An East-West comparison Sports Visual Culture--The Discobolus and the Physical Exercise Chart as examples
XueYuwei

Beijing Sport University

Abstract

In early literature on entertainment, art, education, and medicine, the remains and vague appearance of sports visual culture can be visualized through painting and sculpture. This study analyzes the visual works of sports from the East and the West in the same period, and compares them horizontally, in order to serve as an entry point for comparing the similarities and differences of sports culture in the East and the West, and to reappreciate the respective charms of the origins of sports in the East and the West. As the statues placed in the ancient Greek Olympia stadium and the images engraved on silk in ancient China, these systematically represent human concepts of the universe, space-time, life and death, recreation, fitness, and wellness, with heaven, earth, and man all symbolically presented in a large symbolic system. In different regional environments and times, Eastern and Western sports visual culture works present their own characteristics.
The Discobolus from around 450 B.C. and the Physical Exercise Chart from around 168 B.C. are the representatives of ancient Greek Olympic culture and Chinese traditional health culture respectively. A comparative study of the two, which were born in different regional environments and times, can help to clarify the common and ephemeral characteristics of the development of Eastern and Western sports visual culture in the ancient Greek era and the Western Han period in China, and provide a historical basis for the current world sports visual culture to shine.

Keywords: Sports visual culture- Discobolus- Physical Exercise Chart- East-West comparison

Topic: Comparative analysis of sport in Asian societies and other sports cultures and traditions