Are the Chinese happy?

By Chloe on October 15, 2012 • ( 2 )

The right to be unhappy

A survey called “are you happy” conducted by the China Central Television (CCTV) earlier in October showed that more than 70% of the Chinese being interviewed said they were happy. I have no doubt about the figure; of course Chinese are happy. Do we have another option?

Earlier this year the train crash in Southern China killed at least 35 five people and injured 200. In the evening news on CCTV (again) that day, the survivors were speaking of their gratitude toward the Communist Leader, Wen Jiabao, for coming to visit them in a local hospital. Tears of happiness ran on their faces as they talked. Some of them were forever disabled by the accident, some of them had lost their loved-ones, but “I feel thankful for the government” was all they could say.

The communist party is like an abusive lover. We submit to its perverse and destructive desires and have to pretend we enjoy it. There is no way to get out of this relationship unless you are rich and powerful, and the rich and powerful, who are no longer in the game, make the rules.

And when the party are arguing about a piece of useless land with the Japanese neighbour, we have to go and vandalise our Japanese neighbour’s restaurants and smash their cars, for a land that we do not have access to. And when the party makes up with the Japanese, we will be slapped on the face for “breaking the law”.

We carry around an ID card all the time, but we do not have an identity. We are a billion chess pieces always ready to sacrifice ourselves for the “national interest”, we have no right to be unhappy.

Represented by the happy minority

One of the things I have learned in the UK is that when you are being represented by someone who is not on your team, something is wrong.

For my 23 years of life in China, I have been represented by numerous parliamentary members who attend conferences annually in the National People’s Congress, for matters such as law-making. Some of them are rich businesspersons, some of them pop stars, none of them were on the same team with me. The MP of my hometown used to be the CEO of the biggest State-owned-company who was later convicted for taking millions of dollars of bribes.

A closer look at the list of members of NPC (National People’s Congress) of China： CEOs of State-owned enterprises that are heavily subsidised by the state, their families often hold the passport of some “corrupted imperialism” such as the US. Movie stars who have long ago obtained Singaporean, American, or Japanese passports. Scholars who are offered lucrative jobs in top institutes.

They are chosen to represent the entire people of this country, because they are the biggest beneficiaries of the system; they are happy, they do not complain, they do not object, they are the real rubber stamps.

When they were told that we were too poor to buy bread, they wonder why wouldn’t we eat cakes. They do not understand what are whining about each day in this wonderful world. They are happy.

Are you happy?

In the previously mentioned survey, a reporter asked a random man, “Are you happy?”, he replied: “Don’t ask me, I know nothing, I am a migrant worker.”

Another interviewee, a elderly man, when asked “Are you happy?”, he said “I am Zeng.”

Another episode of joke was widely spread on the internet when a CCTV reporter had the following conversation with a garbage collector:

Reporter: “How many bottles have you picked up today?”
Garbage collector : “I’m 73 years old. I make one mao (US$0.02) per bottle.”
Reporter: “How many bottles have you picked up today?”
Garbage collector: “My livelihood depends on the basic social care , 630 yuan (US$100) per month.”
Reporter: “Do you feel happy?”.
Garbage collector: “I have hearing problems.”

Of course more than 70 % of Chinese are happy.