By Sheng Chao (盛超)
Nation, page 15
Issue No. 550, Dec 29, 2011
Original article: [Chinese]

 
The Economic Observer Online Chinese this week launched Chinese Reactions, a series of features grouping the year’s major events according to the public’s emotional response.

Accidents and disasters provoked sadness; outrage followed stories about deaths through social injustice；tales of unsafe food and environmental pollution generated fear; while China’s run on supermarket salt supplies falls under the ‘incomprehension’ heading. Of course, there were also developments that brought joy, such as regulations on real estate and the launch of Shenzhou 8.

This is the fourth year that we have done Chinese Reactions. Our first series in 2008, was intended as a one-off, marking that year’s major stories, the tragedy of the Wenchuan earthquake, the joy of the Olympic Games, and the outrage of the suffering babies who drank Sanlu's milk.

Our series has shown a recurrence of certain emotions, along with the absence of others that we believe are essential.

The prevalent themes have been national glory and personal worries - the Olympic Games in 2008, 8% GDP growth in 2009, the launch of Shenzhou 8… China’s achievements in international relationships, economic development and technology are unquestionable. As the financial crisis spread elsewhere, the world’s financiers have focused their attention on China. However, on a personal level, people have worried about food safety, inflation, employment and the violation of legitimate rights and interests.

A nation’s achievements are built on its people’s contributions. Their quality of life also affects the country’s development. From our assessments over the past four years, these two elements, the nation’s achievements and its people’s wellbeing, seem to have been detached from one another. The nation’s glory has not enhanced people’s personal lives.

Although we tried, it was hard to find news events that could represent happiness, and it’s this emotion that we think ought to be an integral part of public life.

By pointing this out, we don’t mean to echo the view that China is a rich country whose people are poor, we just want to emphasize that a society that lacks a sense of happiness will find its citizens feel unsafe and uneasy. Its people will feel cold and mistrustful towards one another.

If we live in China, but don’t like it, want to leave and are indifferent to what happens here, our country will lose all faith, and whatever glory it achieves will be based on hypocrisy and illusions.

As well as looking back on the past year, the end of 2011 is an occasional to look forward. We hope that 2012 will bring more news that can make people happy.