【中文标题】中国人的幸福在哪里？
【原文标题】In China, gauging happiness is all the rage
【登载媒体】洛杉矶时报
【原文作者】Barbara Demick
【原文链接】http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-happiness-20110516,0,4151895.story
突然之间，“幸福”这个词出现在所有中国政客的舌尖上。在地方，各级政府部门在收集幸福指数，争夺“中国最幸福的城市”的名号。
四川绵阳，人们每年从太平桥上扔下旧衣服和钱币，以祈求幸福和健康。幸福在现代中国是一个捉摸不定的概念。
总体上看，你觉得幸福吗？
如果你有机会选择另外一种生活，你愿意变成默默无闻的农民、辛苦的工人、无忧无虑的公务员、受人尊敬的经理、设计师、公司职员、教师、家庭主妇，还是愿意继续你现在的职业？
什么会让你更加幸福？
在一个不到一代人的时间里，收入水平增长了5倍的国家中，这似乎是一个无需回答的问题。但是中国人在探索生活中最大的一个命题：金钱不一定会买来幸福感。他们越来越少问自己、问他人“今天吃了吗”这个中国传统的问候语，而是改为“你幸福吗？”
“幸福”的概念在这里还是相对陌生的，中国没有与托马斯杰佛逊相比肩的人物，他在独立宣言中把“追求幸福”奉为与生命和自由同等的权力。（或许在一首革命歌曲中有一个例外，《东方红》里有一句歌词“他（毛主席）为人民谋幸福”。）
但是突然之间，“幸福”这个词出现在所有中国政客的舌尖上。温家宝总理在新年致辞中说：“我们所做的一切，都是为了让人民生活得更加幸福、更有尊严。”在3月份召开的人民代表大会和政协会议中，涉及幸福的话题如此之多，以至于新华社宣称：“毫无疑问，‘幸福’是两会的关键词。”
在地方，各级政府部门在收集幸福指数，争夺“中国最幸福的城市”的名号。
出生在中国的芝加哥大学教授Christopher K. Hsee说：“在中国问别人‘你幸福吗’还是感觉怪怪的，但是现在围绕幸福的讨论实在太多，感觉这个话题都变成陈词滥调了。”他被认为在中国最先开始有关幸福的研究。
中国政府怎么突然对幸福感趋炎附势起来？爱挑刺的人或许会说，经济增长放缓之后，官员们在寻找另外一个标志他们成功的指标。但是Hsee认为，幸福的概念是共产党宣传创造“和谐社会”的必然产物。
Hsee说：“幸福是与和谐并存的概念。”
近期已经有十来个民意调查问卷，其中有一些是政府机构主办的，来测量中国人的幸福程度。调查结果并非都是领导人们所希望看到的。
在人民代表大会召开之前，一家国有网站China.com.cn针对1350人进行调查，结果是只有6％的人认为自己“非常幸福”，48％的人明确选择“不幸福”（其它两个选项是“一般”和“不确定”）。英文版的《中国日报》报道了这一令人不快的结果，但文章很快就被从网络上删除。
另一项调查的结果更为当权者撞响了警钟。上个月，盖洛普公司调查各国人民对自身“福祉”的评价，中国在124个国家中排在第92位。只有12％的中国人认为自己“幸福”，这让中国几乎与埃及、利比亚、也门和巴林处于同一级别，而这些国家民众的不满都已经以骚乱、起义的形式爆发出来。丹麦位列榜首，72％的人认为自己幸福；美国以59％位列第12位。
很多国家，包括英国和法国，都认为“幸福指数”是衡量传统上成功的一个补充标准。但是似乎中国对此有更加迫切的需求，因为中国变化的速度让人头晕目眩。对于那些研究什么能让人感到幸福的学者来说——学术上称此为“幸福学”，中国是研究这个领域中令人郁闷的问题的绝佳试验场所。
大家都同样很穷的时候会感到更幸福吗（中国在20世纪大部分时间里就是如此）？当人们有钱了，收入差距悬殊导致了不幸福感吗？
中国正在进行的研究是建立在所谓伊斯特林悖论的基础上，这是以一位经济学家命名的理论。他在70年代写道，当人们有足够的钱来满足基本需求之后，更多的收入不一定会带来更多的幸福感。
大部分学术研究是在上海交通大学安泰经济管理学院中进行的。研究人员使用问卷调查、志愿者试验和计算机模拟等方式，试图了解快速的经济和社会发展对幸福程度有什么影响。
快速变化，即使是正面的变化，也会引发不满。研究小组的领导王芳华教授说：“人们对变化有着剧烈的反应，无论是好的变化还是坏的变化。在对幸福感的研究中，我们发现人们对新的情况很难适应。”
另一个现象也颇令中国人不安：当人们变得更富有之后，他们很快就会接受这个现实，认为自己所取得的一切都是理所应当的，同时满怀艳羡地期望更加富有。
王说：“很明显，人们对金钱的满意程度是相对的。如果一个人今年的薪水比去年高，他或许不会很高兴。但是如果他的薪水比朋友们高，他一定会感到幸福。”
中国的困境还在于期望常常超出现实。
中国顶尖的调查机构——北京零点调查公司负责幸福指数研究的张辉说：“人们的期望越来越高，甚至高出他们的实际需求，人们因此而常常感到不幸福。从调查结果可以明显看出，社会发展落后于经济发展。”该机构组织的几次调查结果显示，自从2005年以来，幸福和生活质量指数都呈平稳下降的趋势。
飞涨的房地产价格是居民最不满意的因素，很多受访者认为这是腐败和社会制度不公平的问题。
在中国官方看来，如果国家无法通过改革来创造一个更加幸福的社会，那么个人就必须想办法让自己幸福。
北京市政府在上个月宣布，大学中将增加有关应对压力、人际关系和心理健康的课程。刚开始会以选修课的形式出后，但今后会变为必修课。
尽管有关幸福的理论在中国并不引人注意（张说：“现在中国有关自我发展的书基本上都在关注如何致富。”），但是人们对其所产生的兴趣越来越高。幸福学大师Tal Ben-Shahar（译者注：哈佛大学积极心理学与领袖心理学讲授者）的在线讲座深受欢迎。
32岁的心理学研究生刘凯文运作着一家咨询公司，他说现在已经有不少刚起步的公司在培训人们有关幸福的艺术。
刘的公司常常与其它机构合作，他说：“这个行业在5年前刚刚出现，我们认为，你可以通过培训得到获取更高幸福感的能力。”
有关幸福的调查揭示了中国差异悬殊的现状。一些调查结果是：北方人比南方人更幸福；城市居民比农村居民更幸福，但后者的差异并不像人们所想象的那样巨大，因为摆脱农民的身份是在中国成功的标志。
从职业分类来看，公务员最幸福，与企业员工相比，他们享受稳定安全的待遇。第二幸福的职业是房地产开发商。男人在41岁最幸福，女人在28岁最幸福。最不幸福的人群是40到44岁的女性。
40岁的张似乎拥有一个令人羡慕的生活——与一位学者组成家庭，有一个11岁的儿子，有自己的住房和汽车。他把自己定为一个榜样。
张说：“像我这个年龄的女性，父母已经年迈，孩子正在经历青春期。由于我们大部分只有一个孩子，所以面临很大的压力来给他们提供最好的教育。这就是为什么有那么多的中国女性在工作挣钱，她们担心拖累家庭。如果给自己的幸福指数评分，我或许可以得到85分，我觉得我还可以做得更好。”
原文：
Suddenly, happiness is on the tip of every Chinese politician's tongue. At the local level, municipalities are drawing up happiness indexes and competing for the title of 'China's happiest city.'
In Mianyang, Sichuan province, people drop old clothes and coins off Tai Ping Bridge every year to bring happiness and health. Happiness is an elusive concept in modern China. (Reuters / March 24, 2011)
Reporting from Shanghai— In general, do you feel happy?
If you had a second chance in life, would you rather be an honest farmer, a hard-working laborer, a worry-free civil servant, a respected manager, a designer, an office clerk, a teacher, a homemaker, or stay in your current profession?
What would make you happier?
It seems almost gratuitous to be posing such questions in a country where income levels have increased fivefold in half a generation. But the Chinese are discovering one of life's greatest lessons: that money doesn't necessarily buy you happiness. And increasingly, they are asking themselves and each other not "Did you eat today?"— a traditional greeting in China — but "Are you happy?"
The concept of happiness, xingfu, is somewhat alien here, there being no equivalent of Thomas Jefferson, credited with enshrining "the pursuit of happiness" at the same level as life and liberty in the Declaration of Independence. (An exception is one verse of the revolutionary ballad "The East is Red," which states that "Chairman Mao seeks happiness for his people.")
But suddenly, happiness is on the tip of every Chinese politician's tongue. "Everything we do is aimed at letting people live more happily and with more dignity," Premier Wen Jiabao declared in his New Year's address to the nation. During the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in March, it came up so often that the official New China News Agency proclaimed, "No doubt, 'happiness' is the keyword for the two sessions."
At the local level, municipal governments are drawing up happiness indexes and competing with one another for the title of "China's happiest city."
"It even sounds a little weird in Chinese to ask, 'Are you happy?' but now there is so much talk about happiness, it's almost become a cliché," said Christopher K. Hsee, a Chinese-born University of Chicago professor who is credited with bringing happiness studies to China.
Why is the Chinese government suddenly jumping on the happiness bandwagon? Cynics might argue that officials are looking for an alternate measure of success for that inevitable point when economic growth plateaus. But Hsee believes the concept of happiness is a natural corollary of the Communist Party's propaganda about creating a "harmonious society."
"Happiness is a subject that is consistent with harmony," Hsee said.
Nearly a dozen different polls, some commissioned by government agencies, have recently tried to gauge the happiness of the Chinese people. The answers aren't always what the leadership is looking for.
In advance of the National People's Congress, a state-owned information portal, China.com.cn, polled 1,350 people and discovered that only 6% listed themselves as "very happy," as opposed to 48% who were distinctly "not happy." (The rest were "so-so" or "unsure." ) A news story reporting the unhappy results in the English-language China Daily was promptly zapped from the Internet.
The results of another poll must have been even more alarming to the powers that be. Gallup last month ranked China 92nd out of 124 countries in a poll in which people assessed their own "well-being." Only 12% of Chinese described themselves as "thriving." That put China roughly on par with Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, countries where the discontent bubbled up in the form of popular uprisings. Denmark led the pack with 72% of people reporting that they were thriving, while the United States came in at No. 12, with 59%.
Many countries, including Britain and France, are considering "happiness indexes" as a supplement to more traditional measures of success, but there is perhaps greater urgency in China because of the vertigo-inducing nature of change. And for scholars of what makes people happy — "hedonomics," as it's known in academia — China is the perfect laboratory for studying some of the most vexing questions in the field.
Are people happier when everybody is equally poor (more or less the scenario in China for much of the late 20th century)? When people get richer, but some much more so than others, do the income disparities create unhappiness?
The research now underway in China builds on what is called the Easterlin Paradox, named for the economist who in the 1970s wrote that once people get enough money to meet their basic needs, higher incomes don't necessarily lead to more happiness.
Much of the academic research is being done in Shanghai at Jiaotong University's Antai College of Economics and Management. Using surveys, experiments involving volunteers and computer simulations, researchers there are studying the effect of rapid economic and social change on happiness levels.
Swift change, even positive change, can breed discontent. "People respond dramatically to change, good or bad. In our studies of happiness, we find that people can't get used to the new situation," said Wang Fanghua, a professor who is leading the research.
Another phenomenon that is potentially worrisome for the Chinese: When people get richer, they quickly adjust to the new reality, taking for granted what is behind them and looking with envy at those who are ahead.
"What is clear is that satisfaction with money is relative. If somebody got a higher salary this year than last, he might not be happy," Wang said. "But if his income is better than his friends', then he will be happy."
The rub for the Chinese is also that aspirations often outpace reality.
"In a time of rising expectations, people are often unhappy because they have higher expectations about what they need. It is obvious from the surveys that social development is lagging behind the economy," said Zhang Hui, who is in charge of the happiness studies at Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group, one of China's leading pollsters. Separate polls conducted by the agency show a steady slide in both happiness and quality of life since 2005.
Rising commodity and real estate prices were major causes of dissatisfaction. Many of those surveyed blamed corruption and an unfair social system for their hardships.
As far as Chinese authorities are concerned, if the nation cannot be reformed to create a happier society, individuals must make themselves happier.
The Beijing municipality announced last month that colleges would soon be adding courses in how to handle pressure, relations and mental health. The courses will be optional at first, but could become mandatory.
Although happiness is not yet on the bestseller list in China ("Self-help books in China only look at how to get rich," Zhang said), interest is growing. Online lectures by the happiness guru Tal Ben-Shahar are also popular.
Kevin Liu, a 32-year-old psychology graduate who runs a consulting firm, says there are a number of start-up companies training people in the art of happiness.
"This kind of service has just emerged in China in the past five years," said Liu, whose company works with corporate employees. "We think through training you can raise your ability to be happy."
The happiness surveys show great disparities in China. Among the findings: Northerners are happier than southerners. Urban residents are happier than rural ones, but not by as large a margin as people would expect given that getting off the farm is a badge of success in China.
Within the occupations, civil servants are happiest, enjoying the security of a steady paycheck rather than the stress of entrepreneurship. Second as far as happiness are real estate brokers. Men are happiest at the age of 41. Women are happiest at 28. The most unhappy group of people are women ages 40 through 44.
Zhang, who at 40 would seem to have an enviable life, married to an academic, with an 11-year-old son, an apartment and a car, offers herself as an example.
"With women my age, their parents are getting old; their children are starting puberty, and since we mostly have only one child, there is so much pressure to provide a good education. Then so many Chinese women work and they have to worry about lagging behind," Zhang said. "I think when I look at my own happiness, it's maybe 85 out of 100 points. I think I can learn to do better." |
狗仔卡
发表于 2011-5-23 10:22
提升卡
变色卡
抢沙发
千斤顶
显身卡
发表于 2011-5-23 11:12
（长城虽然宏伟，但也只不过是简单的石材堆砌而已，在技术与设计上没有什可以和西方吹嘘的地方）
中国人的幸福就是对美国人说：no。。。。。
