Chinese Discourses on Happiness

Abstract

Contemporary Chinese voices approach the topic of happiness from many diverse positions and perspectives. Happiness, often represented by the Chinese character fu 福‎, is part of the visual propaganda campaign of the Chinese Dream, and raising levels of happiness has become an official government target. Much is written and said about happiness by the Chinese government, but also by authors of self-help books, by journalists, TV chat show hosts, pop psychologists and China’s netizens. This book is the first attempt at analyzing these various writings and related images to see what concepts and agendas inform this proliferation of happiness discourse. Through comprehensive analysis of text and images in multimedia formats, the essays in this volume reflect the diversity and pervasiveness of Chinese happiness discourse enacted by different social groups and actors. The aim of this volume is to analyse out what different social actors, different philosophical, psychological, cultural, political ideas bring to the subject of happiness in contemporary China. The authors bring a number of theoretical perspectives and conceptual approaches to this endeavour, resulting in a multidisciplinary and multi-methodological volume. The different chapters illuminate how the recent discourse of happiness encompasses both motifs of individual self-interest and collective socialist ethics. The volume shows that happiness has emerged as a culturally and historically specific and relevant topic for China’s population that resonates across class divisions. As such, the book make a significant contribution from the perspective of the Humanities to the understanding of individual and collective happiness in China today.