What defines "happiness," and how can we attain it? The ways in which people in China ask and answer this universal question tell a lot about the tensions and challenges they face during periods of remarkable political and economic change.
Based on a five-year original study conducted by a select team of China experts, The Chinese Pursuit of Happiness begins by asking if Chinese citizens’ assessment of their life is primarily a judgment of their social relationships. The book shows how different dimensions of happiness are manifest in the moral and ethical understandings that embed individuals in specific communities. Vividly describing the moral dilemmas experienced in contemporary Chinese society, the rituals of happiness performed in modern weddings, the practices of conviviality carried out in shared meals, the professional tensions confronted by social workers, and the hopes and frustrations shared by political reformers, the contributors to this important study illuminate the causes of anxiety and reasons for hope in China today.
Becky Yang Hsu is Associate Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University and the author of Borrowing Together.
Richard Madsen is Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of numerous books on Chinese societies.
"Exploring how various versions of happiness derive from individual endeavors of living up to certain core virtues, this book offers a highly original and excellent account of what constitutes a good life and a good society in contemporary China. A must-read!"—Yunxiang Yan, author of The Individualization of Chinese Society
"This is a highly original work that sheds light on what ‘a good life’ means in contemporary China. In an era when many lament society’s spiritual vacuum and loss of shared values, this book shows that there are still common threads tying together how Chinese people imagine and pursue happiness."—Anthony J. Spires, University of Melbourne
200 pp.6 x 9
9780520306325$34.95|£30.00Paper
Sep 2019