among the traditional minority sports, the quality of life and the social development, with a goal to provide new theoretical basis for promoting the social development and sports development in ethnic minority areas of China and improving the quality of life of residents.This paper is composed of six chapters.Chapter 1:Introduction. This was an empirical study on the relation of Maonan traditional sports and health-related quality of life in Maonan concentrated area. The research background, the literature review in the related fields this study touched, hypothesis, purpose and significance, research contents, study object and research methods and analytical framework, were all described in this chapter.Chapter 2:Research on the quality of life of residents in Maonan concentrated area. Age group 18-60 years (1323 persons) from Guangxi Maonan concentrated area were the survey population. Comparative study on the quality of life was carried out between the survey population and China's average adult group. The relation between sociodemographic characteristics and the quality of life of the survey population was studied. The relation between the general health status and the quality of life of the survey population was analyzed. Conclusion:the scores for overall quality of life of the survey population were lower than the norm, and the difference was distinctly significant. Among them, there were five fields of the survey population'scores lower than the norm, which were physical field (PHYS), psychological field (PSYCH), independence field (IND), social relationships field (SOCIL), environment field (ENVIR); while the survey population'scores was higher than the norm in spiritual support/ religious/personal beliefs field (DOM6), the differences were distinctly significant. In addition, the scores for the quality of life of the survey population higher than the norm were in 8 areas:pain and discomfort (pain), positive feelings (pfeel), negative feelings (neg), medical treatment of drug dependence (medic), the required to meet the level of social support (supp), home environment (home), environmental conditions (envir), spiritual support/religious/personal beliefs (spirit), the differences were all distinctly significant. Maonan group's sociodemographic characteristics were closely related to their quality of life. Gender, educational level, and family economic status affected Maonan group's scores in all fields of the quality of life, and the difference had a notable significance. Age, residence, occupation, and marital status also affected Maonan group's scores in some fields of the quality of life, and the difference was largely significant too. A two-week prevalence rate and prevalence of chronic diseases for the survey population were higher than the fourth national health services survey; so, Maonan concentrated area residents'overall quality of life was not optimistic.Chapter 3:Research on Maonan concentrated area residents'physical exercise and quality of life. Using the trans-theoretical model for physical exercise behavior, the distribution of the number of people in different exercise stages, the distribution of the number of two groups (the traditional sports group and the general group) in different exercise stages, and the sociodemographic characteristics for the people in different exercise stages were analyzed. Furthermore, the quality of life for people in different exercise stages as well as for Maonan traditional sports group was analyzed. Conclusion:all the traditional sports people fell into the category of "exercised individual" and the proportion of "exercised individual" in the general population was only 30.8%; the proportion of "regular exercise" in the survey population was 12.3%, while the proportion of "regular exercise" in all the country was 28.2%(including school students) in 2007;This showed that we should not be optimistic on the degree Maonan concentrated area residents promote their own health through physical exercise. Among the survey population, the group of male, aged at 30-49 years old, living in towns, brainworker, with higher education level and higher levels of economic income was more willing to engage in physical exercise. For the group with no intention to exercise, quality of life had the lowest scores in all fields; and the higher the stage of participation in physical exercise, the higher scores for quality of life in all fields. In summary, whether to participate in physical exercise had a significant impact on the quality of life of the survey population. The quality of life score of Maonan traditional sports group was obviously higher than the general group in the same area.Chapter 4:Research on the case of Maonan traditional sports-"with the top" and the quality of life. An overview was made about the origin, projects, and features of Maonan's traditional ethnic sports. Maonan's most traditional sport-"with the top" was studied as a special case. In order to understand the health effects of "with the top" to the test population, a comparative analysis was conducted on the quality of life scores in all fields for six groups of people for both before and after the six-month self-testing period. The six groups were general test group, general comparison group, male test group, male comparison group, female test group and female comparison group. Wilcoxon test was performed on the differences in their scores. Conclusion:After six months on "with the top" training, the physical and psychological fields and the overall quality of life scores for the general test group, the male test group and the female test group, had increased. And the score difference was significant (except for the female test group' scores in the psychological field). However, after six months, the quality of life scores in all fields for the general comparison group, the male comparison group and the female comparison group found a slight change, but the score difference was statistically insignificant (except for the general comparison group and the male comparison group's scores in the environment field). Above results suggested that, regardless of men or women, involving in Maonan traditional sports-"with the top" exercise could improve health and the quality of life.Chapter 5:Research on the relations among traditional minority sports and the quality of life and the social development. Based on previous empirical findings, relations among the traditional minority sports, the quality of life and the social development were explained theoretically. Conclusion:traditional ethnic sports had a core element of improving the quality of life; improving the quality of life depended on the development of society; building a harmonious society was opportunities and challenges to the traditional ethnic sports; creating the culturally diverse traditional ethnic sports could improve the quality of life.Chapter 6:Conclusions and recommendations. Through the analysis of the quality of life of Maonan concentrated area residents in different groups from different angles, empirical research findings and theoretical research findings were obtained. Based on these findings, it was recommended to the government to promote health and improve the quality of life through traditional ethnic sports exercise. The findings also provide theoretical basis for scientific policy making.This study is a project of Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Studies (the project approval No.:2007BSH006). This research's original contributions are as below (claims based on all literature available in public resources):(1) Evaluated the health status of Guangxi Maonan concentrated area residents from the perspective of quality of life; analyzed its influencing factors to verify the related research findings on the relations among sports, health and quality of life; provided basis for policy making to promote Maonan concentrated area residents'health level and improve their quality of life.(2) Analyzed different exercise stages of Guangxi Maonan concentrated area residents using the trans-theoretical model for physical exercise behavior, thus to verify the relation between physical exercise and the quality of life.(3) Studied the health effects of Maonan traditional sports-"with the top" and revealed the relation between traditional sports and the object's quality of life. Combined the researches in traditional ethnic sports and health-related quality of life, expanded the research areas in the field of national traditional sports, and provided a new way of thinking for other national traditions sports research.(4) Explored in theory the relations among the traditional minority sports, the quality of life and the social development. Provided a reference example for research in the implementation of "all people excise" in minority areas in western China and in rural areas, as well as for research in how traditional sports can promote the social development among "small population nations".
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