Chinese Ethnic Traditional Sports as Mind-Body Interventions for Psychiatric Recovery

Chinese ethnic traditional sports (CETS)-a family of culturally embedded physical practices encompassing traditional Chinese mind-body exercises (e.g., Tai Chi, Qigong, Baduanjin, Yijin Jing, Wuqinxi) and intangible cultural heritage folk sports (e.g., dragon-lion dance)-have attracted growing interest as accessible, low-cost mind-body interventions for mental health. This narrative review examines which mental health outcomes are associated with participation in different types of CETS and to what extent the available evidence supports their role in psychiatric recovery. The review synthesizes 68 studies published between January 2000 and June 2026, identified through multi-database searches of Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus. Thematic synthesis identified four interconnected dimensions of mental health burden addressed by CETS: (a) affective disorders; (b) trauma-related disorders; (c) sleep-wake disturbances; and (d) cognitive and psychosocial dysfunction. Across these dimensions, individual randomized controlled trials consistently report moderate reductions in depressive and anxiety symptoms, with larger effects when CETS are delivered in supervised groups at moderate intensity for 12-24 weeks; however, most evidence derives from subclinical or non-psychiatric samples and measures symptom severity rather than functional recovery. The review therefore concludes that CETS are a promising, low-cost, culturally congruent adjunct to conventional psychiatric care-warranting rigorous, disorder-specific trials-rather than established stand-alone treatments for psychiatric recovery.