approaches into happiness research. By constructing a standard theoretical model, they demonstrated the existence of a critical income level. Empirical analysis began to appear in recent years, mostly after 2006, and the number is still very small, including Chuliang Luo’s study from 2006, who used data from China’s Social Sciences Academy to detect the subjective well-being in urban and rural residents, and Daiyan Peng and Baoxin Wu’s study in 2008 about the relationship between income gap and farmers life satisfaction in rural Hebei and Hubei provinces.
2.3 Chinese research results on happiness and China’s global rankings
2.3.1 Chinese definitions of happiness
On Chinese TV, one can find an increasing number of TV series and shows about ‘happiness’, whether it be ‘Tears of happiness’, ‘Sunny Happiness’ or a recent CCTV program, which asked countless people from all over China whether or not they felt happy in today's society. The show sparked much debate within China, as many people claimed that happiness is a subjective feeling which cannot be accurately assessed by respondents in front of a television camera. However, the program has led to the fact that the question, how to define happiness, got into the consciousness of many Chinese.
No wonder that ‘what does happiness mean to you?’ has become a popular question in oral English classes. English teachers in high schools encourage students to think about happiness, but viewed as an emotion. When they are asked ‘what is happiness?’ students get choices to answer the question with adjectives like ‘joyful, positive, comfortable or even sweet’. School books provide answers on what should make students happy in the form of pictures of people eating Chinese food, spending time with relatives, singing karaoke or climbing a mountain. Some teachers go further and let students discuss how they can become happy and how to understand this as a function of their own ability to increase their ‘capacity for enjoyment’. ‘The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are’, said one teacher, as a 18 year old student mentioned that he cannot be happy, because he has no car, apartment or money on his bank account.
The word ‘happiness’ did not appear in the Chinese language until recently; instead, the word ‘fu’ was used, which is perhaps the closest equivalent of happiness in ancient Chinese writings. However, its definition, which is very vague, usually means ‘anything positive and good in life’. In ancient times, longevity, prosperity, health, peace, virtue and a comfortable death were among the most aspired to values and achievements in life. Thus, the traditional Chinese conception of happiness roughly includes material abundance, physical health, a virtuous and peaceful life, and relief of anxiety about death. Nowadays, happiness in Chinese dictionaries is translated as “xingfu”; “xing” means “fortunate” and “fu” (福) means “fortunate, lucky, smooth and free of obstacles”. This shows that the Chinese notion of happiness is based on luck and fortune.
Recently happiness has become a political issue too and former Premier Wen Jiabao defined happiness as: "people live comfortably, feel relieved and safe, and have confidence in the future."[40] Other Chinese politicians followed this definition, which is passed on to the general population in TV shows, TV series, internet articles and other mass advertisements.
Consequently great interest aroused the question, what the general public would answer in private surveys. A survey conducted in 2013 amongst 200 Chinese private high school students with an average age of 15 years, using questionnaires, distributed by systematic sampling, showed that only 5 % had no idea how to define happiness. About 25 % defined happiness as a feeling, for 20 % happiness meant to stay with family, friends or lovers and to get support from them. Another 15 % defined it as freedom to do whatever one wants to do, and 11 % equaled happiness with contentment and satisfaction. For 5 % happiness was defined as access to good food and rest, around 2 % defined happiness as ‘no sadness’, 2 % as ‘playing computer games’, and for 8 % it was equaled with health, security, money, success and good marks.
A survey conducted in 2013 in a private company amongst 100 Chinese middle position employees with an average age of 35 years, using questionnaires, distributed by systematic sampling, showed that 25 % defined happiness as ‘being in good health’! Another 20 % defined happiness as ‘having freedom and peace with the world and oneself’, 15 % defined happiness as ‘having good relationships between family members’. 10 % defined it as ‘having one’s wants satisfied’. 5 % had no idea about the definition and were looking for happiness, 5 % thought good income would equal happiness, and 5 % defined happiness as ‘making best use of one’s talents’.
2.3.2 Happiness research results in China
Happiness surveys in China show a wide range of results.
The "2005 Social Blue Book", a data compilation about a range of topics on social issues in China, published the "2004 Chinese residents’ quality of life report". According to the survey, nearly 80 % of Chinese residents felt happy.[41]
An official survey conducted in 2010 by a research group of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress across 24 Chinese cities and published in ‘China Daily’, concluded that more than 74 % of Chinese urban residents felt either "very happy" or "fairly happy", with the elderly people happier than the young, women happier than men and public servants happier than the rest.
In January 2011, the happiness survey results from China Central Television (CCTV) were released. About 45 % of more than 80,000 respondents said that their lives are happy or very happy, while about 11 % reported not to be happy. The survey has been conducted for four consecutive years. Respondents were selected from 104 cities and 300 counties of 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Although respondents were from all age groups, educational backgrounds and income levels, most, 78 %, of the respondents were urban residents.[42]
A survey report published in May 2011 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, based on a survey of 4800 people, found that more than 74 % were happy or very happy. In 2011 the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences published ‘The Chinese Cities' 2011 Competition Power Blue Paper’ which covered 294 cities. The survey showed an average score of 76.06 out of 100 in terms of the residents' sense of happiness, which has gradually increased over the past decade: the score for 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2010 is 69.40, 70.52, 73.55 and 76.06.[43]
The 2010 Pew Global Attitudes survey found that 87 % of Chinese people surveyed were satisfied with their life, making it the most satisfied country by far out of all the surveyed countries. This result seems to be supported by the result of a recent well-liked TV show called ‘Are You Happy?’ It is produced by the national broadcast network, which interviewed more than 3,500 people, from garbage collectors to factory workers to Mo Yan, the Chinese winner of the 1.2 million USD Nobel Prize in Literature. The producers claim that more than 90 % of the respondents said they were "happy", although only a very small percentage of the interviews were actually telecast.[44]
According to a survey in 2013 amongst 200 private high school students with an average age of 15 about their happiness levels on a scale from 1 to 10, about one third chose 10, no student chose a happiness level below 5, and the average score was 7.98! When asked, what would make them most happy, 15 % answered that eating would be on the top, 20 % replied that staying with friends would make them most happy, about 20 % of respondents replied to be most happy when having time for their hobbies and 15 % answered to be most happy when getting good grades and having no homework. 10 % chose playing computer games, 10 % staying with family and being supported by one’s family, and 8% had no idea what would make them most happy. 80 % replied that at least sometimes food would make them happy, foremost sweets, cakes and ice-cream.
According to a survey
