That's a bit nuts to be honest. Work pressure is very high in China and China is locked in a fierce competition, one in which we are the less dominant power so how would happiness rank number 1? It would have to be in a place like Qatar or something where everyone gets loads of free money, has no work to do and there is no national rivalry.
That kind of lifestyle is more conducive to misery than happiness.
You've clearly never seen the Qataris. Having total financial security with nothing you need to do doesn't mean that you spend all day with nothing to do. To the contrary, it's just every day in a house of luxury filled with the free time to come up with fun ideas and the funds to make them happen. People who pretend that life needs strong work purpose to be happy are just coping with the 9-5 rat race/daily grind trying to convince themselves that they don't wanna be the guy sipping wine and sport fishing all day on his yacht.
happiness isn't doing no work and getting free stuff. it is about improvement and finding meaning to your life. their methodology is on pg. 9. Basically they use a subjective satisfaction ranking.
I simply don't believe it. Chinese kids study themselves to death to be the number 1 in the class with Gaokao stress going through the roof. Weekends and after school time is spent going from piano class to chess class to taekwondo class to swimming class. Chinese culture is one where people never feel satisfied and always want more money, more power, more accomplishment. China's per capita resources are still fairly low with many low wage workers far from being able to afford a comfortable life. This is a perfect recipe for continuous improvement, NOT of complacent happiness. I just don't believe it. I want to feel that China can achieve this sometime in the future when robotics ease work pressure while producing great excess and China holds an unassailable lead on the global stage, but that time is not now. Right now, we're in the eye of the storm battling the US and immersed in an inferno of hard work and exertion.
Or being Chinese is beautiful.
Yes, but you'd have to be political and follow the grand scheme of the competition. You'd have to see that China's efforts at lithography are really starting to show, that our enemies are suffering economic hardships, losing the tech war they started, that our military is more assertive, etc... but the majority of people aren't. To the majority of the Chinese people, China's just a very hard-working very competitive environment and the economy has fallen to 5% growth from periods of 8-10%. Most people notice this but they won't put it into the context of China's global competition and fight to avoid the middle-income trap with technology investments. That's why I find it impossible to believe that China is the happiest country in the world on average. Only the rare hardcore political patriots who are happier for the country's progress than for their own personal progress would find this period a very joyful one. Most people just want an easier life with less competitive work environment and that is just not China.