Soc Indic Res (2011) 104:459–474 DOI 10.1007/s11205-010-9756-7
Concepts of Chinese folk happiness Po Keung Ip
Accepted: 18 November 2010 / Published online: 27 November 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Abstract Discourses on Chinese folk happiness are often based on anecdotal narratives or qualitative analysis. Two traditional concepts of happiness popular in Chinese culture are introduced. The paper constructs a concept of Chinese folk happiness on basis of the findings of a scientific survey on the Taiwanese people regarding their concepts of wellbeing at nation and personal levels. The survey has revealed that people’s concepts of wellbeing are consisted of a diversity of elements including political, economic, social, and cultural factors, as well as health, family, job, and social relationships. The paper compares these concepts with the traditional notions of Chinese folk happiness. Keywords
Chinese folk happiness Well-being Confucianism
1 Introduction Decades of pioneering contributions (Andrews and Withey 1976; Veenhoven 1993; Veenhoven 1995; Michalos 1980) has set the stage for the ensuing thriving research activities in the quality of life and well-being field. Theoretical results from multidisciplinary efforts (Kahneman et al. 1999; Argyle 1999; Diener 1995; Michalos 2003, 2005; Cummins 1996; Cummins 2000; Cummins 2003; Lau et al. 2005) and empirical findings from both national (Cummins 2003; Frey and Stutzer 2000) and cross-cultural studies (Michalos 1991; Diener and Suh 1999; Estes 1988; Ip 2009a, b) both help consolidate a firm basis for further developments and cross-cultural applications. Inspired by these results, researchers in Greater China (a region comprising Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and China) have recently been conducting the fledgling well-being research projects the findings of which help reveal the well-being situations in this region. Since the late 1980’s, researchers and scholars in Hong Kong have been undertaking a continuous research project in documenting the quality of life of Hong Kong people using social indicator measures. The findings have been published in a series called the Indicators P. K. Ip (&) Graduate Institute of Philosophy, National Central University, Jhongli 320, Taiwan e-mail:
[email protected]
123
460
P. K. Ip
of Social Development: Hong Kong. Using the notion of quality of life (QOL), some surveys (Wan 1997) were conducted by deploying subjective well-being measures specifically constructed to reflect the Hong Kong situation. As the research gathered momentum, more researchers joined and delivered more substantial results in terms of variety and quantity (Shek et al. 2005; Wong and Tang 2003; Chan and Lee 2006). Though the principal concept and related measures are labeled as quality of life, there are substantial content overlaps between QOL measures and subjective well-being (SWB) measures. Under either the guise of well-being or quality of life research, studies that focus on the well-being states of affairs in Taiwan have been growing (Tsou and Liu 2001; Liao et al. 2005; Liao 2009). Started in the late 1980’s, well-being research gradually began to pick up steam in the first decade of 2000 (Chan and Lee 2006; Cheung and Leung 2004). A major well-being survey project was launched in 2004 to understand the subjective well-being of citizens in six Chinese provincial capitals, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xian, Kunming, and Shenyang, each representing a different geographical area. The project (Xing and Liao 2008) has collected valuable data on the perceived happiness of urban Chinese across the country. As the findings are published in Chinese, only those who know the language can get access to the findings. Another similar major cross-provincial urban cities survey on subjective quality of life (Zhou 2008) has also published its findings. A study (Brockmann et al. 2009) focuses on the impact of the relationship between rising material wealth and people’s happiness in China. It is found that in the last decade the Chinese people’s happiness decline despite the rise of living standard, due largely to income inequality. A survey report (Chen and Davey 2008) documents the recent research efforts in the subjective well-being and happiness study areas within the Greater China Region. The bulk of the research activities centers mostly in SWB survey, health psychology and personality research areas, and using research tools mainly borrowed from the West. These research activities are mostly originated from the provinces of Shandong and Guangdong. Many of these works are empirical investigations of the conditions, factors impacting on the self-reported life satisfaction of the Chinese people. Very little has been done regarding people’s conceptions of happiness in this region. This paper aims to investigate this underexplored issue. Before systematic studies of the issues of well-being by social scientists, discourses on well-being in Chinese communities are often based on some traditional and popular notions of happiness largely shaped by culture and folklores. As will be shown in later discussions, there are two concepts of happiness originated from and sustained in ‘‘the grand tradition’’ and ‘‘the small tradition’’ of Chinese culture, respectively. The grand tradition refers to the dominant culture of the ruling elites and cultured, educated, and wealthy classes of society. In contrast, the small tradition is the culture and customs of those who were less educated, less wealthy, and less cultured ordinary people. Both concepts are constitutive of a broad traditional notion of Chinese folk happiness (the old folk concept) that exhibits its exhortative, prescriptive or idealistic as well as pragmatic nature. It depicts some idealistic situations, expectations or wishes for people to strive. As such, it provides little help for factually understanding people’s actual thinking about the meanings of happiness. Though some versions of this notion may have empirical contents, but they are often based on anecdotal experiences, and thus offer no reliable basis for understanding people’s concept of happiness. The findings of this survey provide a systematic way to understand the meaning of happiness held by ordinary people. A new folk concept of happiness constructed on this basis is used to compare with the old folk concept. The paper critically compares these concepts of Chinese folk happiness.
123
Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness
461
The new concept of Chinese folk happiness is constructed on the basis of the findings of a survey on the concepts of national and personal well-being of Taiwanese people, as a Chinese community. The term ‘‘Chinese’’ here is not used in the political, but the cultural and ethnic sense, as the majority of the inhabitants of Taiwan is Han Chinese. The survey, arguably the first of its kind using the framework of well-being undertaken in Taiwan, was conducted via telephone interview of over 1,130 adults in Taiwan in 2007 about what they perceived as the elements that constitute the well-being of a country as well as those composing the well-being of a person’s life. These elements include political, economic, social, and cultural factors, as well as health, family, job, and social relationships. Also, the context within which the survey was conducted is briefly described so as to provide the backdrop against which to interpret the findings. The findings of the survey with its large sample help provide a firm basis for scientifically understanding ordinary people’s sense of happiness.
2 Sampling Method and Sample The subjects of this survey are adults between 18 and 65 years of age, whose residence have telephones in Taiwan, including Pengwu island, and Linjiang and Jinmun counties in Fujian province. This survey used the national telephone data bank of the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) system of the Humanity and Social Sciences Research Center of the Academia Sinica. A stratified systematic sampling was used to collect the samples. The first stage of the sampling took the 326 villages and counties for stratification. The December 2006 population census of the Executive Yuan was used to calculate the population distribution of these 326 villages and counties, and to proportionately compute the required respective sample size of each of these villages and counties. Next, the telephone numbers of households of these villages and counties were selected from the national telephone data bank, and then randomly selected the household telephones using the last two digits of the phone numbers. The survey used the Hung’s household sampling method was used to select the interviewees from the qualified male and female members of the household.1 The survey was pre-tested on April 19, 2007. Modification of the survey questionnaires in view of the pretest results was done subsequently. The actual survey was carried out from April 23 to May 9. The survey has 1,136 completed interviews, with confident level at 95%, and margin of error at plus and minus 2.97%. This survey, as a part of a larger well-being survey, aimed to find out Taiwanese people’s concepts of the well-being of a country and of their personal life. This was done by posing questions about well-being to interviewees and asked them to identify their degree of agreement on a scale of 0–10, where ‘‘0’’ means ‘‘completely disagree’’, ‘‘10’’ means ‘‘completely agree’’, and ‘‘5’’ means ‘‘no opinion’’. The questions posed to interviewees belong to two kinds. One kind regards the elements that constitute national wellbeing, while the other kind is about the contents of personal well-being. On basis of some major work in the literature (Andrews and Withey 1976; Cummins 1996; Cummins et al. 2003; Michalos 2003; Michalos 2005; Veenhoven 1993), a set of elements of national well-being and personal well-being were respectively constructed. Interviewees were also asked two open-ended questions about their views on additional elements of wellbeing of a country and of a person, respectively, not included in the questionnaire. 1
The Hung’s household sampling method is a sampling technique used in census survey conducted periodically in Taiwan to select either a male or female household head as the interviewee on basis of the qualified male and female distribution in the population sample.
123
462
P. K. Ip
A brief note on the psychometric measure of people in Taiwan is in order. There are no comparable surveys of this kind using the framework of well-being conceptualized by this paper. The nearest source that can provide some references for the psychometric measures is from the data published in the surveys on the social changes in Taiwan regularly conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Academia Sinica (Basic Survey on Social Change in Taiwan Project, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005). The measures on the national well-being in this survey are constructed on basis of some relevant data from these surveys together with the author’s own analysis of Taiwanese society. The measures on personal well-being are adapted from those in The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index Survey (Survey#17 Questionnaire, March/April 2007). The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey instrument has been tested valid in other cultures and is applicable to Taiwan taking into account of the specific Taiwan society’s Confucian elements. As expected, good health, harmonious relationships, and satisfactory work are some of the core ingredients of personal happiness, regardless of culture. However, as Chinese culture strongly values social relationships, especially familial relationship, this survey used two questions to separately tap people’s responses to familial and non-familial social relationships. The 1136 samples collected have the following characteristics: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
9.
Gender: male—572 (50.4%); female—564 (49.6%) Age: 18–29 (18%); 30–39 (24%); 40–49(32%); 50–59(20.9%); 60–65(4.59%) Marital status: married 726 (64%); single 321 (28%) Education: primary (14%); high school (27%); vocational (35%); university (19%), graduate school (3.8%) Region: core city (26%); city (29%); new city-township (28%); traditional industrial township (7.6%); village and township (8%); senior and remote (1.3%) Income: \$10K (11%); $20K to $30K (45%); $30K-$60K (37%); $60K-$100K (4.5%) Religion: no religion (22%); folk religion (21%); Taoism (17%); Buddhism (32%) Occupation: managerial (2.7%): professional (including engineer) (8.2%); assistant and professional (technician) (12.7%); administrative and technical-related(10.4%); servicing and sales (12.5%); farming, forestry and fishing (2.6%); technician and related(11.9%); mechanical operators and related work(6.1%); non-technical and manual work(6%); unemployed and not employed (5.4%); retired(3.2%); student(3.9); housewife(13.9%) Ethnicity: Taiwan Fujianese (77.1%), Taiwan Hakka people (11%), Mainlander (10.6%), Aborigines (1.2%).2
3 Taiwanese People’s Concepts of Well-being This section reports the findings of Taiwanese people’s concepts of national well-being and personal well-being. To find out Taiwanese people’s concept of the well-being of a nation, statements with the form ‘‘the well-being of a nation means/includes …’’ that respectively contain 12 ‘‘well-being components’’ were posed to interviewees, who were subsequently asked to indicate their degree of agreement to these statements. The 12 well-being components are: 2
The reason that the numbers do not add up to 100% is that for some demo variables, only the major items are listed, minor ones are omitted. Examples of these are marital status, income, and religion.
123
Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
463
‘‘having no wars or threats of war.’’ ‘‘having good law and order, and people’s life and property was protected.’’ ‘‘having the economy in good shape, people’s standard of living improved.’’ ‘‘having harmony between ethnic groups.’’ ‘‘having equality for all, and human rights protected’’ ‘‘having clean and effective government that cares for people’s livelihood.’’ ‘‘having a judiciary that is fair and independent.’’ ‘‘having no big gap between the rich and the poor.’’ ‘‘having a good health care system, people’s health are taken care of.’’ ‘‘having a good education system with equal opportunity in education.’’ ‘‘having the natural environment protected.’’ ‘‘having people trusting each other.’’
The findings (Table 1) reveal that an overwhelming majority of the respondents (from 80 to 95%) agreed that the well-being of a nation included these12 components. To find out the Taiwanese people’s concept of personal well-being, statements with the form ‘‘personal well-being means/includes …’’ that respectively contain 5 ‘‘well-being components’’ were posed to interviewees, who were asked to express the degree of their agreement to these statements. The results show an overwhelming majority of respondents (83–96%) regarded personal well-being included the followings: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
health in body and mind satisfactory family life good human relationships satisfactory work satisfactory sex life3
An additional question, phrased differently, asked the respondents about the relationship between wealth and happiness. In response to whether ‘‘more wealth brings more happiness’’, only a slight majority of respondents (64%) agreed with this statement. The descriptive statistics are listed in Table 2. Two open-ended questions about the interviewees’ views on additional items not mentioned in the questionnaires with regard to national and personal well-being were asked respectively (Appendix 1 and 2). Though the respondents used different expressions or phrases to describe their ideas of well-being, semantically, many answers broadly fall within the scope of contents of well-being surveyed by this study. For example, on the personal well-being aspect, expressions like ‘‘having three generations under one roof’’, ‘‘[having] children to meet parent’s expectation’’, and ‘‘unity of spirit between husband and wife’’ broadly fall within the good family life measure, while ‘‘respected by others’’, ‘‘to serve others’’, ‘‘be kind to others, be grateful, mutual understanding and trust’’ are included in the good social relationships category. On the national well-being aspect, ‘‘reduce confrontations between politicians’’, ‘‘government takes non-partisan stance’’, ‘‘government has no special privileges’’, ‘‘government responsive to the need of people’’ apparently fall within the clean, effective and caring government measure. Thus, there are no substantive items that are additional to those surveyed with regard to people’s concept of wellbeing.
3
This item was added based on a suggestion from Ling Ying Bing.
123
464
P. K. Ip
Table 1 Concept of national well-being Frequencya
Content of national well-being No wars or threat of war Law and order, life and property protected
Percentagea
Mean
SD
913
80.4
7.90
2.314
1052
92.7
8.71
2.008
Good economy, life improved
1053
92.7
8.58
1.861
Ethnic harmony
1030
90.7
8.49
2.009
Equality and human rights
1043
91.8
8.66
1.973
Clean, effective and caring government
1036
91.1
8.75
2.003
999
88.1
8.51
2.215 2.312
Judiciary fair and independent Rich and poor gap narrowed
952
83.8
7.83
Good health care system
1094
96.5
9.04
1.529
Good education with equal opportunity
1060
93.4
8.81
1.721
Environment protected
1061
93.4
8.67
1.777
986
86.8
8.11
2.070
Social trust a
Cumulative numbers from interviewees giving 6–10 on the scale
Table 2 Concept of personal well-being Contents of Personal Well-being
Frequencya
Percentagea
Mean
SD
Body mind health
1098
95.9
9.22
1.436
Good family life
1082
95.2
9.11
1.584
Good social relationships
1020
89.7
8.06
1.878
Good job
1051
92.5
8.27
1.807
More wealth more happiness
736
64.8
6.16
2.189
Satisfactory sex life
942
83.1
7.43
1.921
a
Cumulative numbers from interviewees giving 6–10 on the scale
3.1 Interpretation of the Findings People’s cognitive judgments of their subjective well-being as well as the well-being of society are affected by their personal life experiences, the conditions of their society and culture, among others (Schwarz and Strack 1999). Likewise, people’s conception of what constitutes well-being or the meaning of happiness is broadly influenced by the conditions of their society, culture as well as their personal life experiences. The contents of national and personal well-being used in the survey questionnaires are broadly informed by the understanding of the specific historical, economical, political, and social context the people of Taiwan are facing. Global surveys of national well-being use generic measures to capture the well-being of a nation. However, these measures very often are not very sensitive to the specific context of individual nations. If used mechanically, these measures may produce an oversimplified, if not distorted picture of a nation’s well-being. For example, in stable and peaceful democracies, the problem of war or threat of war, may not be included in the nation’s well-being concern or priority. In contrast, in war-torn or conflict-laden regions, it is constitutive of the well-being of a nation. A balanced and undistorted well-being picture of the nation in question should take into account of the specific contextual variations. In what follows, the findings of the survey are interpreted
123
Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness
465
against the backdrop of recent economic, political and social, development in Taiwan before the survey was conducted. Peace and security is important to a nation’s well-being, particularly so to that of Taiwan which is located in a hot zone of potential conflict. The cross-strait tensions between China and Taiwan have always been a source of anxiety of Taiwanese people.4 The law and order situation in Taiwan had been deteriorating for several years. Crime rates (petty crimes of theft, house break-in etc.) and major crimes (robbery, murder, kidnapping, blackmail) had been on the rise.5 The economy was in bad shape. Growth was sluggish, prices of basic goods and services kept rising and people’s salaries and wages had stayed flat.6 Over the several years preceding 2007, the wealth gap in Taiwan was widening.7 Since the 1990’s when democratizing began, Taiwan society has become increasingly divided, more so since the Democratic Progress Party (DPP) took power in 2000. Highly contentious and divisive issues like the unity or independence debate with respect to China, and ethnic inequality among ethnic groups continue to challenge and erode the social cohesiveness of Taiwan.8 White collar crimes and corporate crimes (insider trading, fraud, corruptions) had been on the rise. Some high profile cases included corruptions scandals involving the President’s family and cronies, and even the then President Chen Shui-bian himself. Furthermore, the government was also widely perceived to be ruinously incompetent, especially in dealing with the economy and cross-strait relationships. There is popular worry that the judiciary lacked independence and integrity. A recent report on global corruption published by Transparency International (2007) rated Taiwan’s Judiciary integrity at the bottom one-third of all countries under survey. These factors, as perceived sources of dissatisfaction, presumably weighed substantially on people’s minds when they were asked about how they perceived the contents of wellbeing of a society. From the survey findings, one can see that security, law and order, economic well-being, good government, wealth equality, health care, good education system, clean environment are people’s top concerns. As the above account of the wellbeing context of Taiwan shows, these are the conditions that people found wanting. The perceived deficits or deprivations in these areas probably have had an impact on people’s concept of what a happy state ought to be. On the personal level, people’s concept of wellbeing is broadly in line with what are generally expected. Consistent with Chinese culture, people value a satisfied family life and health as the core of personal happiness. Also, having a good job and good social relationships are also very important, which is to be expected. Regarding the relationship between wealth and happiness, the data reveal that a majority of the respondents do not think quantity of wealth matters that much to happiness. This finding is an interesting supplement and clarification to one prevalent view that wealth is a key source of happiness, witness that the God of Wealth (a popular deity in Chinese 4
According to two polls commissioned by the China Commission (September 15–17, 2006, and August 10 to 12, 2007), many people thought China is unfriendly to Taiwan government and Taiwanese people.
5
A national poll conducted by the ERA poll center on people’s attitudes toward crime and law and order problem conducted on March 21, 2007 revealed that for the last three months only 55% of those survey were satisfied with the law and order situation in their residential neighborhood, while 34% expressed dissatisfaction. Webpage: http://www.survey.eracom.com.tw.
6
A poll done by the United Daily Poll Centre on December 25 and 26, 2006, United Daily, Dec. 31, 2006,\ , A4. United Daily and China Times are two leading newspaper in Taiwan.
7
Data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics of the Executive Yuan, United Daily, Aug. 27, 2007, A2.
8
According to a poll (United Daily, Feb. 26, 2007), 51% of people viewed the ethnic confrontation was worsening, an increase of 12% over 2006.
123
466
P. K. Ip
secular religion) is widely worshipped in Chinese communities. Questions about personal sexual life are seldom included in happiness survey of Chinese people. The data show that people do view a satisfied sexual life as constitutive of personal happiness. The study thus provides rare and valuable information about the status of sexual life in personal happiness.
4 Traditional Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness There are few systematic studies of lay concept of happiness in Taiwan. The apparently reliable source for probing into the lay person’s view of happiness is a set of time-honored popular sayings among Chinese communities, together with some celebrated utterances, quotations or idioms in Confucian classical texts, or some related views by influential writers. From the Confucian classics, especially Lun Yu (The Analects), Munzi (Mencius), there are several oft-quoted sayings of Confucius which directly address the issue of happiness (Chan 1963; Fung 1983; Lao 1980, Ames and Rosemont 1998; Cheng 1991; Cua 2003; de Bary and Bloom 1999; Ebrey 1993; Lau 1979, 1984; Legge 1966; Mou 2009; Tu 1995; Yao 2003a, b). For example, these famous comments include ‘‘When a friend comes to visit (us) from afar, is it not happiness?’’ ‘‘Learn and frequently practice what we’ve learnt, is it not happiness?’’ ‘‘Happiness resides in eating coarse rice, drinking plan water, sleeping on one’s elbow!’’ For Confucius, living a simple and even materially impoverished life could be a source of genuine happiness. This is the message Confucius tried to convey in his praise of one of his best pupil Yan-Wei’s Spartan way of life. This idea goes hand in hand with another of Confucius’ influential idea of happiness in relation to poverty and morality—‘‘be contented with poverty, and be happy with the right way.’’ However, by exhorting simple and Spartan living, Confucius did not downgrade the importance of material needs and wants of people. For example, he endorsed the view that people’s need of food and sex is human nature. Human creature comfort has its rightful place in people’s lives. Another leading Confucian sage, Munzi (Mencius) advocated the ‘‘Three Happiness’’ for the gentleman elite class. The first happiness is to have living parents and brothers. The second happiness is that one does not feel ashamed with regard to heaven and to humanity, as one has fully fulfilled one’s due. The third happiness is to be able to teach the talented people of the world. For Mencius, the greatest happiness of all is, however, to live a life of sincerity and reflection, and embrace everything with this life view. Through these edicts, these two sages helped to define a tradition of happiness for China, albeit with a moralistic bent. In the Sung and Ming Dynasty, many orthodox Confucian scholars expended on this moralistic tradition of happiness. Leading Confucian scholar-officials like Fan Chong-Yan even exhorted the ruling intelligentsia to worry about things way before everybody else did, and to feel happy (about things) only after everybody else did. Confucian philosopher Lu Jiaou-Yuern held that sustainable happiness could only be achieved by restraining one’s many desires, while indulgence in desires and forgetful of the right way would create confusion and unhappiness. Influential contemporary quasi-Confucian thinkers like Liang Xi-chiou, in his book Review of Moral Education identified happiness as the fulfillment of one’s responsibility. Liang also opined that the real pain and happiness must not reside in the body, but in the mind, and with bodily pain and spiritual happiness is the real happiness; bodily happiness and spiritual pain the real pain.
123
Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness
467
Under the Confucian tradition of filial piety, family bliss, personal moral integrity, morality-constrained desires satisfaction and educating people are the major sources of happiness. However, this concept of happiness largely appeal to the intelligentsia-official class in traditional China, and may not be fully shared by ordinary people, though the latter may try to put some of these teachings into their lives and practice. In sum, in this Confucian ‘‘grand tradition’’, happiness is seen as something essentially social (familial), ascetic and educational. It is also deeply moral and spiritual. Co-existing with this grand tradition is what anthropologists commonly refer to as ‘‘the small tradition’’ of happiness within which ordinary people live their lives. Given the dominance of Confucianism in traditional China, significant overlaps of the two traditions are to be expected, as Confucianism was a powerful socializing force for ordinary people. Popular idioms and sayings presumably best capture this folk tradition of happiness. Within the popular idiomatic legacy, happiness is often articulated with respect to helping others, awareness of one’s having enough, and to share happiness with others. For example, idiomatic sayings like ‘‘helping others is the basis of happiness’’, ‘‘the greater number of sons you have, the happier you are’’, ‘‘recognizing one has already had enough is the constant source of happiness’’ and ‘‘to be happy together with others is better than to be happy alone’’. Indeed, this folk concept of happiness is continuous with how happiness was conceived in pre-Confucian times. The ‘‘Five-Happiness’’ that is hugely popular in today’s Chinese communities apparently has its root in pre-Confucius times. The idea of Five Happiness—Longevity, Wealth, Health and Peace, Love of Morality, Live the full Live—appeared in the Book of History, a classic text. In its present day version, the Five Happiness has evolved into Happiness, Income, Longevity, Joyfulness and Wealth. If we take the Five Happiness as representative of the core of the lay person’s happiness, then the folk concept of happiness is less moralistic and less ascetic than its intellectual version, though retaining the familial and social aspects of the latter. For ordinary people, material success (high income and a good job) and satisfaction, as well as good health count importantly in their hedonic calculus. The high popularity of the God of Wealth in almost every corner of today’s Chinese societies strongly testifies to the importance of wealth and prosperity in people’s mind. Contemporary popular writers like Lin Yu-tong saw happiness as a pleasurable life. In earlier times, writer Jin Shentan opined that a happy life was composed of thirty three mundane pleasures. Perhaps these writers had done a better job in unpacking the meanings of folk happiness than their Confucian counterparts had done. In the Confucian tradition (Hwang 1988; Ip 1996, 2004; Chu and Ju 1993; de Bary and Bloom 1999; Ebrey 1993; Legge 1966; Mou 2009; Tu 1995; Yao 2003a, b), happiness seems to be defined by two overlapping concepts of happiness adopted and practiced by the intellectual and ruling class and the commoner, respectively. The intellectual version paints a happy life as a life of happy family, learning, and harmonious social relationship. It is also a life of continuous moral restraints and accomplishment as well as a life of conscious contentment where wealth possession and material success plays a non-essential role in one’s overall happiness. Under the folk version, not only major Confucian happiness elements like familial and social harmony are included, secular success, and material well-being (long life, good job, big family, wealthy, healthy) are regarded as constitutive of happiness. The Confucian ideal of moral improvement and a down-graded material well-being are fearfully respected and dutifully practiced by common people insofar as the ideal would not hamper their pursuit of material success. The intellectual concept of happiness has little to say about happiness of a state, except with a few comments about the ruler’s happiness in relationship his subjects. For example, Mencius said that when an emperor would feel happy for his subject’s happiness, his
123
468
P. K. Ip
subjects would also feel happy for the emperor’s happiness. In this sense, it said something about ‘‘the well-being of the state’’. Folk happiness, however, contains little related to the contents of a happy nation. Accompanying the dominant Confucian tradition, Taoism and Buddhism are the two major cultural strands that shape the outlooks and practices of Chinese people, including their respective perceptions of folk happiness. Briefly, Taoists and Buddhists counsel a life of diminished and restrained desires and wants as the gateway to freedom and happiness. Spiritual growth and fulfillment, and not material possession and indulgence are the true sources of authentic happiness. Earthy pleasures and satisfactions are illusionary and transitional, and are causes of constant dissatisfaction, pain and unhappiness. Only by restraining or relinquishing the material pleasures and worldly desires, and by continuous spiritual cleansing and elevation can one achieve genuine happiness and contentment (karma). How the Chinese people subscribed to these three versions of happiness shaped, respectively by these three traditions depend very much on their core beliefs and values. Hard-core believers of Confucianism, Taoism or Buddhism presumably faithfully adhered to their own system, while shunning elements from other traditions. For the non-hard-core folks, pragmatic consideration dictated their preferences. As a result, they might adopt a mixture of the elements from these three traditions. It is then not surprising to find strands of these three traditions in many Chinese people’s idea of happiness, referred to as ‘‘the old folk concept of happiness’.
5 Comparing Old and New Concepts of Folk Happiness There is no shortage of popular views of happiness in Chinese communities. When casually asked, a Chinese person will be quick and willing to provide one or two succinct and commonly-held notions of happiness. For example, expressions like ‘‘having the whole family security and safe’’, ‘‘having pious children’’, ‘‘be grateful to others’’, ‘‘respected by others’’, ‘‘knowing that one has enough’’, ‘‘having a good job’’, ‘‘helping others’’, among others are typical examples (see also Appendix 1 and 2). However, popular though these notions are, they often depict only a fraction of what is meant by happiness by the individual Chinese or the Chinese communities as a whole. They are intuitive, subjective, selective, personal and even idiosyncratic, as they are often shaped by varied personal experiences and specific contingencies, which largely are non-generalizable. Notably, these notions are often person- or family-based, with little reference to a larger social context. There are few happiness notions that makes reference to the conditions of a nation. As a result, these notions either singularly or collectively fall short of providing a representative generic notion of happiness held by to-day’s Chinese people. To construct such a notion requires systematic scientific work to investigate what people really think about the meanings of happiness. The findings of this survey provide a solid basis for such a task. A comprehensive concept of happiness that includes national and personal happiness could be informed by and constructed on these findings. The findings of this survey have revealed that Taiwanese people regard the national wellbeing as composed of 12 major elements—peace and security, good law and order, good economy, living conditions improvement, ethnic harmony, quality and human rights, clean, effective and caring government, independent judiciary, small rich-poor gap, good health system, good education system, good environment, and social trust. These admittedly are core elements that constitute a functioning modern democratic society. On the personal level, people think a happy life is constituted of body-mind health, good family life and social relationship, good job, and satisfactory sex life. Furthermore, they agree that more
123
Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness
469
wealth does not mean more happiness. Combining these two well-being concepts produces a modern day version of the folk concept of happiness, referred to as ‘‘the new folk concept of happiness’’. It is interesting to compare the new concept with the old folk concept. Noticeably, the old concept contains little about well-being of a country, while the new concept has a rich content in this regard. The difference however is not difficult to explain. For much of Chinese history, common people had lived an existence of subservience under powerful lords, princes and emperors. Under a long string of the imperial and authoritarian regimes, people lived their lives in a status-bound, hierarchy-structured social order with its rigidly prescribed roles and obligations. Chinese society in the old days, by and large, was a two-tier hierarchical society. At the top of the hierarchy was a tiny group of powerful and wealthy ruling elites at the top exercising arbitrary power over groups of powerless peasants and commoners at the bottom whose livelihoods and fates were largely at the mercy of their masters. Such a social order was fortified and legitimized by orthodox Confucianism that endorsed order, loyalty, hierarchy, authority and conservatism. Such a subservient existence bred a culture of docility, parochialism, submissiveness, conservatism and servitude, among other things. Under such circumstances, commoners were confined to a life of restricted visions and limited autonomy. For the bulk of their conscious lives, state matters were beyond their everyday concern and control, except during famines or wars that destroyed their livelihood and threatened their survival. Matters relating to state well-being were the privileged domain of concerns of the scholar-official community and the ruling class. To be able to have a concept of national well-being reflects an awareness of citizenship that is possible only after the emergency of the modern state and of late, the advent of democracy. This helps explain why the concept of national well-being is so content-rich in the new concept and so impoverished in the old one. In contrast, there are significant overlaps of contents between the old and new concept of personal well-being. Elements like family, social relationship, a long life, material wellbeing continue to occupy essential positions in people’s notion of well-being throughout history. In particular, harmonious familial and social relationships, as well as health are elements continuously regarded as the core of personal happiness. Furthermore, the wish for a high income (as a result of a good job) endorsed in the old concept still resonates in today’s personal well-being domain. The element of longevity valued in the old concept may or may not include the element of mind–body health in the new concept. However, if we agree that health awareness is only a recent phenomenon, people opting for a long life might not have been aware of the fact that a long and healthy life (mind and body health) would be of a much higher value than a numerically long life. One conspicuous difference between the old and the new concept is the element of sexual life. As Chinese society is becoming more open, people have begun to recognize a sexually satisfactory life as an element of a happy life. When sex was considered a social taboo in the old days, one should not be surprised to find its absence in the traditional notion of personal happiness. By and large, there is a discernable continuity of shared elements of personal happiness between the old and new concepts of happiness. Finally, on the relationship between the intellectual strand of the old and new concept of happiness, it is found that the new concept does not have the strong ethical content of the old concept (Table 3).
6 Conclusion Discourses on folk concept of happiness in Asia are often influenced by the three grand traditions of happiness, especially the dominant Confucian tradition, and are often based
123
470
P. K. Ip
Table 3 Comparing old happiness and new happiness Old happiness (Confucian)
New happiness
Two layers with overlaps and tensions
Two levels
Grand tradition—intellectual—ruling class
Personal well-being
Familial, social, moral-guided, ethics-constrained materialism
Body mind health
Three Happiness
Good social relationships
Good family life Good job More wealth more happiness Satisfactory sex life
Small tradition—common people
National well-being
Five happiness—happiness, income, longevity, joyfulness and wealth
No wars or threat of war
Less moralistic
Law and order, life, property protected
Less ascetic
Good economy life improved
Hedonic calculus includes
Ethnic harmony
Material success (high income and a good job)
Equality and human rights
Good health
Government clean, effective, caring
Wealth and prosperity
Judiciary fair and independent
e.g. God of wealth
Rich and poor gap narrowed Good health care system Good education equal opportunity Environment protected Social trust
on anecdotal narratives. As argued earlier, these traditions, especially the Confucian one, were developed for the consumption of the learned and ruling class, who had little worry about material possession or consumption. Also, the notions of happiness advocated in these traditions are of exhortative nature. They depict an ideal life condition as an ultimate resting place for people’s peace of mind. In so doing, these notions play a role similar to religion, even though the language (Confucianism and secular Taoism) used is largely secular. Furthermore, the happiness notions in the grand traditions are not empirical notions intended to describe matters of fact pertaining to happiness. They are basically normative notions with the purpose of prescribing action, policy, and life plan of an ideally blissful world. These notions are formed from ‘‘a View from the Top.’’ The learned class has been the major player in formulating and promoting these notions. In contrast, the folk concept in the little tradition though contains discernable normative ingredients, may have a closer connection with the real world as it contains elements generalized from real life experiences of the lay person. In this sense, it represents better the real wishes and thinking of ordinary folks than the intellectual version can. Using this approach to probe people’s thinking about happiness is a approach that takes ‘‘a View from Below’’. If we want to know what ordinary people actually think and feel about happiness, the View from Below approach seems a better way forward. The study presented in this paper follows this approach, albeit in a more systematic and rigorous way.
123
Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness
471
Acknowledgments I thank the two reviewers for their constructive comments that help to improve the paper. Portions of the paper are drawn from a larger paper on the well-being of Taiwan society. The data used in this paper are based on a survey that is a part of a research project—‘‘Research on Well-being of Nations’’ (project 965908) funded by the ‘‘Project of Promoting Academic Excellence and Developing World Class Research Centers,’’ of the National Central University. I am greatly indebted to Professor Alex Michalos for his constructive comments which help improve the paper. I am grateful to Professor Cummins for allowing me to use the well-being questionnaire of the Australian Center on the Quality of Life as reference for designing the questionnaire of this survey, as well as his advice and guidance. The works of Professor Cummins and Professor Michalos and Professor Veenhoven have been a constant source of inspiration in my thinking in the well-being issues. My research assistant Liu Shih-Ching has given me good support in my research. I also thank S. C. Lee and Y. B. Ling, colleagues at the Graduate Institute for their comments on the early draft of the questionnaires. I am grateful to Bomy So of Social Survey Center of Academia Sinica in her help and advice in doing the statistically analysis of the samples.
Appendix 1 See Table 4.
Table 4 Selected samples of additional items of national well-being
Frequency Reduce confrontations between politicians, confusing education reform
3
Good quality of citizen good, teach children world view, 2 improve their foreign language Good communication between people and government
3
Marginalized group protected
2
People know cardinal virtues of li, yi, lane, zi
1
Mutual respect beyond party allegiances or ethnicity 4 Do not want to see legislators physically attacking each other in the Legislature
2
No sensational media reporting
2
Use education and the media to increase satisfaction of people
4
Unity of world nations
1
Independent sovereignty
2
Increase the nation’s competitiveness
3
Improvement of diplomacy
2
Good local development
2
People has a common goal
1
No hatred, have empathy
1
No violence
3
Religious freedom, mutual respects among different religions
1
Government takes non-partisan stance
4
Government has no special privileges
6
Government responsive to the need of people
8
Politicians should be moral
4
Politics should not be chaotic
5
Stability in politics and society
6
123
472
P. K. Ip
Table 4 continued
Frequency Consistent policy
4
Enforcement of policy
3
No power struggles between political parties
6
Harmony between political parties
5
Good national leaders
3
God-fearing and humble leaders
1
Affordable health care
3
Politicians should keep election promises
2
International participation
1
Assert sovereignty of the nation, people have national pride
3
People need same national identity
2
Improve international status
1
Too many and too frequently held elections
5
Appendix 2 See Table 5. Table 5 Selected samples of additional items of personal well-being
Frequency Free dental services for people over 60
2
Understand one’s own self
4
Has a definite life goal and values
6
Happiness of all produces one’s happiness
1
Be kind to others, optimistic, be grateful, mutual understanding and trust
5
Do not be mutually suspicious of each other
2
Have three generations under one roof
1
Children to meet parent’s expectation
3
Children stay healthy
8
Have good children
7
Have opportunity to develop one’s talents
3
Unity of spirit between husband and wife
2
Peace of mind
6
Rich in spirit
5
Joyful living
3
Leisure and entertainment
3
Have a full belly
1
Do more exercise
3
Have personal favorable hobbies
2
Have self control
3
Knowing one is having enough makes one always happy 5
123
Concepts of Chinese Folk Happiness Table 5 continued
473
Frequency Self moral improvement
4
Free, and having plenty of free time
5
Respected by others
3
Peace and joy in mind given by religion
3
To serve others
4
Gives back to society
3
Able to let go
4
Do what one likes to do
3
Buy what one wants to buy
1
References Ames, R. T., & Rosemont, H. (1998). The analects of Confucius: A philosophical translation. New York: Ballantine Books. Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). Social indicators of well-being. New York: Plenum Press. Argyle, M. (1999). Causes and correlatives of happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 353–371). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Basic Survey Project on Social Change in Taiwan Project. (1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005). Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica. Brockmann, H., Delhey, J., Welzel, C., & Yuan, H. (2009). The China puzzle: Falling happiness in a rising economy. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10, 387–405. Chan, W. T. (1963). Source book in Chinese philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Chan, Y., & Lee, R. (2006). Network size, social support and happiness in later life: a comparative study of Beijing and Hong Kong. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 87–112. Chen, Z., & Davey, G. (2008). Happiness and subjective wellbeing in Mainland China. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 589–600. Cheng, C. Y. (1991). New dimensions of Confucian and Neo-Confucian philosophy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Cheung, C.-K., & Leung, K.-K. (2004). Forming life satisfaction among different social groups during the modernization of China. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5, 23–56. Chu, G., & Ju, Y. (1993). The great wall in ruins: Communication and cultural change in China. Albany: State of New York University Press. Cua, A. (Ed.). (2003). Encyclopedia of Chinese philosophy. New York: Routledge. Cummins, R. A. (1996). The domain of life satisfaction: An attempt to order chaos. Social Indicator Research, 38, 303–328. Cummins, R. A. (2000). Objective and subjective quality of life: An interactive model. Social Indicator Research, 51, 55–72. Cummins, R. (2003). Normative life satisfaction: Measurement issues and a homeostatic model. Social Indicators Research, 64, 225–256. Cummins, R. A., Eckersley, R., Paliant, J., Vugt, J. V., & Misajon, R. (2003). Developing a national index of subjective wellbeing: The Australian unity wellbeing index. Social Indicator Research, 64, 159–190. de Bary, Wm. T., & Bloom, I. (Eds.). (1999). Sources of Chinese tradition (2nd ed., Vol. 1). New York: Columbia University Press. Diener, E. (1995). A value based index for measuring national quality of life. Social Indicators Research, 36, 107–127. Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (1999). National differences in subjective well-being. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 434–450). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Ebrey, P. B. (Ed.). (1993). Chinese civilization: a sourcebook (2nd Ed., revised and expanded). New York: Free Press, Princeton University Press. Estes, R. J. (1988). Trends in world social development: The social progress of nations, 1970–1987. New York: Praeger.
123
474
P. K. Ip
Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2000). Happiness, economy and institutions. Economic Journal, 110, 913–938. Fung, Y. L. (1983). A history of Chinese philosophy (D. Bodde, Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Hwang, K. K. (1988). Confucianism and East Asian modernization. Taipei: Chu Liu Book. (in Chinese). Ip, P. K. (1996). Confucian familial collectivism and the underdevelopment of the civic person. In N. K. Lo & S. W. Man (Eds.), Research and endeavors in moral and civic education (pp. 39–58). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. Ip, P. K. (2004). Confucian personhood and bioethics: a critical appraisal. In R. Z. Qiu (Ed.), Bioethics: Asian perspectives, a quest for moral diversity (pp. 49–56). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Ip, P. K. (2009a). A draft report on a survey on the Taiwanese people’s concept of well-being and their subjective well-being. Jhongli, Taiwan: National Central University. (in Chinese, unpublished manuscript). Ip, P. K. (2009b). (Ed.) Well-being of nations—a cross-cultural perspective. Social Indicator Research, 91, 1–3. Kahneman, D., Diener, E., & Schwarz, N. (Eds.). (1999). Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Lao, S. K. (1980). History of Chinese philosophy (Vol. 1). Hong Kong: Union Books, Chung Chi College. (in Chinese). Lau, D. C. (1979). Confucius: The analects. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Lau, D. C. (1984). Mencius, 2 vols. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. Lau, A., Cummins, R., & McPherson, W. (2005). An investigation into the cross-cultural equivalence of the Personal Wellbeing Index. Social Indicators Research, 75, 403–430. Legge, J. (1966). The four books: Confucian analects, the great learning, the doctrine of the mean, and the works of Mencius. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp. Liao, P. S. (2009). Parallels between objective indicators and subjective perceptions of quality of life: A study of metropolitan and county areas in Taiwan. Social Indicator Research, 91, 99–114. Liao, P., Fu, Y., & Yi, C. (2005). Perceived quality of life in Taiwan and Hong Kong: An intra-culture comparison. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 43–67. Michalos, A. C. (1980). North American social report, vol. 1: Foundations, population and health. Dordrecht: Reidel. Michalos, A. C. (1991). Global report on student well-being. Volume 1: Life satisfaction and happiness. New York: Springer. Michalos, A. C. (2003). Essays on the quality of life. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Michalos, A. C. (Ed.). (2005). Citation classics from social indicator research. Dordrecht: Springer. Mou, B. (Ed.). (2009). History of Chinese philosophy. New York, London: Routledge. Schwarz, N., & Strack, F. (1999). Reports of subjective well-being: Judgmental process and their methodological implications. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 61–84). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Shek, D. T. L., Chan, Y. K., & Lee, P. S. N. (Eds.). (2005). Quality of life research in Chinese, Western and global contexts. Dordrecht: Springer. Transparency International. (2007). Global corruption report. http://developmentdigest.wordpress.com/ 2007/05/31/transparency-international-global-corruption-report-2007/, accessed on September 20, 2007. Tsou, M. W., & Liu, J. T. (2001). Happiness and domain satisfaction in Taiwan. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, 269–288. Tu, W.-m. (1995). Confucius and Confucianism. In R. McHenry (Ed.), The new encyclopaedia Britannica (pp. 653–662). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Veenhoven, R. (1993). Happiness in nations: Subjective appreciation of life in 56 nations 1946–1992. Rotterdam: Erasmus University Press. Veenhoven, R. (1995). The cross national pattern of happiness. Tests of predictions implied in three theories of happiness. Social Indicators Research, 34, 33–68. Wan, P. S. (1997). Subjective well-being: Now and then. In S. K. Lau, M. K. Lee, P. S. Wan, & S. L. Wong (Eds.), Indicators of social development: Hong Kong 1995 (pp. 49–81). Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Wong, C., & Tang, C. (2003). Personality, psychosocial variables, and life satisfaction of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong. Journal of Happiness Studies, 4, 285–293. Xing, Z. J., & Liao, H. (2008). Subjective well-being of Chinese citizens: A report on well-being index from six provincial capitals. Beijing: Social Sciences Documentation Publisher. (in Chinese). Yao, X. (Ed.). (2003a). Encyclopedia of Confucianism (Vol. 1). London, New York: RoutledgeCurzon. Yao, X. (2003b). Encyclopedia of Confucianism. Vol. 2. London, New York: RoutledgeCurzon. Zhou, C. C. (Ed.). (2008). Subjective quality of life: Indicators and evaluation. Beijing: Social Sciences Documentation Publisher. (in Chinese).
123
