海角论坛

Assistant Professor of Sociology Becky Hsu (front row, center) and several of her colleagues at the January “Blessed Happiness” symposium on Georgetown’s Campus. Photo by Alex Hu. 

March 8, 2016鈥擨n one of her recent courses, Georgetown 海角论坛鈥檚 assistant professor of sociology asked her students to conduct interviews with their friends around one idea: to describe a time that they felt really happy.

鈥淚 thought it would be a fun way for them to try interviewing,鈥� Hsu explained.

But Hsu鈥檚 interest around the concept of happiness has deep roots; for the past three years, she was part of a research team that investigated how people in China today define happiness. With support from a grant of nearly $1 million from the , Hsu and five colleagues conducted fieldwork to study how Chinese people define happiness and 鈥渢he good life鈥� in urban areas. They then created a new happiness survey that was conducted with 2500 participants across China in January 2016.

鈥淲e all did a different slice of life in China, and we think that the findings from urban life have a lot to say about rural life as well because people are really traveling back and forth a lot,鈥� Hsu said.

Surveys like Hsu鈥檚 are conducted around the world in an attempt to both understand, and, in some cases, improve well-being. Researchers from a variety of fields want to know not only how happy or unhappy people are, but also what factors contribute to these feelings. In recent years, there’s been a larger, global demand for this type of research. Hsu says that organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have all launched significant efforts to understand happiness.

鈥淕overnments are really interested in this and actually use happiness measures for their policy,鈥� Hsu said.

鈥淚n psychological and economic work, there鈥檚 been a focus on good mood and some aspects of well-being. And that鈥檚 really the English version of 鈥榟appy,鈥欌�� she continued. 鈥淭hey do talk about meaning, but they categorize it as an aspect of the good life. But I鈥攖aking queues from the Chinese language and observations of the social life鈥攖hink that they鈥檙e separate.鈥�

In her work, Hsu also noticed significant differences in how her subjects felt about family. When interviewing Chinese students, Hsu often heard that their levels of happiness were derived from their relationship with their parents, whether good or bad.

鈥淭hat was a pattern I saw, and it was very striking,鈥� Hsu said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 this identity that people have where they鈥檙e thinking, 鈥業’m not just an individual, I am who I am in my family.鈥欌��

The importance of family lineage is also reflected in Hsu鈥檚 subjects鈥� feelings about death. During one interview, Hsu鈥檚 subject excitedly showed off the set of burial clothes and jewelry she鈥檇 chosen, as well as the portrait she plans to have displayed at her funeral. Another subject made her burial clothes by hand, but told Hsu she was thinking about making another set in the event that her figure changes before she passes away.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to them,鈥� Hsu said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e putting a lot of time into these preparations. I think that the way people [in China] approach death has to be viewed in the context of the rhythms of everyday life, and that includes interaction with the deceased members of the family. They鈥檙e constantly doing things to remember the deceased, and there’s something about habit that makes death kind of normal. I suspect that feeling 鈥榮urprised鈥� by death might possibly be unique to the United States.”

Hsu wants to explore these differences further in a book about the idea of a good death鈥攕he hopes to conduct more field work in the U.S. for the project.

鈥淚n China, it was nice to come across people who are able to make a meaningful and good event out of something that here is scary and not spoken of鈥攊t seems to be a helpful way to go through these important moments in life,鈥� she said.

In the meantime, Hsu and her fellow researchers will also be writing a book about their findings. In January, they presented preliminary results at Georgetown during 鈥淏lessed Happiness (Fu): Visions of a Good Life in Urban China,鈥� a symposium that featured a range of discussants who have an interest in the concept of happiness. A group of survey researchers also met to discuss the implications of ethnographic work on cross-national surveys鈥攚hich often involve a large number of countries.

鈥淚n our survey we had some new approaches and we鈥檙e going to see how well they work,鈥� Hsu said. 鈥淢y hope is that some of those things can be incorporated in future surveys that will really allow us to compare happiness among people around the world.鈥�

Related Information

Read more about Hsu’s work in .