Hosted by the General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) and organized by the Macao Sport Development Board and the China Institute of Sport Science (CISS) of the GASC, the Conference for the Third China’s National Physical Fitness Surveillance & International Seminar of Physical Fitness Research was held at the Macao East Asian Games Dome on the 3rd of June. Dr. Fernando Chui Sai On, Chief Executive of the Macao SAR, Mr. Feng Jianzhong, Vice Minister of the GASC, Mr. Li Ben Jun, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr. Gao Shang De, Deputy Director of the Economic Affairs Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, Mr. Sheng Zhiguo and Mr. Liu Guoyong, Director-General and Deputy Director-General of the Department of Sport for All of the GASC, Mr. Vong Iao Lek, President of the Macao Sport Development Board, Mr. Junshi Chen, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as Mr. Liao Wen-ke, Deputy Director of the Department of Physical, Health and Art Education under the Ministry of Education, among others, officiated the opening ceremony. Mr. Tian Ye, Director of the CISS presided over the opening ceremony.
The theme of this conference was “Exercise Scientifically, Keep fit and Health for All” with main topics of discussion centering around the following areas: the physical condition of the citizens of China’s and changes therein, theories and methods for research in the field of physical fitness and research and application of exercise methods for the masses. The organizers hope that through the exchange platform provided by the conference can fully showcase the important achievements of the Third China’s National Physical Fitness Surveillance, promote international academic exchanges and cooperation in the field of research on physical fitness and improve the scientific level of fitness in the country.
Over 100 papers were published and presented as keynote speeches, thematic reports and poster sessions by experts from Finland, Austria, Japan, United States, Macao and Mainland China during the conference. More than 300 people from Macao, other countries and Mainland China, participated in this conference.
The two-day conference was kicked off with keynote reports introducing the state of development of Sport for All and Physical Fitness Surveillance System in Macao and the Mainland by representatives from the Department of Sport for All of the GASC, the CISS and the Macao Sport Development Board. Afterwards, experts from Finland, Austria, Japan, United States as well as Mainland China exchanged individual research experiences based on the current status of physical fitness in China, the practical experiences in the improvement of fitness in China, as well as their research experience in issues related to the development of Sport for All through three forms of presentation: keynote speeches (10 papers), thematic reports (72 papers) and poster sessions (86 posters). These academic works have been collected and published in the “Proceedings of the Third China’s National Physical Fitness Surveillance (CNPFS) & International Seminar of Physical Fitness Research”.
This conference was an important academic event within the field on physical fitness research. The main reason the Macao Sport Development Board was able to hold this academic event in Macao was due to the trust and support of the GASC, which has for a long time been carrying out a tremendous amount of work with outstanding results as regards the regulation of the surveillance of physical fitness in China and the promotion of Sport for All activities, as well as good health to citizens. With its assistance and technical support, the Macao Sport Development Board was able to plan and carry out two research works on the surveillance on the physical fitness of the residents of the MSAR in 2005 and 2010 respectively. This time, the Macao Sport Development Board once again collaborated with the GASC to organize this conference in Macao, by offering an exchange platform to ensure the continuation of the results obtained during the 2010 National Physical Fitness Surveillance and create opportunities for the advancement of international academic exchanges and cooperation in the field of research on physical fitness.
The content of the papers presented within this conference touched upon many fields of study such as studies on the current status and trends of physical fitness at a national level, ways to measure physical fitness, physical assessments as well as guidelines on how to keep fit. The papers presented by the delegates from all around the globe within the two-day conference, demonstrate that the governments from all over the world attach great importance to the issue of national health quality. As sport is such an important channel to improve the quality of human health, the participating academics initiated lively discussions on research of methods for mass physical fitness participation and the evaluation on the extent of public participation in physical training and its application, having arrived at a consensus that encouraging people to carry out continuous physical training and developing a healthy lifestyle are indispensible elements if we want to increase the level of physical fitness. However, the rapid development of social technologies, the acceleration of the pace of people’s lives and the changes in diet have all gradually drawn people away from healthy lifestyles. Therefore, an education which also promotes health right from an early age has increasingly received attention. China’s sports health and education departments also consider youth sports as a top priority among Sport for All and a great deal of work has been done to advance physical education within schools. At the international level, a foreign scholar introduced a research project called Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) which is held every four years. Currently, the 43 participating countries include European and North American countries, which form an HBSC research net that provides scientific reference data for the promotion of health advancement, health education and health policies.
This conference provided a more comprehensive reflection of the progress of the research in the field of physical fitness and health promotion at home and abroad and current status of research on physical fitness in China. We believed that through the active exchange of participants throughout, positive impacts can be made to further improve the academic level of physical fitness research as well as scientifically guiding mass participation in sports fitness. In the future, the Macao Sport Development Board will continue to strengthen cooperation and exchange with relevant experts from around the world, focus on promoting the development of sports, so as to comprehensively improve the health level of the public.
