When money is not the key to happiness

May 24, 2011

MEMO FROM BEIJING

Study finds relatively poor Shijiazhuang is China's happiest city

By Grace Ng, China Correspondent

Women forming the word 'happy' at a Guangzhou bikini contest in southern Guangdong province earlier this month. The Chinese Communist Party leadership is on a drive to make citizens happy as it strives to keep social stability by showing it cares about their well-being. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE people of Shijiazhuang, capital of northern Hebei province and an industrial hub, have reason to cheer.

This month, the city with a population of about 11 million was named China's happiest city.

It beat more than 290 Chinese cities to the title in an annual competitiveness study by a government think-tank.

The news was greeted with both shock and envy - that this relatively poor city could grab such a coveted position and score major political points with the top leadership, whose new campaign is to make people happy.

This was the first time that the closely watched annual survey included a 'happiness index', as the Chinese Communist Party strives to maintain social stability by showing that it cares about the people's well-being.

Linyi in Shandong province and Yangzhou in Jiangsu province were placed second and third. Beijing squeezed into the top 10 at No. 9.

What the survey showed, like several other studies before it, is that becoming the world's second largest economy has not made the vast majority of China's 1.3 billion population happier.

Last month, China was ranked 92nd out of 124 countries in a Gallup poll in which people evaluated their own well-being. In March, 94 per cent of 1,350 people surveyed by the state media said they were 'unhappy' or felt only 'so-so'.

The latest study, which came amid fresh reports of record inflation and rising housing prices, showed that the richest mainland cities were also among the unhappiest.

Shanghai, for instance, was ranked the second most competitive city after Hong Kong, but came in a dismal 205th in the 'happiness index'.

The Pearl of the Orient scored high in terms of economic strength and also boasted the largest number of billionaires in China. But the city's residents railed against its air pollution, traffic and stress levels - some of the happiness indicators.

In contrast, Shijiazhuang fell five places to 46th in competitiveness terms.

But its people, whose average income level is less than half of that in Shanghai, scored high in contentment.

Not bad for a place whose most recent claim to fame was as the epicentre of the 2008 tainted milk crisis that sickened some 300,000 people.

As the headquarters of dairy giant Sanlu Group, found to have produced melamine-laced milk, the city became a hotbed of controversy regarding corrupt officials and food safety - two of the top causes of mass discontent often cited in nationwide polls.

Not surprisingly, Shijiazhuang these days is flooded with local media, officials and tourists all seeking its secret to happiness.

Some local residents interviewed cited security - Shijiazhuang is the base for military troops whose task is to defend nearby Beijing, the national capital.

Others attributed it to the rising standard of living as average local incomes rose 10 per cent last year.

But one Shijiazhuang native, who moved to Beijing two years ago in search of a better life - and has yet to find it, offered another explanation.

'I don't think life is that great here. It's just that people in Shijiazhuang, despite their problems, feel less unhappy than those people in the big cities who have more to be unhappy about,' said Ms Zhang Shangxia, 22, who works in a hair salon and sends money back to her family in Shijiazhuang.

Having seen property prices skyrocket and experienced stress at work and horrid jams in Beijing, Ms Zhang admits she is tempted to go home where 'there are fewer factors that could drive one into depression'.

However, she added: 'In the coming years, when Shijiazhuang becomes a much bigger, richer industrial city, the same problems may appear too.'

Indeed, Chinese people's feelings of happiness may be based more on their expectations of a better life than their actual environment.

'Chinese people like to compare themselves with others, so those in richer cities will feel more discontent,' said psychology scholar Feng Lei.

For now, at least, Shijiazhuang can bask in the limelight of being a model city for China's future development, much like Chinese coastal cities that were lauded in the 1980s for their rapid reform and prosperity.

Not to be outdone, Chongqing and Guangdong have unveiled their own five-year economic blueprints which outline strategies to raise happiness levels.

The moves are in line with the national five-year economic masterplan, which lowers the economic growth target to 7 per cent and aims for more social equity.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who unveiled this plan in March, said at the time: 'Everything we do is aimed at letting people live more happily and with more dignity.'

He also said provincial officials' performance should be based not just on economic results, but on how they improve welfare services such as health and education.

But many people are not holding their breath about the success of this official happiness campaign.

'This competition to be China's happiest city benefits only the officials who make up the results, not the people,' said one netizen on a popular forum, kdnet.net.

'It's good that the government advocates improving people's well-being, but it's just too difficult,' said Beijing-based hotel manager Guan Ming, 40.

'The old mindset of putting public interest first is gone. Now it's just power and money (driving things). If this does not change, society will not improve, and people's happiness will not rise.'

graceng@sph.com.sg

Additional reporting by Lina Miao