Perception of happiness: Calibrating quality of life in Yangtze delta

The Yangtze River Delta region is ahead of the pack nationally on a number of parameters, according to survey conducted by the Shanghai Party Institute of the Communist Party of China.

The third of its kind, the survey this year sought to calibrate the quality of life in the Yangtze River Delta region along four dimensions: health and environment, harmony and security, smartness and convenience, and diversity and aspiration.

Shanghai earned 0.68 in the general index for quality of life, well ahead of other delta cities whose average index stood at 0.43, which is among the highest in the country.

Apparently, this index is more than a reflection of the region's status as China's powerhouse of economic growth.

As commented by Qiu Zeqi, a sociology professor from Peking University, the correlation between a higher perception of happiness and higher income can be far from obvious.

Speaking at a recent forum on the survey, Qiu cited the Easterlin Paradox to the effect that once people have enough money to meet their basic needs, having more money is not necessarily correlated with higher self-reported happiness.

While the paradox continues to be controversial, it does suggest our need to tread carefully when making connections between happiness and overall economic factors.

Calibrating people's assessment of the quality of life along four dimensions enables them to look beyond the economy, and pay more attention to spiritual fulfillment, as evidenced in metrics measuring social, cultural, political, and ecological life, in this survey titled "Evaluation Report of Urban High-Quality Life in (the) Yangtze River Delta."

Qiu said that today, when most of us have gone beyond the stage of basic subsistence, the pervasive anxiety felt by the so-called middle class can be blamed more on the impulse to keep up with the people we have come into contact with.

This was more manageable earlier when the objects of our emulation or rivalry were our next-door neighbors, our colleagues, or our former classmates.

But in the time of digitalization this has become more complicated, since our frame of reference is no longer confined to those objects immediately registered by our sensory organs in the physical world.

"One of the most significant changes brought about by digital connectivity is that our physical space is no longer the only space where we give assessment in terms of our quality of life. The space now extends to anywhere on this planet," Qiu observed.

In other words, our satisfaction has become more elusive.

Hence the significance of coming up with a modus operandi whereby we can document our perception of the quality of life, as in this survey of the delta region, China's engine of growth.

As a matter of fact, high-quality life eminently achievable is a concrete confirmation of people's aspiration for a good life.

Meeting Chinese people's aspiration for a good and happy life has already been conceived in the overall plan for the country's development over the next decade, with specific provisions for people's quality of life.

Given the huge dividends brought about by the ongoing Yangtze River Delta integration drive, the quality of life proposition for residents in the region would take on a new meaning.